Life – Page 16 – The Will to Wake Up

Inner Beauty is Most Valuable

Do you struggle with feeling good about your appearance? Here’s some encouragement.

I’ve seen a lot of posts recently about people sharing vulnerably their stories that deal with lack of self-esteem related to their bodies. I think many of us, some more severely than others, have struggled to see ourselves as worthy, especially in relation to our appearance. With all our culture’s standards, it can be difficult to remember how valuable we are. There are so many verses about not focusing on the outward appearance, such as (and not limited to):

The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. A man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
1 Samuel 16:7

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror.
James 1:23

Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.
Matthew 7:20

These verses can serve as both a comfort and a warning. You might ask, “But Hannah, I don’t particularly like my appearance. I’m not going into the modeling business or some career that mostly focuses on outward beauty. I’m not like that person over there who clearly works hard at their appearance.”

First of all, we have no idea how much a person cares about what they look like. They might be just as insecure as one of us and we shouldn’t judge based on how beautiful we perceive them to be.

And second, we can be just as guilty of focusing too much on our outward appearance when we criticize ourselves as someone who thinks they are overly gorgeous and makes sure everyone knows it. (And that person, by the way, is probably doing that to seek validation, so they probably aren’t even as secure as you may think)

It’s so important to take care of ourselves and to love who we are because God made us that way. But it’s also important to just not focus too much on what we look like. When we place working or stressing over our appearance above who we are as a person and what we’re doing for God’s kingdom, then we miss out on what God has planned for us. We lose sight of what’s truly important in our lives.

And in the end, our bodies will fade away. All that’s left will be our souls. So why don’t we take the time to work on what will last forever instead of the temporary, especially if our bodies cause us grief?

Instead of asking yourself, what food should I eat to make my body attractive or why don’t I look as beautiful as that person over there, ask yourself these questions:

Am I living in a way that honors God?
Do the people around me feel loved?
Am I doing things that I feel passionate about?
Am I taking time to rest?
What am I doing to serve others?

That’s not to say don’t take care of yourself. It just means that once you start focusing on living out God’s will, then your body will not be the center of your life anymore. People will start noticing you for your amazing character traits instead of your looks.

But these verses are also meant to be a comfort. God sees us in a way no one else can. We (and others) see ourselves through a broken mirror, broken by sin, broken by society’s expectations, broken by lies. We are broken until we allow God to heal us, to make us who we are meant to be.

You are loved and worthy and beautiful no matter what you look like. Never forget that.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13

Live Like There is a Tomorrow

Are you more inclined to live like there’s no tomorrow or like every decision will affect the rest of your life?

A phrase that gets thrown around a lot these days is “live like there isn’t a tomorrow”. The intention behind that phrase is to remind us that we need to take risks and not count on there being some “better” time to do something that we’ve been putting off.

Living without fear of the future and without regrets is super important. I completely support the idea of living that way. But I think we are ignoring other vital truths by acting like we have to do everything RIGHT THIS MINUTE. We forget what it means to be patient.

Now being patient and procrastinating are two very different things.

An example of being patient is when you remain single because you know in your heart that you haven’t met the one God has for you yet and you trust that you’ll meet that person eventually, but for now you are content.

An example of procrastinating is refusing to get into a relationship with someone who feels right because you are afraid of commitment or you want to continue playing the field when you need to be more responsible.

The problem with living too much in one lifestyle, not having that balance of “no regrets living” and “oh let’s wait living”, is that then we cannot fully live life the way God intends for us. If we get so caught up in the moment, we don’t think about how our present actions might negatively affect things in the future. But if we are stuck overanalyzing everything and never make a decision, then we can’t appreciate the joys of spontaneity and trusting God through whatever we end up deciding to do.

Today I want you to think about why you are where you are and why you are doing what you are doing.

Are you going for that promotion because you have worked long and hard, and you know that’s the next step to take in your career? Or is it because you feel like you just have to have the next best thing in order to be the greatest?

Are you in a relationship with this person because you feel like they are who God has given you for this stage of your life and you love them? Or is it because you think you will never find anyone better?

You could fill in the blanks of those questions for whatever you’re doing right now. For me, I’m trying to figure out if the reason I’ve slowed down in my college preparation process is because I’m nervous about making the wrong decisions or if it’s because I want more clarity from God.

Everyone has a different answer to the question of whether or not they are making decisions off of fear of the future happening vs fear of the future never coming. But my overall point is to realize that yes, there may not be a tomorrow. But you do have to think long term and realize that God tells us to both wait and act in the Bible.

Never wait to deepen your relationship with God or to say the words you know someone needs to hear. But perhaps there are other things in your life that need to slow down.

I’m not speaking on God’s behalf. Like with everything else, listen to God and figure out what He’s telling you through everything you’re going through. He understands the best.

Therefore, return to your God,
Observe kindness and justice,
And wait for your God continually.
Hosea 12:6

Wait for the Lord;
Be strong and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for the Lord.
Psalm 27:14

Our Father

God will take care of you.

I don’t know who needs to hear this today, but God is going to take care of you.

Last weekend, my church continued a sermon series about what it’s like being part of the body of Christ. They specifically focused on a portion of the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done”, and challenged us to think about whether or not we truly put our needs in the Lord’s hands when we call out to Him.

That got me thinking, and I initially wanted to do a post about this segment of the Lord’s Prayer. But then I realized that perhaps it would be even better to do a complete series about the Lord’s Prayer, going from addressing God as our father all the way through each stanza.

I don’t know what kind of father figure you had/have in your life. Perhaps he’s a wonderful man who makes you laugh, provides for your needs, and makes sure that you’re becoming who you’re meant to be. Or maybe you didn’t have a father like that. Perhaps it’s even painful to think of the word father. Or maybe you had a dad that cared about you, but wasn’t very good at showing it, or was unable to meet your needs.

Whatever situation you come from, I want you to realize that God is not any of the father figures you’ve seen or experienced. God is the attributes of a wonderful father– caring, compassionate, stable– only times a million!

But the attribute that I want to focus on today is that by God being your Heavenly Father, He is going to take care of you.

In fact, God promises that He knows what you need before you even have the need.

Last week, I was going through a rough time. Not a rough time as in experiencing a significant loss, doing terribly at work, or finding myself in a financial crisis. No, I was just having a rough time in my spiritual journey.

I was feeling very discouraged and burned out. I’m the type of person who puts my all in everything I do, which causes me to run out of energy occasionally. I felt like I wasn’t really hearing from God.

Then, to top it all off, I started feeling unwell. I was like, are you serious? How is this going to help me do what I need to do when I already feel so unmotivated?

But God still had a plan. I ended up taking a much needed rest for a few days and that caused me to put life back into perspective. Once I admitted my need for rest, I was healed.

Then, God answered a long-awaited prayer two days ago that really encouraged me. I finally have a very encouraging friend back in my life after not hearing from her for several months. I was overjoyed.

But last night, I could feel my faith wavering once more. Do you ever just have a rush of insecurities hit you all at once and suddenly you forget your purpose? That’s basically what happened to me, and the enemy uses this strategy on me a lot. I wrote out in my journal, “God, it’s hard for me to understand why I shouldn’t just give up on all the things grasping for my attention and energy. Please encourage me to keep going.” I also wrote down a reminder that “God never gives up” even when we want to.

Well, God very much heard my prayers! He gave me unexpected extra time this morning to reflect and spend some time in the Word and to write this post. It had been a silent desire of mine to have the morning off, and God had patiently listened. Then, as I was searching for a verse to put in this blog, I felt drawn to Hebrews, one of my favorite books of the Bible. I was gifted a journal Bible and for the past two years I’ve been able to write in this Bible whenever I felt led to do so. I found a reminder for myself from March last year that had the specific words that I had longed to hear last night.

“Don’t give up. It’s all going to be worth it.”

I had no idea how I would be feeling today back when I wrote that. But God provided through that season when He reminded me to keep going the first time, and I have to trust that He will provide for me again through this season, and the next, and the next…

The thing is, God doesn’t promise to take away our struggles. He promises us that He will go through them with us.

And that’s a pretty big promise, if you ask me. After all, God promises this for every. single. person. on. Earth.

That’s a lot of people! But God loves all of us so much that He’s willing to do that.

God is our Father and no matter what the enemy throws our way, we have to rely on the One who loves us and cares for us to bring us through.

Today, look for the ways that God is using to try to bring you back to Him. Allow His peace to fill you even among the uncertainty of life. And remember that God loves you unconditionally and will always be there with arms open to welcome you home.

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:24-25

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10

Thank You

Happy One Year Anniversary to this blog! How have you changed over the course of the year?

Today is my one year anniversary of posting on this blog! Thank YOU for being amazing. I hope this has been an encouragement to you, because that is the sole purpose of this blog, to spread encouragement and remind you of God’s love.

As I may have mentioned before, the day I started this blog was rough. It was actually the day after one of the worst nights of my life. I’m the type of person to bottle everything up inside, and it pretty much all exploded that day.

I’ve realized why I was so broken. It was because I was putting my faith in people and in circumstances. I was too afraid of losing what I had instead of focusing on what had been given to me in that moment.

I struggle a lot with really staying in the moment. I would say that I’m generally optimistic, but I do worry a lot about the future and about my relationships. I think that things will only get better if _____ happens.

But I need to stop.

And remember.

I have everything I need already.

And so do you.

You may not feel that way at all, and a lot of the time, I don’t either. But it’s true. God never gives us anything too big for us to handle when we have Him by our side. He can turn any situation around in ways we can’t even fathom. That’s what ended up happening with two of the things I had been so stressed about a year ago.

One of those things had to do with an important person in my life. I was worried that we would drift apart, and although that kind of happened for a season, we ended up becoming closer than we had been originally over the course of a few months. I just had to be patient.

For the other thing, I thought that we were going to have to put my dog down, who was my best friend and closest companion, the only one I ever really shared my emotions with. Well, God spared him for several more months, and because of that scare, I was able to actually celebrate those months and make the most of my time with him.

God allows us to go through difficult days, months, seasons, even years. But He promises us that we are never alone during those times. And in the end, I think you’ll realize why God allowed you to go through those hardships. It’s so hard to think ahead when we’re still in the eye of the storm. But if you keep your eyes on God and allow His peace to flow through you, then however long it takes will be worth it.

In the moment, those few months felt like eternity. But looking back, so much has changed in the course of a year. I’m still here, even when I doubted it sometimes. Life has changed very drastically for all of us, I’m sure.

But there’s one thing that doesn’t change, and that’s God. He will always be our source of perfect love, perfect stability, and perfect justice.

So today, if you have the chance, think back to where you were a year ago today. Have you changed as a person? How have your difficulties over the course of a year actually brought you closer to God?

And remember, there is so much to be thankful for. I guarantee that if you stop and really think about who you love, how God has blessed you, even in the small areas of life, that you’ll feel a bit more joyful.

Thank you for one year! Treat yourself to something sweet and virtually celebrate with me! 😉

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
James 1:17

What Do You Actually Want?

God doesn’t see us the way everyone else does.

Two posts in one day? Apparently yes!

My friends know I love good analogies, so hopefully this one suits your fancy!

I was watching my dog, Rocky, who I’ve talked about a few times on here. He basically attacks us while we are eating by jumping all around, barking, and scratching up our legs, unless we give him what he wants.

We decided to get him a can of dog food that he hasn’t had in a while to hopefully trick his sense of smell into thinking he was getting the same food as us.

He wagged his tail eagerly, waiting in anticipation, knowing exactly what he wanted…or so we thought.

The garbage bin usually sits out in the kitchen during dinner and is unfortunately just the right height for him to stick his little black nose into. After we opened the can and scooped out the food, we threw the can into the bin. Instead of running over to get the food, he raced to the trash to check out that can.

He was so focused on the outer wrapper that he didn’t pay attention to what was good for him, what was actually what he needed and wanted.

I think we can get distracted by the “wrapper” in life, too.

We see the fixings of a life that appears to be perfect. We see a person that has stunning looks. We see a memory or something we are clinging onto with rose colored glasses.

God gives and He takes away. He doesn’t want us to be so caught up in the wrapper; He wants us to go after the deeper meaning in life, in relationships, and in His call on our lives.

Don’t settle, whether it’s for a person, a job, or what you think you want out of life if it’s anything other than what God’s calling you to.

God knows what He’s doing. He’s the only one who can see the future. He’s the one who planned it! And He planned it with you in mind, the one He loves so very much.

When you see a person, don’t think about their appearance, give them a chance regardless of how they look. Treat everyone with God’s gentleness, grace, and kindness.

When you see an opportunity, think about if it’s what God wants you to do. Pray about it. Don’t just go for something because you are afraid of missing out. But at the same time, if you think God is calling you to do it, then go for it! Take that leap of faith!

God’s got your back, you don’t have to stress anymore.

After all, just like how we are striving to look deep inside everything in our lives, God sees deep inside of us. He isn’t ever distracted by the wrapper. He loves every part of you, and He knows that desire, the longing in the core of your being.

And I hope that desire is to be just like the One who sacrificed it all because of His unfailing love for us.

You’re worth so much more than you think.

For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
1 Sammuel 16:7

After the Prayer

Prayer is a good first step, but when is it time to take action?

Prayer is the most important spiritual practice you can take part in. However, it can be misused in a way that actually harms you. Often, we say we’ll pray about something, and that’s wonderful. But then we can use it as an excuse to not take action. If things don’t happen related to the issue, we blame God instead of ourselves.

I know that I’ve done this before. If I’m afraid, I’ll just tell myself that God will handle it for me once I pray. Of course God should be a source of comfort and peace. Yet, He does not want us to sit idly by and not do the work to make progress.

I know this might be a tough love moment, but in the end, your relationship with God will strengthen if you are willing to do more than pray.

Instead of praying something specific, pray that God’s will can be done and that God will give you the strength to do the hard thing. We should ultimately want God’s will to be done because, as I talked about in my most recent post, we can either choose to accept what’s happening and trust God or begrudging stomp our feet and refuse to move forward in life. Then we miss out on the many blessings God has in store for us.

Today, reflect on areas of your life where you may not be putting in the work. Perhaps the conflict could be resolved through you talking to someone. Perhaps you are actually being called to give up something in order to help someone else. Perhaps you are meant to take that risk you’ve been worrying about.

There are certainly situations in which we simply can’t do anything but pray. And that’s okay. But just take the time to figure out whether God is calling you to take action.

Ultimately, it is crucial to pray in order to strengthen our relationship with God and to have peace about situations. But nothing can be done if we aren’t willing to follow God’s call on our lives.

You can certainly pray for strength, perseverance, and clarity. That’s a wonderful thing to do. But after that, just go for it! You can do this, I believe in you. And most of all, God is with you, so you have nothing to be afraid of ❤

If God is for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:31

Living in the Moment

Living in the moment is the way to find true satisfaction.

I talk about living without regrets all the time, but I just want to say that sometimes you might be called to do things that seem so strange. Not classy, not popular. But it’s what you are supposed to do in order to follow God’s plan for your life. You just have to go for it, even if it doesn’t make sense.

Take every opportunity you can because you never know what tomorrow might hold.

All the wonderful things that have happened in my life were not planned. All the terrible things that have happened in my life were unanticipated. No human can truly fathom the future God has made for us.

So it’s important to live in the moment. Don’t look back at the mistakes you can’t make up for. Don’t be anxious about the future, that’s what we are commanded to do. I know it’s hard and it’s okay to have those feelings, so long as we are actively fighting against them. We cannot let fear win. Fear is only dangerous when it is given power by us.

Today make the effort to go out of your way for someone else. You might be the only one who does.

Today do something you’ve always wanted to do. You may have found a new passion for life!

Today ask God what His plan is for your life instead of praying specific things. Ultimately, God’s plan is the best one, and it’s what’s going to happen. Might as well go with it willingly than be dragged along, right? After all, He does have our best interest in mind.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Philippians 4:6