Good enough.

It's amazing to me how critical we as people are of each other. And this isn't something I'm separating myself from to notice, I'm as guilty as anyone. We critique & criticize each other for how our hair looks, our clothes, how smart we are, how much money we have, what kind of car we have...the list goes on forever. This is one aspect of our world that we could definitely do without, & further than that, we could CHANGE THE WORLD if it were different.
I was thinking about a certain situation earlier with a former close guy friend who decided to tell me things I should change about myself that would make guys like me more. What's sad is that I actually considered taking some of those things & trying to change them, even though I told him at the time that someone shouldn't love me only for physical attributes (which is where most of his focus was), but for who I am. Regardless of my feelings even then, sometimes I still think about ways that in his eyes, I didn't measure up. In hindsight I realize how absurd this is. If the God of the Universe sent His one and only Son to die for me, when I was a wretched sinner, if I was good enough for Him, how can another sinner tell me that I won't be good enough unless I meet certain criteria & standards? The media is bombarding young women with ways to be thinner, prettier, ways to go after guys, ways to make them go after you...the problem is, they're teaching girls to improve things that won't attract the type of guy that they should want to be with! The problem is though, & this opens up a whole other topic, these girls are searching for love in the wrong ways, & in the wrong places. Just as Jesus thought I was good enough from the beginning, He LOVED me from the beginning. He can't love me more than He does right now. That's so hard to comprehend, yet so amazing. It's unfathomable. I love having a God who's so big & amazing that even I as a believer can't understand it. Once you can grasp this, that God is the only source of real, true, unfailing love, you start to see other things differently. I gave up on dating a while ago. I didn't want to live under the pressure of having someone to feel like I'm worth something. And the wonderful thing is that I'm finally at an age where I love myself. Not that I always love everything ABOUT myself, but I love MYSELF as a whole. God made me the way He made me for reasons that only He knows, & He wants me to use the way I am to impact the world for His glory! When you think about your identity like that, & stop trying to figure out why you don't measure up to the world's standards (since God's standards are much better anyway), it changes your whole outlook. As far as girls go, rock what you've got! I will be the first to admit it takes a while to truly find who that person is, & even then you're constantly changing, but don't let anyone tell you you're not good enough. If you're good enough for Jesus, that's the only good enough you need to measure up to. And let's face it, He wouldn't have died for us if He didn't think so. Although the world might not always think we're what we should be, we ALWAYS have a place to go where we are totally loved & accepted. All this isn't to say that we should just say, "Well, Jesus made me this way! Can't change it!" There is nothing wrong with improving yourself for the right reasons, say, to live a healthier lifestyle, because things like that can totally help you to be more effective for Christ. But let's let go of the standards that no one should be asked to reach. There is such a thing as individuals to celebrate God's creativity, & if we were all the same, that would be much harder to find in the human race.
At school every day I see tons of people yelling at each other, being rude, being inconsiderate, talking back to teachers, sarcasm running rampant in conversations, hurtful remarks made behind other's backs (& once again I'm not excluding myself from being guilty). Then today when I had a pretty awful day, I had not one, but two people open doors for me. And not just holding it open behind them but stepping in front of me to open the door, & within the same trip to class. This impressed me so much. But it also made me sad to realize that a simple act of being considerate is so rare that I'm that impressed. Our culture, especially young people, are so entitled, so caught up in their own worlds, so accomodated by adults for their every wish & desire, that they don't even think about other people! There is so much wrong with this. We need to stop looking in the mirror in front of our faces & instead look through the window to see what we should do to help others right there in front of us. There are ways every day that we can take advantage of to help other people, which is not only helpful to them, but rewarding to us! Jesus wants us to be a caring people, to love one another. Let's start showing it. You know the Love Dare? From Fireproof? In that movie it's to improve marriages, but I think we should adopt something like that in our relationships with other people. Go out of your way every day to make someone else feel better, to compliment them, to help them if they're having a bad day. A little goes a long way.
This has been a little hodgepodge of thoughts, if you made it through to the end! I hope you got something out of it, know that you're not alone, & I hope that you'll help me try to make a difference in the easiest ways possible, by encouraging our fellow human beings!



Shine!