Am I Lovely?

I started reading the book “Captivating” by John and Staci Eldridge this morning. (Thanks again, Bethany!) I have read his book “Wild at Heart” and even though it is intended for men, I read it from the woman’s perspective of “this is what to look for in a man”. Captivating covers much of the same material but dives so much deeper into the heart of a woman.

Growing up I wasn’t really a tomboy but I wasn't the prima ballerina either. I loved dressing up and looking nice but after a few hours couldn’t wait to get home, destroy the pantyhose I had been wearing, and put on some jeans. I have gone back and forth the last few years in the extremes of hardcore cowgirl to princess (literally, while I was dairy princess I pretty much ate up that whole persona). I think it really stemmed from trying to find my identity and been so easily swayed by whatever season of life I was in. I would say in the past year and a half I have learned to find my identity in Christ and now I can let HIM say who I am. I don’t have to fit into a mold of one character or another. I am simply a woman of diversity and regardless of where or who I am around, I am first and foremost a daughter of God. It does not matter if I’m wearing Carhartt’s helping a cow deliver a calf, or if I’m dressed in a business suit giving a speech. It doesn’t matter if I am sporting my Mossy Oak baseball cap and Tony Lamas (those are cowboy boots:)) pulling flank straps at a bull riding or if I’m wearing high heels and my ‘skinny jeans’ as I am at my town job. It doesn’t matter if I’m making dinner for my family in a hoodie or if I’m wearing a cocktail dress dining with state representatives. At the end of the day I’m still the same woman. I’m still a princess in the King’s high court. I can be eating steak and potatoes at the café in the sale barn with a bunch of old, rough, weathered cowboys and at the same time, the Lord is summoning me to fine dining at His banqueting table. I LOVE that! Without finding my identity in my Creator, I am nothing but a mixed up girl who doesn’t really know what she wants. Yet if I choose to let Him adorn me with His presence, I can do all of those things (as Craig Morgan puts it, "a slice of the country and Fifth Avenue":)) and still be exactly who He created me to be…His bride.

I really can’t imagine it getting any more exciting. If that doesn’t make you want to dance with Him I don’t know what will. Women try so hard to be ‘something’, to be beautiful, to be loved. They strive for it more than anything else. But without putting on the garments of Christ, our striving is in vain.

Now a few of you have heard me talk about ‘mystery’:). It is something that every woman possesses. What a gift from God! However not ever woman uses it correctly and most abuse it terribly. Mystery is that beauty that is hidden and cultivated for our one and only. It is hidden in the very deepest part of our heart and the only way to unlock it is through love and adoration. When we let God work in us and build our character, we are letting Him add to that. But if we try to do things in our own strength and try to ‘be better’ without the Lord’s leading, we are doomed as are the poor men who are then left to figure us out! Mystery without cultivation becomes confusion. I really don’t think we were meant to be read like a book. What excitement is there in that? God uses so many things to draw us to His face. The only way true mystery can be maintained is through trusting the Father and the only way a man can receive that is by romancing and caring for his bride which He learns by searching for the Father’s heart. That is why nothing brings glory to the Father like a God ordained marriage.

Men need a battle to fight, woman need to feel ‘needed’ in the battle, to help and support their man. Men have to LIVE adventure and woman need to be apart, ‘come with you’ on the journey. Men desire a beauty to rescue and a woman strives to have a beauty worth unveiling. Wow…God is so amazing!
He doesn’t want us to settle on ‘good’. He doesn’t want us to settle on ‘nice’. This is so prevalent in our culture today. This amazing God originated process has been abused and reduced to girls having no value of their worth and flaunting whatever mystery they had in hopes to lure a man who MIGHT love her. In turn, a man can’t be expected to respect a woman who doesn’t respect herself. Women become cattle, notches in the belt, and means to an end of self gratification.

If they only knew…

If they only knew how much our Father loves them and delights in our presence! How have we come this far? More importantly, how are we going to reverse the cycle? This alone makes my stand for righteousness and purity worth it. Not only will I reap the benefits of God’s highest but perhaps it would bring hope to those who are lost. Oh I pray!!!

Like I said before, it doesn’t matter who is around me or what I wear, at the end of the day I know that I am a daughter of the King and THAT is more than enough...