I am fearfully and wonderfully made…
This is a profound statement from Psalm 139. I write it in most birthday cards I send out
every year. It is a declaration to the recipient
that they are important and have purpose in God’s eyes. Their days were ordained before one of them
came to be. Psalm 139 is a great example
of God’s intimate relationship with His creation. It is also an opportunity to share with others
that no matter what they did, God can fix it and put them back on the right
path He has created for them.
I have made my fair share of mistakes over my fifty plus
years I have lived on this earth. It is
easy for me to look back and see the mistakes in my life overshadow the positives. Especially when it comes to parenting. I was not a Christian when I had my children
and sometimes wonder how things would have turned if I knew the Lord at a
younger age. Would I have done things
differently? Would I have carried the
burdens I carried as a child so heavily?
Would things be the way they are today?
A song comes to mind.
Dear younger me… from Mercy Me.
What would I tell my younger self?
These words hit home…
Dear younger me
I cannot decide
Do I give some speech about how to get the most out of your life
Or do I go deep
And try to change
The choices that you'll make 'cause they're choices that made me
My husband and I have this conversation occasionally. We struggle with the choices we made before
we knew the Lord. We sometimes struggle
with the outcomes of our choices today.
Then we both settle on, we wouldn’t be the people we are today if we didn’t
go through what we did as kids and young adults.
We wouldn’t have met each other if our lives were
different. I am so grateful for God
bringing this man into my life. It has made
the difficult road easier to navigate together. We have had many ups and downs around
us. We have had each other to cling to
and grow in our faith together. There
have been times where it was only us and God. Even so, I was grateful because I had God and Carl
to get through some of the most painful parts of my life.
I think that is what God wanted to teach us. It takes a broken person to understand a
broken person. It takes a person who has
experienced God’s abundant Grace to share it with others.
The older you get, the more you reflect on your choices and
actions. I don’t excuse my mistakes. God is gracious to give me grace and I have
to not only accept His grace but give myself grace as well. He has forgiven me. I need to do the same.
Grace.
Unmerited favor.
That is what God gave us.
The later verses in the song by MercyMe also hits home –
It's not your fault
You were never meant to carry this beyond the cross
Dear younger me
You are holy, you are righteous
You are one of the redeemed
Set apart a brand new heart
Oh, you are free indeed
Every mountain, every valley
Through each heartache you will see
Every moment brings you closer
To who you were meant to be
These words remind me that everything we go through is to bring
us closer to Him and a realization of who Jesus is and what He did for us.
I am thankful for my crazy broken path that brought me to
Him. I am thankful for a man to walk this
path with me today as we are two imperfect people lifting each other up through
this life. Hopefully we are lifting
others up along the way with our stories and examples…
Here is the song by MercyMe -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoO0kyPRu3M
Ephesians 2:8
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and
this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God
Hebrews 4:16
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence,
so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Romans 11:6
And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it
were, grace would no longer be grace.
Psalms 139:14-16
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from
you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the
depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for
me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Copyright © 2022 Peggy A. Priest. All Rights Reserved.
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