Getting to know and love the person that God created you to be is vital. But getting to that point is important to more than just you. In order to be fully used by the Lord in the life He has for you doing what it is He has for you to do, you need to fully acknowledge and believe in the potential He has created in you.
You are the only you that the world will ever see. In the book, the author broke down Psalm 139 to show us that God created us with our individuality in mind. When we are able to fully accept Psalm 139 as true in our own hearts we will (with the Lord's help) be more apt to see others through the eyes He sees us with. Just as that is true in our own lives, it is also true of every single person who God has ever created.
Isn't that amazing? I never really thought of it quite like that. In the past I always read Psalm 139 when I needed encouragment in my own life. It was a reminder that I have God created beauty, that God knows my heart and that He is with me. It is pretty convicting for me to read that with other people in mind. We may not know the hearts of the people around us, but we need to look at them with the knowledge that even if they do not want to admit it...they are people that are loved by God in the same way we are.
The author brings up a difference between men and women. She talks about how women can walk up to each other and complement and encourage each other...and how her husband just cannot comprehend that because it is something that men "just don't do." This is just one of the many ways that God created us differently...and what a gift this difference can be! God has given us the ability to be that voice in another woman's life to remind her that she is beautiful and she is cherished by God. Even just to reminder her that she is seen.
I spent a lot of my teenage years feeling or trying to be invisible. I let the way I knew or percieved others were looking at me dictate the way that I saw myself. Around the time I turned 18 I realized something: while I can not change the way other people see me...I can change the way I saw people. It was that personal discovery that made me want to go out of my way to make other people's day better. I would look back on my own life and think of the days that I could go through an entire day and feel like I wasn't seen by a single person. It was then that I started to go out of the way to see people. I smile or say hello to almost everyone I see. I complement women on their hair, clothes, purses, babies...etc. Because back when I was struggling some day it was a stranger's hello that would be the one bright spot that could turn my day around. I have a desire to be that bright spot in people's days.
I think that as sisters in the Lord we need to be able and willing to go out of our comfort zones to be a light in the lives of others. After reading the things the author had to say in just three pages I have realized in ways I never had before that part of loving who God created me to be is appreciating that God created and love everyone around me with the same distinction and precious care that I cherish thinking about. God has commanded us to love each other. I think part of that is showing love for each other. We can perhaps easily show love to the people who have a big role in our lives...but what about the strangers? Is it enough to love them from a distance? It is my opinion that we need to be a light of God's love for them, even if that light is as quick as the flash of a camera. If God opens more doors than that for us we need to take them...but it doesn't take a lot of effort to show kindness and joy to someone who you may never see again. God is powerful. That one camera flash of His love may be enough to turn someone's life in the right direction. You never know. But He does.
