Earlier today, I could not find my mailbox key. I was on my way home and I thought, “I should check my mail because I haven’t checked it in a week.” (I don’t really get much mail, so I only usually check it once a week unless I’m expecting something). I parked the car, reached for the mailbox key in its normal spot and it was not there. I searched all over the place for the key. I cleaned out my car, looked all over the house, and no key. I thought about how I could get another one, but then I was discouraged about how long that could take and what it might possibly cost to replace the key. I prayed and asked God to help me find the key.
Frustrated, I came upstairs and decided to just get on with my routine, eat my snack, check my e-mail and take a nap. I figured the key would turn up somewhere. While I was getting my snack, I felt the urge to look in a basket that I keep on my refrigerator. In the bottom on the basket was a mailbox key. It was not the one I was looking for, but it was a mailbox key. Now, I can check my mail, and maybe just maybe, I will find a big, fat check in there. So, what is the point of all of this? For weeks, I have been fighting a dark loneliness that I could not seem to find my way out of. I tried to do several things to take my mind off of sadness and nothing worked. I would think that I was close to the end of the trial and feel knocked right back into the midst of it. I was getting frustrated and angry because I could not seem to pull myself out of this place. But, this week, I got back into my routine, and little by little, I started feeling better. Just like with the mailbox key, when I prayed and stopped looking all around, I found the other key. Well, this week, I stopped looking all around to find joy and just settled back into my life. I still don’t have what I have been waiting for, as I am still alone; nevertheless, I am filled with the things that work just as well if not better: peace and joy. So, I AM BACK! Thank You, Jesus! Ms. EV
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Every once in a while God speaks to me through one of my students. I was teaching a lesson about breaking down arguments. First, you identify the claims. Then, you figure out what the conclusion is and what the premise or premises are that support said conclusion. In order to figure out how those premises work together to reach the conclusion, you have to determine if they are linked (dependent) or independent. I hope I haven’t lost any of you yet.
Anyway, I gave the students an example for practice. They needed to figure out the relationship between the premises; whether they were dependent or independent. When I revealed that they were independent, a voice rang out, “No, they are not; they have to go together!” I resisted the urge to remind the student that I am the teacher, I had the answer key, and I had done this same question three times, so I knew what I was giving the correct answer. Instead, I explained that, while the statements made a stronger argument together, each statement could stand on its own and make sense with the conclusion. Just then, a young lady said, “I get it. It’s like men and women. We don’t NEED each other, but when two get together sometimes they are stronger.” This is what I call a “light bulb moment.” God allowed a fifteen year old to make the issue of earthly relationships so plain to me. And, this doesn’t just apply to romantic relationships. Any child of God who is living wholly and fully in God, can stand alone and make sense. However, he or she can stand with another believer, whether it is a husband, family member, friend or fellow worshipper, and become even stronger. So, while we may feel that we have to be together because together we feel stronger, wiser and better, we are able to stand alone and still make sense. On the other hand, one cannot take God out of the equation. When we are not linked to God, not only do we not make sense, but nothing makes sense. Think about a time in your life when you felt that you were not connected to God. Did anything make sense? If it did, I would challenge you to examine your relationship with Christ. I know that in my life, in some dark times, things did not make sense because I had moved away from the One to whom I should have been linked. And, other times seem like dark times because I am want so desperately to be linked to someone else, when I am perfectly capable of standing alone with God. It is clear that now is not the time that God desires for me to have certain connections. He wants me all to Himself, and that is perfectly fine because, as long as I stay dependent on Him alone, everything will start to make more sense. I am sure my student has no idea the impact her words had on my present situation, but I thank God for her and for wisdom and understanding. Ms. EV This week’s Sunday school lesson came from Hebrews 12:1-13. The focus of the lesson was how God trains us to live the life He has planned for us through discipline. The verses use the example of parents disciplining their children and how we respect parents who discipline their young and teach them the right way to go. So, if we respect earthly parents who punish their children, then how much more respect and admiration should we give our Heavenly Father when He chastens us.
As the lesson began and I read the verses, I first felt guilty for complaining to God, and my mom and my best friend about my current struggles because, as the verses say, I may be struggling in some areas of my life, but I have not “suffered unto death” as Christ did. No matter how bad it feels that my circumstances are getting, there is nothing that I can go through that Jesus did not face. And, I can look to Him as an example of how to face difficulties. When I feel lonely, I can see that He also felt lonely, especially just before He died. When, I feel like my friends don’t understand what I am going through, I know that Jesus felt the same way, as His disciples could not understand anything He was trying to tell them and His closest allies could not even stay awake long enough to pray with Him. When we got to the verses about God chastening those He loves, I sat and wondered, “God, I know I am not perfect, but I cannot think of what I did to be in this state where I feel like I am being punished. I know I have done things in the past, but I trust and believe Your Word that I have been forgiven. I know I will have to face some consequences from past actions, but I feel like I am living in a perpetual state of punishment. And, if you will show me what I am being punished for, I will repent and fix it.” I remember when I was little and I would get in trouble. I always wanted my parents to just spank me, so we could move past the punishment. The worst feeling was when my parents did not spank me or even yell at me, but just simply said, “I am really disappointed in you because you know better.” And, lately, I have been feeling like God is saying He is disappointed in me. I have been feeling that there is something I am supposed to be doing or a lesson that I am not learning and I just want to get my punishment, so we (God and I) can move forward from here. Then, one of the members of the class pointed out that discipline from God is not punishment for things that we do. It is not God’s way of calling attention to our wrongdoings, so we can beat ourselves up about them. God uses discipline to train us; to prepare us for the things that He has reserved for us. I would be lying if I said that I immediately felt better because I did not. I thought, “Ok, Lord, if it’s not something that I did wrong and I am being prepared and not punished, then what part of this preparation am I not getting because this process is painful.” Nevertheless, I know that everything I am going through and every feeling that I feel is something that my Lord and Savior is familiar with, so I just need to seek Him and ask for His comfort and peace through these growing pains. There is something that is going to happen in my life for which I need preparation. God loves me enough to allow me to feel uncomfortable right now, so that when the time comes to reveal the next step on my path, I will not stray and I will be able to fully enjoy what God has for me. He promises that it is all working out for my good and for His glory. If you have experienced something similar or are experiencing something similar, hang in there. God is not punishing you; He is preparing you, so that you can live an abundant life on earth, and then, an eternal life in Heaven. Listen, obey and walk in His Word. He has your best interests in mind. Ms. EV Am I Going to be Single Forever, Part II
When I was writing Pray While You’re Prey, I was at a very peaceful place in my life. I was living within God’s will for my life, trusting Him and obeying His commands for my life and my testimony. Vulnerabilities and intimate details of my life, that would normally be sacred, became my stepping stone to reach out to others. God helped me use my idiosyncrasies and indiscretions to try to help others avoid the pitfalls that I had experienced in my life. Naturally, because I read the Bible, I felt that because I was delighting myself in the Lord, that He would give me the desires of my heart (Psalm 37:4). …How could my desires and God’s plan for my life be so different? In recent years, God has been showing me through the actions of others toward me, exactly how I treat Him. God has allowed me to be used for my talents and abilities by people. And in my rants about how why anyone would be so inconsiderate, God quietly reveals to my spirit that I use Him and sometimes have the nerve to try to manipulate Him into giving me what I want. God has allowed me to be left out by people with whom I thought I had a close relationship. And while tears ran down my face at the audacity of people making me feel like I don’t belong or I am not good enough, God reveals that I choose to leave Him behind all the time. He has shown me how painful and destructive disobedience can be by allowing me to experience how much it hurts when people are disobedient to my wishes or hurtful towards me. If I cannot stand seeing the people I love being swallowed up by sin—with what seems to be no desire to change their situations—even in situations where the sin is not directed at me, I can only imagine how God feels when I, His daughter, His friend, am disobedient. And, to top it off, my sin is directed at Him. Every time I sin, I am saying, “God, your commands aren’t good enough to follow.” Every time I engage in behavior that is not pleasing to Him, I am saying, “God, you’re not my friend who is looking out for my best interests.” Every time I don’t stand up for God, I am exhibiting the same exact behavior that brings me to my knees, feeling sorry for myself. I cannot even begin to count how many times my sin has said to God, “I don’t need You.” Or, “I don’t trust that doing things Your way is the best way.” Or, “I don’t believe that You are who You say You are.” God has also allowed me to experience both unrequited love and loving people more than they love me. God has shown me in these situations that I often say and do whatever I have to gain His favor, but my heart is not in the right place. He has also shown me how it feels to Him when I don’t appreciate all that He has done for me. He has shown me how it feels when I don’t praise Him. He has shown me how it feels when He gives me His best and I don’t give my best in return. God has shown me how it feels when He is not enough for me. God wants me to desire Him, not His characteristics or His revelations, but just to desire Him for who He is. He has the same desire for His relationship with me that I have in my relationships with other people. When I love people, I want the person that I am to be enough. I love God, but I don’t always show Him that His person, not just His personality, is enough for me. So, it leaves me to ponder if I would be willing to reveal my innermost thoughts and plans to someone if I felt that they had no interest in me, but were just using me for what I could do for them. Would I be willing to give my best to someone who is only giving me just enough to keep me hanging on, but is not fully committed to me? I would and have turned away from people who have done that to me, but God is too gracious and too merciful to give up or turn His back on me. He simply continues to pursue my heart and wait for me to come to my senses. (Revelation 3:20) He also helps me deal with the consequences that I have brought upon myself through my actions. Ms. EV The next three posts will be excerpts from a project that I have been working on, “Am I Going to be Single Forever?”
When I was writing Pray While You’re Prey, I was at a very peaceful place in my life. I was living within God’s will for my life, trusting Him and obeying His commands for my life and my testimony. Vulnerabilities and intimate details of my life, that would normally be sacred, became my stepping stone to reach out to others. God helped me use my idiosyncrasies and indiscretions to try to help others avoid the pitfalls that I had experienced in my life. Naturally, because I read the Bible, I felt that because I was delighting myself in the Lord, that He would give me the desires of my heart (Psalm 37:4). My desires was that I would finish the book, it would sell like hotcakes, I would become a best-selling author, internationally sought-after speaker, and that would lead to my husband being able to find me, pursue me and in the overly-quoted words of Beyonce, “put a ring on it,” and then, I would never have to write another book about being single. Apparently, God had different plans because it’s been seven and a half years since I sold my first book. I have four boxes of them sitting in my garage. I was invited to speak at one church. I put on a workshop at my church for young women that had four participants. And, I have been on one date in that time period. How could my desires and God’s plan for my life be so different? I have been “in the church” all of my life because God blessed me with parents who love Him, but it is only in the last nine years that I have truly begun to understand the importance of a deep and intimate relationship with the Holy Trinity. I was saved as a young child, but in reflection, I know that I did see God through a child’s eyes for a very long time. I saw God as a protector and provider. I kind of saw God as someone who would pop into my life to save me from trouble and bless me with whatever I wished. To me, God was like some sort of superhero-genie hybrid. I get in trouble and I call on Him. I need a blessing and I call on Him. That is not the relationship that God desires to have with us. He can be all of those things: protector, provider—and everything else we sing about…you know mother to the motherless, father to the fatherless, friend to the friendless, a doctor in the sickroom, a lawyer in the courtroom, my joy in sorrow and hope for tomorrow. He is all of those things, but why? Compared to the awesomeness of God we are dust, so why would He give us a second thought? Why does God love me? Psalm 8:4 puts it perfectly, “What is man that you are mindful of him and the son (or daughter) of man that you visit him?” What I have discovered in recent years is that God created me to love Him, to put Him first in my life, and to engage in service that will bring Him glory. He does not want me to put Him first in my life until some other person, place or thing becomes more important. He wants my full attention all of the time because when He has my full attention all of the time, He can use me in ways that I would have never imagined to bring Him glory. Ms. EV I watch way too much television. Once I get back to work and get busy, I am sure that will change. Anyway, on one show I was watching, a guy met a girl at the beginning of the show, and by the end of the show, they were kissing. Isn’t TV romance great? After all, it totally mirrors what happens in real life…NOT! I just recently stopped consistently watching soap operas (I say “consistently” because I do like to catch up on some of my grandmama’s stories every once in a while; soaps was a part of our bond). I started watching soap operas when I was about three years old. Although the relationships were rarely long-lasting, in the beginning they were always so romantic. Watching these shows gave me a very skewed idea of what romance should look like.
I wanted someone to come into my life, shower me with gifts, take me to exotic places and then, ask me to marry him by our third episode together because that is how it happens on television. Looking back I realize that my last two substantial relationships are the result of my fantasy relationship vision. My ex-husband did not take me to exotic places, but he did ask me to marry him on our third date. My last guy took me to elegant places and talked about marriage on our first date; he just never got around to asking. So, here I am still single and this television romance is still eluding me. Nonetheless, everyday of my life, I am involved in the greatest romance of all! No, there are no luxurious gifts like jewelry, clothing, pricey electronic gadgets; instead, the lover of my soul gave the most expensive gift ever given: His life. And, I did nothing to deserve the gift. He just loved me so much that He sacrificed Himself in order to offer me the gist of salvation. I have been on trips to exotic places, but my best trips have been the journey that I have taken with Jesus. When I have veered off onto the wrong course, He has placed me back onto the correct path. The journey has been rough at times, but it has always been worth it. And, before I even started my relationship with Christ, He had already proposed. He asked for my heart and my hand; I just had to accept. I am pretty sure that relationships like the ones we see on television are few and far between. And, if you watch as much television as I do, you know that they are not always as glamorous as they seem to be. They usually end fairly quickly or involve lots of infidelity and scheming. But, a real, true relationship with Jesus Christ is better than anything television and movie producers could put on screen. His love does not end at the end of the season or when the credits roll; it endures for all time. Ms. EV It has been an awesome week at Vacation Bible School at New Friendship! It has been exhausting, yet exhilarating! Today is the last day of VBS and the theme is Amazing! God’s Power over My Life! The verse says, “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3 MSG). God, by His power has given us everything we need for living a godly life. The minute that we accept His gift of salvation and become heirs to His Kingdom, we are equipped and called to serve God through His glory and excellence. I don’t know about you, but that is a LOT of pressure for me.
Sometimes, I wish that the minute we accepted God, He would make us into robots; God-robots. We would be incapable of wrong. We would be unable to make bad decisions. We would be immovable from God’s path for us. What causes me to think this would be ideal? Every time I think about the ways in which I have disappointed God, I think, “Lord, why don’t You just make me do whatever You want me to do, so I can stop messing things up?” But, the God I serve is too loving and kind for that. Yes, He has power over our lives, the nature that surrounds us, circumstances, sin and death. Yes, He will protect us from dangers seen and unseen and from being tested beyond our limits. He even gives us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to guide is into all truth. However, God wants us to live an obedient life of our own volition. So, how do we live obediently? God’s two commands through Jesus in the New Testament show us that LOVE is the answer. Love God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37; Luke 10:27). And because God is a loving God and not a tyrant or a dictator, He allows us to choose love. Think about this, which we discussed in Sunday school last Sunday, when you love someone, which has a greater impact on you: the person does what you ask because you make them or the person does what you ask because they are compelled by love and respect for you to please you? This is not just about spouses and significant others. This is about family, friends, and fellow church members, too. I would venture to say that most of us want others to voluntarily show us love and not be forced to love us. In the same way, God wants us to freely choose Him. That’s how strong God’s love is for us! He has the power to make us God-robots, but He still lets us have free will to choose Him and His ways. Trust me, making the right choice is not always easy, but it is so worth it to freely choose to show our love to God through obedience. And, that freedom gives us the unique and uninhibited relationship with our God that He desires to have with us. It is a relationship that means more than any other in our lives and that affects every other relationship in our lives. God is not making me love Him; I just do because He loves me. I can show that love by choosing to live the life that He has planned for me forMs. EV I like to bake desserts in my spare time and for your next event (shameless plug for EV Catering). My favorite thing to bake is cupcakes, but the hard part about cupcakes is pouring the batter into the cupcake pan without making a mess and wasting batter. After watching several episodes of “Cupcake Wars” on Food Network, I noticed that the professionals use ice cream scoops to get the right amount of batter quickly into the cupcake liners. So, I decided that before I baked my next batch of cupcakes, I would get a scoop.
As much as I love cake and cupcakes, I do not like frosting, so when I am baking for myself, I usually leave it off or use very little. However, when I am baking for a client, I have to frost the cupcakes and they need to look professional, so, in order to do that, I have tried several different piping bags and methods of making the frosting look beautiful and appetizing. I know that it tastes fantastic; however, many people eat with their eyes first, so it needs to look fantastic. So, in addition to my cupcake scoop, I also set out on a mission to find a new cupcake decorating tool. I recently had an order to fill, so when I went to get ingredients I looked for my new baking toys. I was a little dismayed at the prices of the items though. In the aisle, as I scanned up and down, back and forth for something in the right price range, I stopped and prayed. I asked God to help me find what I needed. I took one more stroll down the aisle, and all of a sudden, I see not an ice cream scoop, but a cupcake scoop. It was priced perfectly. I moved on to the aisle with the decoration tools. The same scenario played out. I found what I wanted, but it was way more than I was willing to pay. I stopped, and I don’t even think I said a whole prayer, I think I just said, “Ok, God, here we go again.” I turned around and I spotted a cupcake decorating tool. I did a little mini-shout right there in the store. I used both of these new tools for the order, and my prep time and decorating time were greatly decreased, I was less frustrated, and the cupcakes were a “huge hit,” according to the client. Why am I going on and on about cupcakes and baking tools? It is not about those specific items. It is about the fact that I love and serve a God who cares about every detail of my life. If it concerns me, it concerns Him because He cares for me. In fact, He said I could cast all of my cares on Him because He cares for me. A lot of times, we think that we are bothering God with the “little things” in our lives. I can attest to that. There are people dying and suffering and hungry and unsaved, so why would I bother God by asking Him to help me find baking tools? Because the God I serve can handle the sick, the wounded, the hungry and the lost, and He can still care about everything that concerns me. I have found that when I stop asking God about the smaller details of life, eventually I star leaving Him out of the bigger details in my life, and then, I just start getting all sassy and independent. God wants to communicate with us and be our companion. He has called us friends. And, I don’t know about anyone else, but I tell my closest friends even the smallest details of my life because I find beauty in that level of intimacy with friends, even when the details seem silly. God wants to be involved in ALL things in our lives from buying baking tools to buying a house; from choosing furniture to choosing a future spouse. The fact that we talk to Him and listen for the promptings of the Holy Spirit shows our trust in Him. So, include God in ALL things. If you have a real relationship with Him, there is no area of your life that about which He does not care. If you really tap into an intimate friendship with God, it will be the best relationship in your life. Ms. EV Well, since I talked about driving yesterday, I may as well stick with that theme today. There are a lot of lessons to be learned while you are driving. For example, my mom and I were headed out the other day and I was driving. We had to make a left turn out of her neighborhood. This left turn is not an easy turn to make because it seems that traffic is always flowing steadily past the neighborhood, leaving little to no room to get on to the main road. As we approached the exit of the neighborhood, my phone beeped, so when I got to the stop sign, I checked to see who it was and if I needed to return the message while I was safely stopped. The only issue was that when I looked down at my phone, I did not realize that the coast was clear to make that left turn, and, by the time I looked up, there were cars everywhere. My mom looked at me and said, “You missed your opportunity.”
We sat at the stop sign for what seemed to be a very long time, but were probably about five more minutes, waiting until the coast was clear again for a left turn. And, though we reached our destination in plenty of time, my mom’s words were stuck in my head, “You missed your opportunity.” This time, I missed it because I was distracted by my phone. But, because I only live a few minutes away from my parents’ house, there are many times when I am sitting at that intersection, needing to make that left turn, and I miss the chance to make it for another reason, like the fact that I am afraid of making left turns that are not at a light. So, it got me thinking, “How many times do we miss opportunities because we are too preoccupied or too petrified to see our opening?” These missed opportunities can occur in our dreams and goals, our relationships, and in sharing Christ. I once heard my pastor say, “Whatever breaks your focus becomes your master.” We can be on a path to greatness, but if we allow distractions into our lives, they can cause us to miss opportunities. Distractions come in many forms. Our thoughts can be distracting, which is why the Bible tells us to take our thoughts captive (2 Corinthians 10:5). I don’t know about anyone else, but I know that my mind is capable of coming up with all sorts of scenarios that are much worse than anything that would ever really happen. And, when I give in to those thoughts of self-pity, self-doubt, self-centeredness (notice a theme here), it does not take long before I have talked myself out of pursuing a dream or goal. Other people can be distracting. Either we focus on what others are doing and become envious of their successes, rather than being steadfast on the path that God has given us or we become so focused on other people’s issues that we stop pursuing on the dreams God has placed in our hearts. Sometimes, we are too focused on what others are telling us we should do instead of listening to God’s voice alone. The minute we take our eyes off of the end goal because of negative thoughts or negative interactions with people, we miss our opportunity. Fear is another reason we miss our opportunities. Fear is only as powerful as we allow it to be. I have missed plenty of opportunities because of fear. Looking back, as a child of God, fear has no place in my life because it is not something that God intends for His children to have (2 Timothy 1:7). When I was engaged to my ex-husband, my mom, who was and is much wiser than I am, implored me to reconsider my decision. Rather than listen to her and take that opportunity to take control of my destiny, I let fear rule. I feared that if I did not get married then, I would never get married. At that point in my life, being single forever was a fate worse than death and I could not allow that to happen. Though my marriage was short-lived, I stayed married longer than I should have because I feared what others might say or think about me. I let fear win and I missed the chance to go to law school a year earlier, and to have the entire experience as an unmarried person. I am positive that I missed some opportunities to build friendships and fully engage in my learning experience during that time because of a decision based on fear. Are there times when you have realized that you missed your opportunity? I recently had someone with whom I wanted to be in a relationship a long time ago make a comment about missing his chance with me. But, it is not just about relationships. How many times do we miss the chance to use our gifts because we are distracted? How many times do we miss the opportunity to pray for someone or tell someone about Christ because we are afraid of being dubbed a “Jesus freak?” We have to pay closer attention to God’s urging and make that turn when the coast is clear; knowing that He is not going to cause us to turn too quickly and get into an accident. However, when we miss the opportunity, He will let us sit and wait and think about it. The good news is that God is a loving God, and whatever He has for you is for you. So, even though I missed my first opportunity, I eventually made the left turn and reached my destination. In the same way, God will allow us to get to the prize that He has for us, if we will stay focused and fearless. Ms. EV Okay, so it usually isn’t so grammatically correct, it usually goes more like, “God don’t like ugly.” You know, when someone is not giving you your way, “God don’t like ugly.” When someone who has been rude gets their just desserts, “God don’t like ugly.” When you were a little kid, being a brat and your parent warned you, “God don’t like ugly.” But, the other day, I was reading about Leah in the Bible, and I started to question whether or not this statement, “God don’t like ugly,” that we throw around as gospel is really true.
I have no idea what Leah looked like as there were no cameras or sketch artists back then. All I know is that every time I hear about Leah, she just wasn’t as attractive as Rachel (at least, not to Jacob). And, she must not have been to her father either, as Laban, under darkness of night, passed her off as her sister, Rachel to Jacob. I’m not sure what Leah thought of it whether she was grateful to her father for helping her get a man or whether she felt deeply insecure that her father had to trick a man into marrying her. Imagine waking up from your honeymoon night, and your new husband says, “Seriously, Laban! What the heck? I didn’t want this one! I want the pretty one! I’ll work another seven years for Rachel.” Okay, so maybe I took a little creative license there, but you get the gist. Amazingly, and this is not a man-bashing statement just the truth of what actually happened, Jacob loved Rachel so much more, but had no problem having babies with her sister, Leah. Many people would say, “Well, that’s just how they did things back then.” True enough, but notice how Leah kept having Jacob’s babies hoping that he would love her more than her barren sister. That is something that still happens today. We, yes I am including myself, sometimes throw ourselves at men who do not want us, and give them all our goodies (whether we are trying to get pregnant or not), in the hopes that they will fall in love. NEWSFLASH: It didn’t work for Leah and it still doesn’t work. You might get a baby, but that does not guarantee you will get your boo. Back to the, “God don’t like ugly” statement. In The Message Bible, it says, “Leah had pretty eyes, but Rachel was stunningly beautiful.” It sounds like one of those compliments where you are searching for something nice to say. “Oh, your…hair is so cool.” “I really like your…dress.” “You are so…sweet.” Poor Leah, whether she actually was unattractive or not, she had to feel unappealing and we know she was unloved because the Bible says that is why God opened her womb. Now, here is the great part, not only did God open her womb, but He used her wounds, the ugly part of her life; having children for a man that would never love her. Leah had Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah. All of those names should sound familiar, but the last one, Judah, which means Praise God, is the line from which Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior came. Outer beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If you ask ten people what beauty is, you will get ten different answers. I know that most of the time when we say, “God don’t like ugly,” we are referring to behavior. But, whether you feel unpleasant on the outside, or you are in a situation that is ugly, even if you cause the situation, God can still make something beautiful out of the situation when you surrender to His Will. God doesn’t like ugly behavior, especially if it is malicious, but He can and will use it for His glory. There are many examples of that throughout the Bible. Ms. EV |
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