Just the other morning after getting dressed and ready for work, I walked into the family room and my six-year-old son was sitting on the couch. Just as I was about to ask him if he was ready to go to school, he looked at me and laughed. I thought, "Hmmm...okay, I'll go with this"...so I said, "What's so funny, buddy?" He said, "Is that what you're wearing today?" I look down at my shoes, glanced over my pants and then eyed the shirt I was wearing, all the while wondering where this conversation was headed. Hesitantly, I managed to squeak out a weak "yes" to which he laughed again and replied, "That's funny!" One devastating verbal punch to the gut by a six-year-old and I was down for the count. Immediately I began to question everything about my appearance and proceeded to head back to my room to examine my closet for something that would be "kid-approved". Nothing like starting off the morning with a unexpected blow to your self-image that magnifies your feelings of insecurity. As I scanned my cramped closet of pants and tops it suddenly hit me like a bolt of lightning...what in the world was I doing? I'm letting my six-year-old, who likes to wear parts of his Halloween costumes to the grocery store, determine whether I was dressed appropriately for the day? I've worn this outfit before, so as long as I don't have any adults or fellow peers pointing and laughing at me out in public then I figure I'm okay.
I headed back to the family room and my son quickly ran up to me and wrapped his little arms around my waist and said, "Mom, you're still cute and I love you." Wow. I would be a puddle on the floor if I had the super power to melt. I realized that in my son's six-year-old eyes he saw the stand-out details and noticed everything about me that morning such as the funky design on my shirt and the bright scarf wrapped around my neck and the shiny earrings dangling next to my face. But he also loved me because I'm his mommy. Like my son, God notices everything about us. Even though we are imperfect and He knows of all our faults and weaknesses, in His eyes he sees the stand-out details that make us unique in our own way as His child. Although in our feelings of insecurity we may not feel good about ourselves as a whole, God's Holy magnifying glass identifies our inner strengths, pinpoints our unique talents, and detects our beauty inside and out. His "spiritual appraisal" is more accurate than any ten-point inspection conducted in the perception of us by others. God knows our worth...we are valuable to Him to further his "kingdom work" on earth by having a purpose put before us every day. As Lysa Terkeurst wrote in her book Becoming More Than A Good Bible Study Girl:
"Jesus would love for us to see ourselves as a package deal of unique
qualities that He–the author and perfecter of our faith–saw as necessary
for the life he's calling us to live."
Let us look to God for our sense of worth so that we can be secure in the person he has created us to be. God will use those "stand-out details" in each of us to be a beacon of light to others in our divine appointments with Him each day to fulfill His purposes. Although we may feel ordinary, He helps us unlock our potential to become truly extraordinary women of God.
–A'Lana
