You are Wonderful

“You are Wonderful.” Funny. This wasn’t what I planned to write.

I planned to write about a false god. My false god. Yesterday my gracious True God gave me a gentle and loving revelation. I had been reading about false gods, idols, and the like. As I wrote Monday, I’m embracing a season of putting the book on hold and focusing on my sweet husband, children, our seedling church-plant Renew, and allowing God to weed and dig around and till up the soil of my heart.  It’s good and hard all at once. Good because it’s freeing. It’s peace-filled. Even though we cling to things, it does feel so good when they’re no longer in our control. As Jonah said, “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”

Forfeiting grace is no fun.

Receiving grace is a blast. 

But hard because conviction’s never easy, and one conviction was this: the false god of Self-Improvement.

Wowza.

In the name of “sanctification,” in the name of “seeking God,” in the name of Christian excellence … could it really be just Self-Improvement?

Could so much of my, the church’s efforts, at growing spiritually are really just Self-Improvement dressed up in religious clothes?

Ugh.

So the conviction is clear–it’s about the motive, the heart, the goal. Is it Self-improvement or worship? Is the goal God or really just a better Me? On the outside it all looks the same. But this one small revelation casts everything–everything–in a new light. All the “Five steps to a better you” sort of messages ring hollow. Incomplete. Even many of our missional efforts or initiatives to give more or help the poor. Is my goal to “be a missional person” or is my goal to “love my neighbor.”

One is centered in Self, the other centered in Others.

Is my goal to “be a better listener” (self-improvement) or is it to “better understand the heart of God, my husband, neighbor, friend.”

Here’s the crux of it all–Where is our gaze?

Are we just religious navel-gazers? Forever digging around inside ourselves, working on Self, Self, Self. Or are we embracing the joyous self-forgetfulness that comes in losing ourselves in pursuing God and Others.

And in the midst of all this, I open my laptop, and here is the message: You are wonderful. A blank post, open.

My husband had typed the title.

To me.

The truth is, he thinks I’m wonderful. The truth is, My Heavenly Father thinks I’m wonderful. I don’t have to agonize or inward tweaks when all He wants is for me to look skyward and bask in His presence.

Jeff just wants me to receive His love. I just want my children to receive my love. 

Yes, I want them to learn and improve. I’m counting on the fact that someday Dutch will be able to pee without dribbling down the front of the toilet. Heidi will learn to fall asleep without her thumb. But more than anything I just want them to know my love for them. To know they are wonderful. Not because of all their efforts of self-improvement.

Just because they are my kids.

Does it seem prideful to receive the words, “You are wonderful”? Actually, it’s not. It’s humility that enables us to receive those words of grace. A grace-gift.  Because we’re His kids. It’s pride that makes us so absorbed with Self-Improvement that we can’t hear the whispers of adoration from our Father.

So today, what you need to know, is that You are Wonderful. If you are tempted to slave away on self-improvement today, perhaps, just for today, relax and rest in knowing He loves you with crazy, crazy, everlasting love and thinks you’re wonderful because you’re His kid.

Because you are precious in His eyes, and honored, and He loves you.

For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
Because you are precious in my eyes,
and honored, and I love you. (Is. 43:3)

{Resting in His love today; praying the same for you. Thanks for reading.}

* I’m so excited and grateful that, Lord willing, on Friday we will have a NEW e-book for you, special for Mother’s Day. Friendship: A gift to give. It will be FREE on Friday. Praying it can be a blessing to you and your girlfriends, sisters, and mothers-in-law. (Plus, free is a super awesome price.)