Do These Jeans Make My Butt Look Big or Baby Got Back

Okay ladies…can we talk?

It begins around the age of 13 or 14 when we first ask the question, “Do these jeans make my butt look big?” We get a little older and buy 17 magazine so we can see how the beautiful people live. Remember trying to find the lip gloss you read about and believing the promise that Stridex would give you a clear complexion? And so, without really realizing it, we step on the treadmill of self worth.

The Lie? Your size and appearance determine your worth.

A few years later, after we marry prince charming, we get a hold of Good Housekeeping or Southern Living magazine and begin to take a look at our homes. The perfect patterned pillows must be found that will match the sofa and paint must be the ideal shade of whatever-is-hot-at-the-time. You’re feeling pretty good about your interior decorating skills until you turn on HGTV and you crash and burn…kick the treadmill up a notch!

The lie? When your house is clean and the hand towels match the pot holders, it proves that you love your family and it makes you a really good wife.

When the children come along, you read the best parenting blogs and watch Chip Ingram DVD’s and you are determined that your children will be the brightest in preschool, their socks will always match their shirt and they will never pitch a honkin’ big fit in Walmart and they will always share with siblings and eat all their veggies….kick it up another notch!

 The lie? “When your children are really smart and well behaved, it proves that you are a good mom. You’re value is high when your children are the best in everything!”

You see, when these things are achieved, we feel good about ourselves. A slim figure, the cleanest home, children that can say the alphabet backwards before they are potty trained!

“Look at me, I’m in control of my body, I’m in control of my home and, YES! I’m in control of my children!”

Sounds good but reality is…

You eat right, excersize and begin to get close to that illusive size 8 and then, you wake up one morning and you look at yourself in the mirror and you say, “My nose is really big! And my hands look old!”

Your house is clean, you are wearing makeup, there are warm cookies on the counter and a breeze is blowing through the open windows and no one drops by! 2 days later, it’s almost noon and there’s laundry on the couch, supper dishes from the night before in the sink, the family room resembles Toy R Us, you are wearing sweats…it’s a scary sight and there’s a knock at the door. You look up to see Rugrat 1 has opened the door and Rugrat 2 has learned to remove her own diaper and is doing the nakey dance!

This treadmill is getting tiresome!

I’m sure I am the only Mom, upon picking up a preschool child, to see a little sad face report, only to hear that today the child bit the teacher in the leg, dumped Jell-O on another kid and told the entire class at story time that.

Somebody just kicked it up another notch!

There are many places we find our self worth. Body image, home, children. How about career--doing what you are good at and being really good at what you do? Maybe community projects like the Jr. Women’s Club or volunteering at a soup kitchen.

You know, all these things are good and have their place. The problem comes when they are the fuel that keeps you going. It’s kinda like filling a cup that has a slow leak. You’ll never be content, you’ll never feel full. You will continue on the treadmill at increasing speeds.

 I’m here to deliver the message that your worth has nothing to do with your size, your ability to match paint samples or that your children would never run in the halls!

It begins in the beginning…Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our own image, according to our likeness.’ God created you in His image. Now, does God have 10 fingers and 10 toes? Does He have hair and does He have legs? “In His image” is not a physical thing, it is a spiritual thing. You were created with the ability to commune with God, have a relationship with Him. You were created with the ability to love.

When God created us, He knew there would be problems, He knew we would choose to do things our own way. Ephesians 1:4….

Long before he laid down earths foundations, He had us in mind, had settled on us the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love. Long, long ago He decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure He took in this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of His lavish gift-giving by the hand of His beloved son.

Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, His blood poured out on the alter of the Cross, we’re a perfect people—free from penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on all the plans He took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

Its  in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, He had His eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose He is working out in everything and everyone.

Oh, did you get that? God had his eye on YOU before you ever heard of him. Jesus died on the cross so that YOU would have meaning and purpose in life, so that YOU would have a relationship with him!  He had designs on YOU for glorious living!

 In Christ we find out who we are and what we are living for!

When you give your entire being to Jesus, you step off the treadmill. You find that he said Come to me those who are weary. He said he will give you rest. He said nothing- death nor life, present nor future nor any other created thing (love handles, a messy house, a sassy child) can ever separate us from His love!!

When our children were very young, my husband would say,

 “Do you know how much I love you?”

“No, Daddy”

“I love you more than the whole world! Do you know why I love you?”

 “No, Daddy”

“Because God gave you to me!”

 Very soon, he would ask, “Do you know how much I love you?”

 “More than the whole world!”

“Do you know why I love you?”

 “Because God gave me to you!”

God’s love is even greater than that! He loves you deeply whether you are his child or not. If you are not, he’s waiting for you to just get off life’s treadmill and step into his rest.

 Have you ever watched your child struggle to put a puzzle together, trying to force the pieces where they do not belong? You say, “Here, let me help you” and oh my goodness! They throw a fit because they want to do it themselves! That’s what we do. We try to get all the pieces to fit, we push and we force and we know it’s not working.  God says’ just turn to me, I made the puzzle, I know where all the pieces go!

Long before he laid down earths foundations, He had us in mind…