Know thy worth

So sometimes we face circumstances that leave us feeling twisted, torn, bent over and broken. Yea, sometimes you lose sight of who you are. Forget all the promises over your life, and the prophecies spoken by the Lord to you.

I have been there more times than I care to count. 

Here's the thing though, no matter how much life has roughed you up, your value is not any less. Like that crumpled 100dollar bill, no matter how many  hands have pressed you, no matter how many hands you have been through, no matter how crumpled you feel, your value has not changed. You are still precious, still worth the life of a King.

You may have sinned against God, and now feel like you are not good enough to be His, well He says, (Isaiah 1:18) "Come now let us reason together," says the Lord, "Though your sins are red as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

You may have been rejected or hurt in the hands of people, but He says, (Deuteronomy 31:6) "Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord you God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.

Smile and hold your head high, and know your worth. You are who God says you are. No matter where you have been, you are still the apple of God's eye.

(Jeremiah 31:3-4)..."Yes , I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt....

(2 Corinthians 4:8-9) We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed

 Know your worth. God still has the final say.

Speak life. You are good enough. Strong enough. Beautiful enough. You are more than a conqueror, more than what people say

Cover of love

I had for many a day read the scripture that reads, "love covers a multitude of sins" but the impact and truth of these words had not occurred to me until recently. I will tell you the story.
Having had a friend for close to a year who I looked up to especially on entrepreneurial  terms, I was once required to give an evaluation of him. I was very positive in my report, giving my honest opinion as at that time, despite his unpopularity with the rest of the team. They thought he was boring. I didn't. About a fortnight later, I needed something from the said friend as a matter of urgency.... something within his ability. He very rudely turned me down, saying something to the effect that I did not deserve the assistance. I was shocked by his words, staring in disbelief hoping someone would wake me up. It was one rude awakening. I walked away thinking I would never stand his sight again.
The next time I was to interact with him, I couldn't help but notice how boring he was. Come to think of it, he always talked a bit too much, right? How could I not have seen? I didn't seem to mind earlier, but after my change of heart, I could barely stand him.
He had not changed. My heart had. The cover of love had been lifted off my eyes. That which covers a multitude of sin and weaknesses.
(Proverbs 10:12) Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins- in some versions, weaknesses.
Have you ever been in a relationship, and just when it goes sour you look at the person and wonder what you had seen in them?
Have you ever had interest in a lady and just when she rejects you, you notice that her teeth are crooked?
Have you ever disagreed with your friend then suddenly noticed that her jokes are actually not funny, or her accent is weird?
I am sure you have heard of people who suddenly say that their spouse, or fiance is  not who they thought they were, and the thing they say is actually not a new trait in the accused...
I cannot for one second try to rule out the fact that people change, but many times, the love faded away, probably after a disappointment or fight with the person, or having your attention drift to another interest, at the expense of the first.
They said love is blind, then beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.
Love does not see flaw... It understands that flaws are there, they just don't appear in its line of vision. If the beholder has love, the thing is beautiful. If the beholder lacks love, the thing is not beautiful.
You view things from your perspective. From the veil over your eyes. If your eyes are covered with love, you see beauty. If they are veiled with hatred, you see ugliness...
The flaws had been there before, except love had covered them.
When you start focusing on the flaws and weaknesses of another, you can barely stand them...
Conflict is an inevitable part of any relationship where two individuals are real to each other... Parent-child, brother-sister, friends, spouses, etc. When they do arise, view each other with love and fight the issue, not each other. Hate the problem, not each other.
Let love cover the multitude of weaknesses your neighbor has. Let love cover the fact that she sings off-key. Let it cover your spouse's weaknesses, and they are many. This is not to say that you should be silent when someone does wrong, but could you please fight the ill and not the person? Can you correct them lovingly?
Pretending is very different from loving. Taking an example of a man whose wife always make saltless food that he doesn't like, he has two options: Pretend that he doesn't mind when really he does, and he will slowly develop a distaste for her cooking, and y'all know the repercussions of this... or he can lovingly correct her and ask for more salt in her cooking, as he commends her for the job that far.
Pretending always grows tired and it will boil over in a moment of pressure, while the loving correction will yield the desired fruit, with no negative effect.
I know... I know... There are those veeeery "unlovable" people. You know that type that is always up in your business sourcing for something to gossip about over all social media, the type that doesn't seem to understand that mobile phones are not public booths ( they don't seem to understand the meaning of 'private' and 'personal'), that neighbor who just won't stop telling everyone who cares to listen how lately you seem to be barely living, that your house rarely smells of food, and that girl who just won't stop sneering at you... I know those are there, I have met my share of them. But what would  Jesus say to you?
(Matthew 5:43-48) "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies , bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect."

Yes, we should love even them whom we think don't deserve it. That is what Jesus did for you and I!
Decide to live a life of selfless love. Even when you stand to gain nothing, just love anyway. If God chose to love only those who deserved it, and hate those who deserved it, what side of the divide would you be on?
(John 13:35) "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
Be true to God and to yourself and ask Him to  fill your heart with love. If you particularly find it hard to love a specific person, tell it to the Lord and ask that He give you a heart like His, to love even them who don't deserve it.
Speak life and speak love.

All things will work together for your good.

Life sometimes knocks the breath out of you. Now you are standing tall, but in the blink of an eye, you are on the ground, in darkness, searching for a hand to hold you and probably lift you up, but it's too dark. You tearfully and fearfully grope in the darkness looking for the switch, all the while wondering who turned the lights off, and what really happened? You had been so happy, right?
Well, that is what happened to me. I felt like the mat had just been dragged out from under me, like all my foundations had been shaken. (Psalm 11:3) When the foundations are shaken, what shall the righteous do?
I terribly wanted to believe that the gut feeling I had was terribly wrong, that I was just being pessimistic, that I was only being negative, as so many of my friends had kept telling me. I had actually heard those statements quite often up to that time. Something within me had shuttered when I was told that he was admitted in hospital, and I felt convinced that actually he had passed on. Well, I needed to travel back home, three hours by road. Travel, I did.
I could think of nothing else, except that he was gone. Don't get me wrong, nobody had actually told me that he had passed on... It was these annoying, frightful thoughts that kept crossing my mind. He had been unwell, so I should have been prepared for this, yes? No, I wasn't. When I met my mother and she started speaking, trying to prepare me psychologically before breaking the news, I interrupted her with an, "Is he dead?" The words just stumbled out of my mouth. I couldn't handle the suspense. She let out a long sad sigh and said, "Yes, he passed on." I could not believe that he broke the promise. The last time we spoke before I left for school, I forced him to promise that he would not succumb to the failing organs. And he had promised! How could he? I did not cry. Instead I clicked, the now famous nkt! then proceeded to console my wailing younger sister.
I loved him, to bits. But I could not see past the broken promise. In fact I was angry. I wanted to see him and ask him a few questions on what promises are meant for.
That was the most difficult moment of my life. Losing the one man I had known for as long as I had known myself. He was my father, my friend, my confidante, my teammate. I called him dad.
Death has taken away so many people, so many things, and it leaves us broken, lost, confused, hurt, angry, worried, and sometimes poor.
It may come in so many ways, not the one that took away my father. It may be the death of your career, one you have worked for ages to build, and suddenly, someone goes behind your back and it is ruined.
It may be the death of a relationship. This in the form of a breakup or divorce, or even lost contact, probably due to distance.
It may be death of a human being. When a person suddenly loses all form of humanity and turns against you with no emotion, probably in physical, verbal or even sexual abuse.
It may also be loss of a loved one.
All these scenarios are different but they all leave us scarred. I know I was.
After my father's funeral, I thought I needed to go back to my normal life and move on. After all, they kept saying life wasn't over because he had left, right? I was a strong girl after all, or so I thought. I rested for one day and went back to school on the next. I went for class on the next, and I got very pitiful looks from my classmates, the walls I had built against my tears broke. I did not stay, but left for my room shortly after. That is where I stayed for the next month without leaving. I locked myself up, so if anyone came looking for me, they thought I was not in. I did not answer any calls except a few from my mum, when I 'felt like it'. I started thinking of painless ways to commit suicide. I had enough pain as was. I didn't notice I was on a downhill slope, until the day I started screaming and crying, mourning the loss of my father. That was when my recovery started.
I asked the Lord to help me because I could not heal from the pain on my own. This scripture came to mind (Romans 8:28) And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. That was the Word that pulled me through.
There are two things there:
i) loving God
ii)being called according to the Lord's purpose
I know you may have been knocked off your feet by circumstances so painful, you dare not speak them out, lest you lack enough words to express yourself, lest no one listens, lest no one cares, lest they that care fail to understand. But I have good news,(Proverbs 18:24) A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. This friend loves you, and has the power to turn even the most heartbreaking circumstance, the biggest blessing you ever received. Yes, even that which made you shake your head in doubt. Remember Hannah... Her barrenness brought forth one of the greatest prophets that lived. Remember David... His tending the flock and being the errand boy of the family turned him into a king... Remember Joseph, his being sold to slavery turned him into a prime minister.
You too, will amount to something my brother my sister. Trust the Lord to pull you through, and heal you.
Remember that the healing of an emotional wound, like a physical wound is a process. Go through the motions... Cry if you must, it is therapeutic. But never once feel sorry for yourself. Speak the pain out with someone whom you trust, but most of all, tell it to God. He listens and answers(Jeremiah 29:12). He is not a faraway sadistic God who enjoys watching His children living in misery. Rather, He is a loving, caring Father whose ears are always open to your cry, and arms open to receive you, hands ready to uphold you(Isaiah 41:10). Lean on Him and speak life.
Speak life and say, "Even this will work out together for my good" no matter how unbelievable it seems. Eventually it will come to be.