What does God think of ME?

If you struggle with your self-esteem, care too much what others think, have daddy issues, or relationship troubles, you will want to keep reading…

Recently I had the chance to speak at my boys’ school for their Spiritual Emphasis days.  I actually did two workshops for girls only.  The title of my session was “She’s Beautiful!”  The emphasis was on how to build a healthy self-esteem.   I wanted to help them answer the following questions before we finished our session…

1.  Who do others say that I am?

(What do others think of ME?)

2.  Who does God say that I am?

(What does God think of ME?)

3.  Who do I say that I am?

(What do I think of ME?)

 I thought I would take a few moments to share with you some of what I did with them on that day.   The teaching itself was way too long to put it all into one post so I have broken it up into several parts.  This is part three.  

You can read the other two posts here…“She’s Beautiful” (Part One) and “What if Barbie was a real woman” (Part Two).

We tackled the first question in my last post… Who do others say that I am?  We looked at the world’s view of beauty and discovered that we can never really measure up to their standards.  It’s totally unattainable.  Besides, ultimately we should only care about one person’s opinion in the long run… God’s.

 

I Sam. 16: 7 says…

“People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (NLT)

God looks beyond the surface of our lives.  He sees beauty inside and out!  You don’t have to convince Him to love you with fancy clothes, perfect skin, pretty make up or the perfect body.  He loves you for YOU… inside and out!

He doesn’t want you to be like everyone else.  God loves VARIETY!  He wants you to be YOU… the best YOU, you can be and me to be the best ME… I can be!  Different isn’t a bad thing.  It’s a God-thing. 

“Just because you aren’t like everyone else doesn’t mean

you are any less of who God created you to be.”

God want you to be YOU!   He made each of us different, unique, and special in our own way.  You were no accident.  You were made on purpose!  You are unique!  There is not another YOU out there in the whole wide world.  YOU are an original made by God… a masterpiece!

Psalm 139 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible.  It reminds me of God’s love for me.

You created every part of me; you put me together in my mother's womb. ¹⁴ I praise you because you are to be feared; all you do is strange and wonderful.  I know it with all my heart.  ¹⁵ When my bones were being formed, carefully put together in my mother's womb, when I was growing there in secret, you knew that I was there— ¹⁶     you saw me before I was born.  The days allotted to me
had all been recorded in your book, before any of them ever began.

(Vs13-16)(GNT)

God KNOWS you and me and LOVES us still!  It blows my mind!  God’s love is unconditional, fierce, and all consuming!  He chases after us and never wants to let us go.  We are always on His mind and in His heart. 

For some of us this is hard for us to comprehend because we haven’t experienced a relationship like this before.  Maybe our relationships have been one-sided, conditional, or self-centered.  That may be, but the relationship we have with God should be different.   Did you know that if we don’t have a proper view of God, it can hinder our relationship with others?  

Let me explain…

Some of us have been blessed with amazing fathers here on earth which is awesome, but others haven’t been as fortunate.  When they think of a dad, a good, happy image does NOT come to their mind.  Those images are attached to pain, rejection, hurt, and brokenness. 

Because of this without realizing it, those with “bad dads” can begin to relate to God as they do their earthly fathers.  If their earthly fathers are: judgmental, angry, tear them down, and rarely show them love, then they can begin to expect their heavenly father to be the same way! 

When bad things happen, things don’t go their way, or they face adversity, they may feel that God doesn’t care about them, they are unloved, or rejected by Him in some way.

But, God is nothing like our earthly fathers!  He is the best daddy you could ever imagine!  If you have been fortunate enough to have an incredible godly dad, you may see things differently.  Your dad has been able to be a small reflection of God to you.  He has probably helped you see God in a loving, approachable way which is awesome! 

Imagine what you would see if you weren’t as fortunate to have a godly dad in your life.  How would you relate to God in view of an abusive, unloving dad as your reflection?  If we don’t have a proper view of God, it will affect how we live our lives and every other relationship we have in a negative way.  I mean if God doesn’t really care about us, then what is the point of trying to “be good”?

When our view of God is wrong our relationships and our view of what is truly beautiful can become distorted! We can begin to seek attention and value from others instead of God.

We can begin to think…

Pretty is showing our skin to get attention

(Dressing immodestly isn’t pretty.  It may turn the heads of others, but not for the reason you are thinking.  You are attracting the wrong kind of person and not someone you would want to some day marry.  I can promise you that!)

Letting others do whatever they want with our bodies is okay and expected.

(No it’s not!  God wants you to save your purity and the viewing of your body for your future husband!)

  

You are a daughter of the King so…

Walk like it

Talk like it

Dress like it

…and wait for a Godly man who will treat you like it!

God wants us to find our value, worth, self-esteem, and identity in Him!

We are loved, accepted, forgiven, wanted, and cherished.  Believe it today! 

If you have been struggling with comparing God (your heavenly father) to your earthly father, I want to challenge you to search the scriptures.  Make a list of all of the qualities you find in God as your father as you study.  Then compare them to your earthly father.  Ask God to help you to see Him for who He truly is.  It will be life-changing for you!

When we have a proper view of God, it changes things!  There is a song I love that paints such a beautiful picture of who God is to us.  It’s called… “Good, Good Father”.  You can listen to the song HERE. When we have a proper view of God, it changes our perspective on life and our relationship with others.

When I discovered for myself what kind of father God was to me… 
It changed things.  It changed ME!

I’m not sure what your daddy issues might be, but I encourage you to give them to God.  Let Him be that daddy you’ve always wanted and dreamed for.

My goal through my teaching was to help the girls answer 3 questions before we finished…

1.  Who do others say that I am? 

My answer to this is… Who cares?  Their opinion of you and me doesn’t matter.

2.  Who does God say that I am?

You are a beautiful masterpiece, one of a kind, made on purpose!  He wants us to find our value in Him not anything or anyone else.  He wants us to see Him for who He truly is… our heavenly daddy who loves us fiercely!

The last question was one for them to think about on their own to some degree.  They have to decide this for themselves…

3.  WHO DO I SAY THAT I AM?

Or… what do I “think” of myself?

If I don’t like me, it can cause me to go to great extremes to get others to like me.  But… when I discover WHO I am in God and that I don’t have to try to measure up to the worlds ideal view of who I should be, that sets me free to just be ME… the “me” God created me to be!

I hope you have been challenged in some way by the teaching I shared at this workshop.  I would LOVE to hear your feedback!  YOU are beautiful friend and God loves you fiercely!  Don’t you ever forget it!

Living to leave a legacy,

Julie