Reason #444
Time flies when you're having fun... and when you're super busy. April, how did you get here so quickly? We are already a quarter of the way through 2012, and it seems like it just started yesterday.
Last week, my cousin tagged me in photo on Facebook from our childhood. I'm going to say I was about 8 or 9 in the picture. We used to have family reunions in Mabank every year, so the picture is a shot of 7 of us in rollerblades, which were all the rage then. Heavy, redefined rollerskates that gave you one heck of a leg workout. Anyhow, I looked at that picture and immediately wanted to melt into a puddle. Oh my word, how I have changed. After spending a few minutes laughing until I cried, I showed Aaron the picture. Fortunately, for me now, and unfortunately for me then, he didn't recognize me. There were 3 blonde headed girls in the picture. Two little ones who were super cute, and I was neither one of them. No, I was the gigantic one with the Minnie Mouse shirt, irradescent windshorts that were awkwardly riding up my hefty thighs, and a mushroom hair cut that was not working well with the humidity. And when I looked at that picture, a rush of emotions came back to me. After confirming that I was, in fact, the hideous looking one in the bunch, Aaron said, "Well, you don't look like that now." Thank goodness for that! But, to be completely honest, a lot of the times when I look in the mirror, that's what I see. That 9 year old awkward girl who morphed into the nerdy junior high girl, the one with lots of flaws, and the one who is far from the epitome of beauty.
Maybe I'm not the only one who suffers from this. Maybe I'm not the only person who looks in a mirror and sees the past. Someone who sees what they used to be, what they once were. And even though time has passed and things have changed, I haven't forgotten. And so it's a struggle somedays to see me, the me I've become without catching little glimpses of the girl I used to be.
But I'm thankful that Jesus changed that. Of course, it helps that I got taller, slimmed up and did something different with my style, but I'm thankful that Jesus really changed who I am more than what I look like. I'm thankful that I'm not the girl I used to be. Sure, I still have my flaws and I'm far from perfect, but I'm thankful that because of His sacrfice on my behalf, I've been made perfect. That when God looks at me He sees the Brittnye today. Because the truth is, the Brittnye today doesn't even look the same as the Brittnye last April. And the Brittnye last April doesn't look the same as the Brittnye the April before that. Every year, just as I've changed physically, He has also changed me. And I'm so grateful that the old really is gone. Metaphorically speaking, I don't look like that anymore. Rather, I am a new creation who is spotless, whole, blameless, perfect, righteous, and beautiful. And, thankfully, that's something thing that won't ever change.
#444 - Because He has changed me!
"So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" - 2 Corinthians 5:16-17
Last week, my cousin tagged me in photo on Facebook from our childhood. I'm going to say I was about 8 or 9 in the picture. We used to have family reunions in Mabank every year, so the picture is a shot of 7 of us in rollerblades, which were all the rage then. Heavy, redefined rollerskates that gave you one heck of a leg workout. Anyhow, I looked at that picture and immediately wanted to melt into a puddle. Oh my word, how I have changed. After spending a few minutes laughing until I cried, I showed Aaron the picture. Fortunately, for me now, and unfortunately for me then, he didn't recognize me. There were 3 blonde headed girls in the picture. Two little ones who were super cute, and I was neither one of them. No, I was the gigantic one with the Minnie Mouse shirt, irradescent windshorts that were awkwardly riding up my hefty thighs, and a mushroom hair cut that was not working well with the humidity. And when I looked at that picture, a rush of emotions came back to me. After confirming that I was, in fact, the hideous looking one in the bunch, Aaron said, "Well, you don't look like that now." Thank goodness for that! But, to be completely honest, a lot of the times when I look in the mirror, that's what I see. That 9 year old awkward girl who morphed into the nerdy junior high girl, the one with lots of flaws, and the one who is far from the epitome of beauty.
Maybe I'm not the only one who suffers from this. Maybe I'm not the only person who looks in a mirror and sees the past. Someone who sees what they used to be, what they once were. And even though time has passed and things have changed, I haven't forgotten. And so it's a struggle somedays to see me, the me I've become without catching little glimpses of the girl I used to be.
But I'm thankful that Jesus changed that. Of course, it helps that I got taller, slimmed up and did something different with my style, but I'm thankful that Jesus really changed who I am more than what I look like. I'm thankful that I'm not the girl I used to be. Sure, I still have my flaws and I'm far from perfect, but I'm thankful that because of His sacrfice on my behalf, I've been made perfect. That when God looks at me He sees the Brittnye today. Because the truth is, the Brittnye today doesn't even look the same as the Brittnye last April. And the Brittnye last April doesn't look the same as the Brittnye the April before that. Every year, just as I've changed physically, He has also changed me. And I'm so grateful that the old really is gone. Metaphorically speaking, I don't look like that anymore. Rather, I am a new creation who is spotless, whole, blameless, perfect, righteous, and beautiful. And, thankfully, that's something thing that won't ever change.
#444 - Because He has changed me!
"So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" - 2 Corinthians 5:16-17