Tag: Beauty

The Value of Your Crown

My small thinking had kept me from believing the enormous value I have to God and to the world.

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I am typically a very early riser because it’s so quiet. Just about the only quiet there will be until the family is in bed again. My morning routine is to get up, get a cup of coffee, read or just sit in the dark and pray/ponder/meditate etc., and then take our dog out for a walk. While out on my morning walk recently, I came across this very small tiara in the middle of the sidewalk. It was small enough to fit in the palm of my hand and looked like it belonged on a doll. The intriguing thing was that it was not a plastic tiara it was metal and had some weight to it. So I knew it must have been an expensive doll it belonged to.

I wondered at the meaning of finding this crown just laying in the middle of the sidewalk. I placed it on my bookshelf and have continually wondered why I found this. If you believe or are at all prophetic then there seems to be a meaning to just about everything that happens. I don’t believe there are any accidents. Everything has a purpose. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven”.

Fast-forward a few weeks. I’m sitting in a class that I am currently taking at our church. The speaker that was sharing on the lies we believe about ourselves. How are we seeing ourselves that isn’t the same way God sees us? God created each of us so individually unique and so different from any other person in the world. Even twins are going to be different in personality and emotional makeup etc. So I began to think about what lie I had believed. The first thing that popped up was the lie that I had small thinking about myself. We were then walked through a process of repentance and asking God how He sees us.

The night continued on and another speaker, our leaders wife, got up and she had several hats stacked on top of each other on her head. She began to say what each hat represented and would toss it aside. She came to what I thought was the last hat and she told us what it represented and then proceeded to say that what was under this hat was her very favorite one. She removed the hat and there was this big, beautiful tiara fit for any princess to adorn. I immediately knew what that little tiara meant now!

For my entire life practically, I’ve thought myself to be simple, humble, flexible, easy-going, not obnoxious, loud or boastful. I’ve dreamed big dreams, but always doubted they would ever happen. I’ve often felt like I have failed at so many things. I wasn’t this Mom that was blessed to ‘have it all together’. I’m not a person that likes to be in large crowds or even small crowds. I never liked to be in the spotlight. I’d rather be behind the scenes. I can serve extremely well, but I’m not the greatest leader. These were things I always believed about myself.

When I saw that beautiful tiara I knew that it was confirmation of why I had found that little crown. I felt like the point was this…for so long I had seen the value of who I am as the size of that little tiara I found. God wants me to see the value of who I am as the size of that large beautiful tiara. I was meant for royalty, for beauty, for grace, and for having priceless value. I belong in a house of royalty and I have always been worthy of wearing such a beautiful crown.

My small thinking had kept me from believing the enormous value I have to God and to the world. Now, that doesn’t mean the way I thought changed instantly. Now it’s a process of renewing my mind and the way I’m thinking, believing and speaking about who I am. It’s not easy to break a cycle that has been happening for years and years.

So I encourage you to take a look at yourself and what do you see? If what you see doesn’t agree with what God sees, then you might take the opportunity to repent of the lie you’ve believed and ask Him to show you how He sees you! What crown do you see on your head and what crown does God see on your head?

Great grace to you on your journey!
Veronica

“To feel like a queen is as simple as believing you are one”

Changing of the Seasons

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images

God has been speaking to me about seasons lately. I know I’ve written briefly on this previously in the past, but this morning as I was soaking with worship music there was a specific song that I kept on repeat. The song “Seasons Change” is on the United Pursuit album…”Simple Gospel”. When I first heard this song a couple weeks ago that someone shared on Facebook, I had to buy the album. This song is about when seasons change God’s love remains the same, and is an anchor for all we are. This got me to pondering when the seasons change in the natural.

If you think about it, what happens when summer turns into fall, fall into winter, winter to spring, spring to summer? There is a cycle of death and resurrection! The fall season causes the tree to begin to metabolically slow, the leaves dry up and fall off their life source. The flowers stop blooming and the animals are all making sure they are stocked up on food for the winter. The winter season brings hibernation, dormancy and sometimes what appears to be death. But it’s during this season that the old bloom, the old leaf, the old way of living dies and begins to make way for the new life, from the smallest seed, in the darkest of places. While we think everything is dead, because it looks dead on the outside, it’s really not dead. What we don’t see is the growth and new life that is beginning to take place deep within that which we cannot see. The rains come, the snow falls, and the wind blows and still within, there is life.

Fall turns into winter and winter into spring. It’s in the spring we begin to see things turning a more brilliant green and beautiful little buds begin to pop out of what we thought was dead. The buds eventually, with the moisture it received from winter and lots of spring sunshine, begin to open and we see the beauty that was being formed within the shell of something that looked dry and finished; the beauty we behold is stunning. The amazing colors that once defined what we define as life is once again in full view. The cycle of life is too amazing and too complex for our finite minds to comprehend sometimes. In the end, the entire cycle is what defines life, not just the seasons that express the beauty we see; God sees the beauty at our core.

This all brings me to the point I wanted to make. I was looking at the 45 trees that our gardener said we have on our property. I had noticed in the fall when the leaves were falling off, the birds were having a hay day with all the little seeds or whatever it was dropping off the tree. The trees ended up being bare and looking lifeless. However, as I was listening to the song I mentioned previously, I began to think about this. The fact that even though the leaves are gone, the tree is alive. The whole tree doesn’t go away in the fall/winter season. It’s just the fruit of the tree. The fruit, or the leaves, die and fall off, but the tree remains.

In our seasons that God brings us through it is that there may be fruit, reproduction, expansion, and growth, and it is the changing seasons that accomplish the complete work: not just fruit, not just the changing of color, not just the beauty we see in the comfortable season; we still must experience the shift which causes the fruitless things to die and fall away, that there may be new life. All the while, God within us remains and sustains us through the season of change and process. His love, His strength, His grace is resting on us as we walk through it all. He keeps us grounded and rooted. Why? Because we are IN Him and He brings and gives life through every season! Who He is in us is what keeps us stable and in a place where He can bring the change, prune the branches, wipe away the moss that has grown and begins to deposit new seeds within us that will bear even greater fruit than the previous season.

So may our prayer always be…let the seasons come, let them be a time that God takes the old and deposits the new seed of thought, ministry, vision and purpose along with whatever else He desires. There is going to be such radiant beauty that comes from allowing His seed to be planted within us. Don’t fear the season, His grace and love will remain!

Though the music changes and the songs we sing

We still lift our praises to our loving God and King

Though the seasons change Your love remains

Lord You’ve been faithful to plant the seed and You will be faithful to always send your rain

Lord You’ve been faithful to plant the seed and You will be faithful to always send Your rain

You’re faithful

Though the seasons change Your love remains, Your love remains

Though the seasons change Your love remains, Your love remains

Click on the link to watch the video of United Pursuit: Seasons Change

“Closed for Renovation”

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Isn’t it amazing the vast differences in every human being? Every person contains the incredible beauty, crazy talent, brilliant minds, and all the other array of nuances that make up an individuals authentic personhood.

I happened to be taking a walk recently with my children and dogs in Redding to finally enjoy a day of sunshine after weeks of rain. We like to go to the river trail near the beautiful Sundial Bridge. This place has several types of gardens as you walk along the path. Almost at the very end it contains this whimsical children’s garden. It has little play things for small children to play on or in, it also has this beautiful mosaic art piece that serves as a seating area and has a cute little mosaic fountain. When we approached the garden a sign was posted that said, “Closed for renovation”. The fountain has plastic wrapped around it and it was empty of water. I thought, ‘why does it say closed, because it doesn’t contain a door that you can lock and there was no rope around to keep us out’? I made my way over the mosaic bench and sat down while the girls went exploring.IMG_4531As my evening progressed, I couldn’t stop thinking about that garden. “Closed for Renovation” kept coming to me. I couldn’t help but think that it sometimes seems that God puts a sign up and says, “Closed for Renovation”. I know, it’s funny, but it’s true. How many times have you had God say, “Ok, enough of that. It’s time to make some changes”. As He begins to chip away, prune, saw, hammer, clean, and finally buff you to a shine, you’re thinking the whole time…OMG He’s killing me and I’m not going to survive.

When a mosaic is formed, it is made from tiny pieces of glass that have been broken and shattered. The beauty with this is that usually, this glass came from something originally created that was beautiful. Then it gets broken into small pieces and slowly but surely the artist begins to create another beautiful masterpiece with all the small broken pieces of glass. The amazing thing about being broken is that it all ends up into pieces that are different sizes and shapes. All these stunning pieces of colored glass are then taken by the artist and placed into particular arrangements. It’s hard to see what the artist sees until it is complete and you see the stunning masterpiece that has been brought from vision to existence.

May I suggest to you that God may sometimes set aside a time or a season where you are “Closed for Renovation”. In this time, He wants to take who you are and He says, “I see you to be even more beautiful than you are now”. Then He begins to take you apart…disassemble you…dismantle you and then starts to prepare the platform of your heart once again. He slowly and lovingly begins to arrange the beautiful broken pieces that use to make up who you were. These pieces are so beautifully arranged and set into place by The Creator of the Universe. When He is done, He washes you, dries you and buffs the shine a bit and then the new masterpiece is ready to be revealed. You finally awake, look in the mirror and are in awe of the absolutely stunning and creative beauty that came from all your broken pieces. God loves to take our broken-ness and turn into something beautiful.

God doesn’t reveal our ugly to the world. He only reveals our beauty because He Is Beauty!