Tag: Value

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”

Kingdom Value

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As we enter into a new year once again, I like to reflect back on the year before. I like to see where I started the year, and where I was when it ended. This last year, 2015, causes me to reflect on the goodness of God, His abundance and His provision.

As a mother, it is my desire to see my children fully satisfied, happy and enjoying life as much as possible. However, I find myself with the mindset that they are spoiled and don’t have much value for anything they have. This is very disappointing to me as I think on it. As parents we try to instill in our children the same values we have, but as my husband and I have been discussing this, this is a problem. We cannot instill the same values, they have no grid for where we came from, how we grew up, lived our lives, worked for what we have etc. I’m a bit angry at how much we have sacrificed and given to be where we are today and the laze de faire attitude that this current generation seems to have relative to these values. Just yesterday I had to repent for my bad attitude. God gave me a good spanking and said, “If you take care of you and I, then I (God) will take care of everything else”.

God’s intention is to bless each of us abundantly. He doesn’t expect us to “work” for His blessing. If God doesn’t want me to work for His blessing, then how can I expect my children to work for their blessing? I don’t want my children to grow up the way I did, where I had to earn/work for everything. I’m not saying we should not work, but what are we working for? What is the motive behind our work? God’s motive is to bless. Ours is usually so we can meet what we see as needs, and be successful.

Every year since I have been married to my husband, my father-in-law would ask for our Christmas wish list. We would all send him our wishes and for the most part, we would open those gifts at each Christmas. Now, I grew up with a poverty mindset (this is what defines what our values are) in our home and not one of abundance, although we saw moments of abundance a few times. My wish list’s seemed to always be very short, and small, not asking for much and only asking for little trivial things. A few years ago, my wish list consisted of…a rice cooker. Yes, a rice cooker. I received that rice cooker, but as I sat back and watched everyone else open their gifts they were opening, Ipads, Iphones, Laptops, TV’s, all kinds of expensive gadgets and electronics. At that moment I felt like the Holy Spirit said to me, “Veronica, this is how I want to lavish gifts upon you”. Now my mindset had always been to not ask for too much, just what I ‘needed’. Needless to say, the next year I asked for a laptop, and that is what I got.

My father-in-law passed away this last March much to everyone’s surprise. We experienced great loss with his passing, but in November we signed papers on a home that we have been dreaming of having for a very long time. When we signed the papers, I was excited beyond belief, but at the same time feelings of guilt rose up and it has been a journey to really experience and accept the fact that, I didn’t work for any of this. It wasn’t my life’s savings that got us this home. It was the fact that someone else worked for years and years just so I could have this place. Once again, God is saying to me…you don’t have to work for my blessing, all I want you to do is receive it and give it away. When God gives something to us, it’s not ours to use exclusively upon ourselves, to hoard or to hide, like the story of the ten talents in the Bible. To whom much is given, much is required. But also, to whoever gives much, more will be given to him.

The best way to teach our children to have value is for them to see us, as parents, have value for the things of the Kingdom. It all starts in our perspective of God’s law of blessing in our lives. If our children see the value we have for what God does, then they will begin to see it and their own value systems will begin to form. Having a Kingdom perspective of value will never give room for entitlement, so we won’t need to worry about our kids having an entitlement attitude, if we are declaring our own value for the Kingdom and the blessings that come with it.

God’s way is to receive His blessing, don’t work for it, value the transformation that just came (I’ve just been set free from my load), then give the life-change away that just happened as a result of His grace infused into my life.

So as we enter 2016 let’s keep our focus on Him, our hearts in a posture to receive His blessing and our motives to value what He gives! His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom! His resources are limitless! His blessings are ready to be poured out on all creation!