Do You Accept Who God Made You To Be?

These two blog posts really encouraged my heart and I felt led by the Lord to re-post and share them today with all of my female family members, friends and my S.I.C.S.{Sisters-In-Christ}. My hope and Prayer is that you all will be as encouraged and blessed as I am by these blog posts.

                              

                              {HEIRESS OF THE LIGHT}

Do You Accept Who God Made You To Be?

                                                         

    APRIL 17, 2015 by KELA NELLUMS 

http://christianwifeuniversity.com/do-you-accept-who-god-made-you-to-be/

Recently I was confiding in some sister-friends about how I've started to feel about myself; my body image and the emotions that can go along with.

I’m starting to call myself beautiful.  I’m discovering who I am as a person and as God’s daughter; truly embracing that.

I’m a mom of six and a grandma.  I have hit the 40+ mark and I’m comfortable in my skin.

Can you say that about yourself as a woman? Will you allow it to sink in?

You’re beautiful! Created magnificently.  The words that I write are not just fluffy words, or meant to be just another sound of your mother telling you that “because she has to”.

It is absolutely true!

May I share with you a quote that rocked my way of thinking of myself; my body, my emotions, my past, my shortcomings?

Every woman has a beauty unique unto herself. I have seen beauty in virtually every woman I have ever met regardless of skin type, body shape, hair color, teeth whiteness, or number on the scale. Every woman is beautiful. You are beautiful. I am beautiful. Though I have recognized it in other women for as long as I can remember, I have only begun to see it in myself. Yes, I believe I am beautiful. Some days. Well, some moments. God help us all to believe it more deeply and more often. Because in the places where we don’t believe it, we continue to shame ourselves. And shame will never be an agent of change.

-Stasi Eldredge, {Becoming Myself}

I cried over those words. I saw a better me and a newness that I can’t describe.

Woman. You have worth. You ARE worth. A most prized delight.

The desire of my heart with this post is to speak directly to your soul. To draw out the beauty that’s there. Did you stuff it down? Or worse yet, did someone else stuff it down?

"So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."

  Genesis 1:27 NKJV (emphasis are mine)

There is a love song being sung over you, dear sister. Your Creator, The Almighty takes that time to lavish goodness on you.  He’s thinking of how you’ll love that unique snowflake that makes its way into your palm, or that new Spring bloom that is your absolute favorite flower, and that sand between your toes that you've waited to feel since the last time.

He gives beauty to His beauty. Yes! You!

If you’re struggling with believing how beautiful you are or even who you are, I want to direct you to Jolene’s beautiful telling of her personal story of rejection and acceptance: 

What I Want You to Know

http://joleneengle.com/want-know/

Be blessed, beautiful sister!

Kela Nellums

HEIRESS OF THE LIGHT FLOUR BOMB CHALLENGE VIDEO 4- 6-15

Today I'm posting this blog on behalf of a issue that is heavy on my heart. 

This cause is very heavy on my heart in a deep and personal way.

CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING/SLAVERY

FACTS:  "2 million children are being trafficked as sex slaves

 in the world today. "

                       "It's time to rescue them."

"I Heiress of The Light  {Aka Vena} have accepted the "FLOUR BOMB VIDEO CHALLENGE" to raise awareness and money to fight child sex slavery and trafficking and to rescue children across the world from this awful crime and to end the awful crime of child sex trafficking and exploitation." Sex slavery and exploitation is child abuse for money. This is happening right here in your backyard." 

(At least 200,000 children per year are sexually exploited in the U.S. alone. 

Source:National Center for Missing & Exploited Children)

There are two million children across the globe who are held captive and bought and sold for sex.

          SOURCE : (UNICEF)

I have donated at FlourBomb.com to stop this awful crime and to save the children. 
"I challenge all my Blog Followers/Readers, YouTube subscribers, all my Facebook Family Members, my Friends, Brethren and anyone else out there to accept my challenge for you to make a FlourBomb Video, upload it to all your social media websites and go to the FlourBomb.com website and donate within the next 24 hours from today 4-6-15." GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

http://www.flourbomb.com/

https://www.facebook.com/flourbombchallenge?fref=ts

https://ourrescue.org/

#flOURbomb  #OURrescue‬

"WATCH  MY FLOUR BOMB CHALLENGE VIDEO  BELOW"

For info on how to make your own FlourBomb Challenge Video go to
https://youtu.be/m4vAP5eqSPw

GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Setting and Defending Your Boundaries

March 16, 2015 By Tamara Staples 

http://fibrocfssupportcenter.org/setting-and-defending-your-boundaries/

originally posted on www.desiretoheal.com 

http://desiretoheal.com/2015/03/16/setting-and-defending-your-boundaries/

{RE-POSTED WITH PERMISSION FROM TAMARA STAPLES}

You have a right to draw a line in the sand!

Setting and Defending Your Boundaries

This may not be a popular post, but please hear me out and know that I am right there with you.  I struggle daily with setting boundaries and defending those boundaries.  We all want someone to just “get” what we are going through and “understand” us when we set our limits.  I wish it were that easy! 

What I hear over and over (and experience, at times, myself) is that my spouse, friend, mother (insert noun that applies) doesn't understand my illness or doesn't believe I am really ill.  The frustration really kicks in when you expect this person or these people to “approve” of your need to rest or to not do something that they are wanting you to do.

We let other people keep us imprisoned in a tighter illness “cage” than it has to be because we are too afraid to set boundaries or tell them that we can’t do something when we know we can’t.   If they argue, if they don’t believe us or if they disagree, then we feel we have to make a choice about whether to justify our non-doing or do what they want us to do.  Doing usually seems easier in the moment.  However, in the long run you pay the price.

We let other people keep us imprisoned in a tighter illness “cage” than it has to be because we are too afraid to set boundaries or tell them that we can’t do something when we know we can’t.   If they argue, if they don’t believe us or if they disagree, then we feel we have to make a choice about whether to justify our non-doing or do what they want us to do.  Doing usually seems easier in the moment.  However, in the long run you pay the price.

Set Your Boundaries and Stand Firm

I want to propose that, at the end of the day, you are one-hundred percent responsible for you.  It is no one else’s business to decide your limits and if they don’t see your limits the way you see them, that is kind of too bad and their problem.  They are not inside your body and they are not living what you are living.  God forbid they one day might be chronically ill themselves and then they would understand, but until that happens you just have to take personal responsibility and defend your boundaries.   As scary as it is and hard as it is and as against the grain as it goes, you just have to say I. Can’t. Do. That.  And stand firm.

I’m not saying that I have it all figured out and that it doesn't bother me to set limits and stand up for those limits; it does.  I realize that it is something that I am going to have to get over or I am going stay sicker than I have to stay for the remainder of my life because I am constantly overruling my own innate sense of when I should rest.  If I don’t enforce my boundaries, I will be doomed to continue apologizing for myself because I am always going to be sick and will always be letting people down due to having to go to bed and recover from my overdoing.

Are You Your Own Worst Offender?

I am not discounting that I am my own worst offender, either.  I often place too many expectations on myself and crash and burn as I struggle to meet those expectations.  The fact is that we can’t really teach other people how to treat us until we learn to treat ourselves better, which includes honoring our own boundaries with our self.

I think an interesting exercise would be to pretend one day, all day long, that you have cancer.   How would you treat your body knowing that any chance you had of living versus dying is in conserving your energy and resources so that your body could have a chance to heal?  How would you be around other people if you knew you had a “legitimate” disease such as cancer?  How would you feel?  How would you behave?  How would others treat you?  How would you expect others to treat you?  And, how would you treat yourself?

Your Illness IS Legitimate!

Just because you don’t have cancer and you have chronic pain, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, migraines or whatever illness instead, it doesn't matter.  Whatever you have is a legitimate illness!  Your body deserves your consideration.  And, obviously, you deserve understanding and consideration from those around you, but it has to start with you.

You see, when we expect other people to understand our reality from their reality, it doesn't usually work out well.  It can be like we are on totally different planes of existence.  I know that I didn't even fully understand my own reality when I first became ill.  I kept thinking that I could push myself much further than I actually could.  So, if it takes us a while to believe our own limitations when we become ill, how can we expect others to understand when they haven’t lived in a chronically ill body?

They can’t understand it!  In fact, I don’t know if you have done this, but I have done this in the year and a half since I have had chronic fatigue syndrome and have been unable to do most physical activity: I watch people do the simplest of things and am amazed.  I do this when I watch TV.  An actor is running down the street and my brain just can’t quite grasp how they can do that.  It is because I have been in this reality of chronic fatigue syndrome for a year and a half and I have forgotten my previous reality.  If I've forgotten my own reality from when I was able to do more, then how can I expect some other person to understand my reality as a sick person from their reality of health?

It is Empowering to Take Responsibility for Yourself

The bitter pill to swallow is also the most empowering thing we can do which is take total responsibility for ourselves, set our limits, set our boundaries and don’t let anyone make us feel guilty.  How long can you continue to drag your body through activities that it can’t physically do right now because you don’t want someone to be upset at you for setting your limits?

We can pass out the spoon theory to every person that we meet and in the end we stay totally frustrated because they still aren't getting it.  In the meantime, we just keep on overdoing because we are waiting for them to give us permission to take care of ourselves the way we know we need to.  The spoon theory might help someone understand for a nanosecond, but then they slip back into their reality where they truly can’t comprehend because they haven’t lived what you are living.

You wouldn't let someone break into your house while you just sit back on the sofa and watch them take all of your stuff because you are scared to offend them.  So, don’t let someone break into your body and take all of your energy while you are busy people pleasing because you don’t want to make waves.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: energy management, relationships, self-care

http://fibrocfssupportcenter.org/

Is Setting Boundaries Selfish?‏

Is Setting Boundaries Selfish?‏

http://www.boundariesbooks.com/boundaries-blog/

Philippians 4:12-13 – “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” “Now, wait a minute,” Teresa said, shaking her head. “How can I set limits on those who need me? Isn’t that living for me and not for God?” Teresa was voicing one of the main objections to boundary setting for Christians: a deep-seated fear of being self-centered, interested only in one’s own concerns and not those of others. It is absolutely true that we are to be a loving people. Concerned for the welfare of others. In fact, the number-one hallmark of Christians is that we love others (John 13:35). So don’t boundaries turn us from other-centeredness to self-centeredness? The answer is no. Appropriate boundaries actually increase our ability to care about others. People with highly developed limits are the most caring people on earth. How can this be true? First, let’s make a distinction between selfishness and stewardship. Selfishness has to do with a fixation on our own wishes and desires, to the exclusion of our responsibility to love others. Though having wishes and desires is a God-given trait (Proverbs 13:4), we are to keep them in line with healthy goals and responsibility. For one thing, we may not want what we need. Mr. Insensitive may desperately need help with the fact that he’s a terrible listener. But he may not want it. God is much more interested in meeting our needs than he is granting all our wishes. For example, he denied Paul’s wish to heal his “thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7–10). At the same time, he met Paul’s needs to the point that Paul felt content and full: I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:12–13) It helps the Christian afraid of setting boundaries to know that God meets our needs. “God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). At the same time, God does not make our wishes and desires “all bad” either. He will meet many of them. Our Needs Are Our Responsibility Even with God’s help, however, it is crucial to understand that meeting our own needs is basically our job. We can’t wait passively for others to take care of us. Jesus told us to “Ask … seek … knock” (Matthew 7:7). We are to “work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). Even knowing that “it is God who works in [us]” (Philippians 2:13), we are our own responsibility. This is a very different picture than many of us are used to. Some individuals see their needs as bad, selfish, and at best, a luxury. Others see them as something that God or others should do for them. But the biblical picture is clear: our lives are our responsibility. At the end of our lives this truth becomes crystal clear. We will all “appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10). A sobering thought. The Gift of Stewardship A helpful way to understand setting limits is that our lives are a gift from God. Just as a store manager takes good care of a shop for the owner, we are to do the same with our souls. If a lack of boundaries causes us to mismanage the store, the owner has a right to be upset with us. We are to develop our lives, abilities, feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Our spiritual and emotional growth is God’s “interest” on his investment in us. When we say no to people and activities that are hurtful to us, we are protecting God’s investment. As you can see, there’s quite a difference between selfishness and stewardship. That’s why boundaries make life better! Subscription Info Today's content is drawn from Boundaries With Kids by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend. Copyright 2014 by Zondervan; all rights reserved. Visit BoundariesBooks.com for more information.

STANDING STRONG THROUGH THE STORM DAILY DEVOTIONAL

https://www.biblegateway.com/devotionals/standing-strong-through-the-storm/

 WE DO NOT HAVE TO BE PERFECT TO DO GOD’S WILL

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that t

his all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 

2 Corinthians 4:7

Our Open Doors colleague, Ron Boyd-MacMillan, 

shares the following insight from his teaching, 

“Why I Need to Encounter the Persecuted Church.” 

While living in Hong Kong, I used to

 make a point of having dinner with  many of the 

Open Doors supporters worldwide that gave up 

some holidaytime to courier Bibles into China. 

Often in the course of their travels some of them 

would meet famous house church leaders 

and say, “To be truthful, I was a bit disappointed

 in meeting.” They would add something like, 

“I thought these people would be remarkable

 saints, and of course they were, but they were 

also quite prejudiced, or rude, or had some other 

feature that I did not think worthy of a very 

spiritual leader.” They assumed that the

 persecuted were “super-saints.” But they are not.

It is a very unfortunate trend to idolize the

 persecuted. We assume that if a Christian 

survives twenty years in a stinking prison cell they 

are in a completely different spiritual category

 from ourselves. They are of course different in 

what  they have experienced, but that does not

 necessarily make them more spiritual.

 As J.C. Ryle once put it, “Even the best of men 

are only men at the best. ” They often retain the 

blind spots and prejudices of their culture.

On one occasion I was taking a distinguished

 Bible teacher to meet a revival leader in 

Lanzhou, Gansu province. This Chinese leader 

had seen over 50,000 people come to know the

 Lord through his ministry over a ten-year period, 

but to our amazement he taught that 

“you can only come to faith on a Sunday.” He had 

been taught Christianity by his beloved 

grandmother, who believed the Lord would only 

listen to pleas for repentance on a Sunday. 

We talked and argued about this, and eventually 

he threw us out shouting, “You just hate my

 Granny.” I hear now, years later, that he

 has extended the “repentance period” to

 Saturday as well. Yet he is still an extremely 

effective evangelist despite this chronic, 

man-made obstacle he has erected to the 

grace of God!

Surely the great point is this: flawed as some 

Chinese leaders were, they did the will of God

 mightily. They labored in a country 

that has seen the number of Christians grow 

from less than one million in 1949 to over

 eighty millions today—the largest revival in

 the history of Christendom. God didn’t stop 

pouring out his Spirit because his saints were

 imperfect.

If the persecuted teach us anything, it is that 

God will work through us even despite our

 prejudices, blind spots and eccentricities.

 If we offer ourselves, we will be used…as we are.

 We do not have to be perfect to do God’s will. 

 Otherwise, no one could.

RESPONSE: Today I will walk in faith thankful 

that I do not have to be perfect to do God’s will.

PRAYER: Thank You, Lord, that You can 

still use me with all my imperfections and

 blind spots.

Standing Strong Through The Storm (SSTS),

 a daily devotional message by

 SSTS author Paul Estabrooks. 

© 2011 Open Doors International. 

Used by permission.