A Masterpiece

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.  Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)

This is definitely a tape-to-the-mirror worthy verse.

Whenever I decide to take a leap into something, my first instinct is to list all the reasons why I will fail, why there are countless others who are more worthy/talented/equipped, and how it's ridiculous that I'm about to attempt this.  But it's a first instinct that I've been chipping away at for years.  It's not a productive attitude and quite frankly, not an attractive quality.

And if I believe what I say I believe, then that way of thinking is pretty hypocritical.

If I look back at my greatest accomplishments, they all started with a little voice that put a desire or an idea into my heart and then once I would start in that direction, fear and doubt would consume me.  I would be frozen for a moment.  Afraid to open my eyes, afraid to move, wondering what in the world had I done. 

Then would come the deep breath and the surrender to God.  I hate that it was always my last resort.  That I would wait until I had absolute no strength and courage to move forward before just resting in God.  I'm still working on skipping straight to the surrender part when I'm faced with new challenges and opportunities.

The thing about the surrendering, is that all of those scary, challenging moments, became some of the most incredible, life-changing experiences of my life.  So it really does make since for me to just skip over the fear and self-deprecating thoughts.

I would think that if there was ever a time I'd have to battle those old ways of thinking, it would be with the birth of Lucy.   I mean, entrusted to raise another human being??  Crazy! 

But I've jumped straight to surrendering.  I don't even waste time on fear and doubt.  I know that I am so ill-equipped on my own, I have had to cling to God since the day she was born.  My strength and my ability to raise Lucy, has to come from Him. 

I wake up asking God to hold my hand.  I go to bed asking God to wrap His arms around Lucy. 

And that's my plan.

So back to that verse.

It's not difficult to look at my little girl and believe in every fiber of my being that she is God's masterpiece.  I'm in awe of her daily.  God has so much in store for her my heart sings!  So it would break my heart if she grew up not fully believing the words of that verse.

The truth is, the best way for me to make that happen is to believe it about myself. 

Hence, taping the verse on the mirror.

I'm so thankful HE planned on me being Lucy's mother.


But back to my favorite masterpiece.