listening to the right Voice.

{I’m not totally back on the blogging front yet. These posts are ones that I wrote before the wedding. But rest assured and mark your calendars for July 28th when I’ll be back with freshly written, post-married-life blogs!}

Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard or thought one of the following:

I’m not enough.
I’m not pretty.
I’m not smart enough, tall enough, funny enough, sexy enough.
I’m a bad friend.
I’m too emotional.
I have too much baggage.
I’ll never find love.
I’m not worthy.

Chances are that about 99.9% of you either have your hand raised or are looking around to see if anyone would notice you reading that list and simultaneously raising your hand. That’s okay, I’m writing this with one hand raised too.

The fact of the matter is that there are perhaps a thousand or more voices tell us what we are or are not. Turn on your TV, open up a magazine, read a blog and by the end of it you’ll likely feel like you are falling short somehow. The overarching message that we hear so often that we buy into it is this: You, as you are, are not enough. Either you aren’t enough or you are too much of something, too dramatic, too high-strung, too heavy, too needy, too emotional, you have too much baggage. No matter which way the attack comes, it always comes. You are simultaneously too much and yet not enough. We hear this lie so often that it eats at us until we believe it.

But these voices we listen to, the ones that tell us we are both not enough and yet too much, are they the voice of God? Do you really think that the God who created you, who loves and wills you into existence thinks that you are not enough? Do you think He thinks that you are too much? He created you to be exactly who you are – He works through you, even through your faults. Moses told God that he stuttered, but God wanted Moses anyway. God is aware of our faults, but He calls us to be His hands and feet in spite of them, so that His glory may shine through us. So what if the voices of the world tell you that you aren’t enough or that you are too much? God’s voice, even when it is still and small, is more powerful and loving than every voice in the world. He tells us:

“I will…speak to her heart.” – Hosea 2:16

“I, the Lord, alone probe the mind and test the heart…” – Jeremiah 17:10

“God is love” and “love never fails.” – 1 John 4:8 and 1 Corinthians 13:8

“I command you: be firm and steadfast! Do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord, your God, is with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1:9

“You are all beautiful, my beloved, and there is no blemish in you.” – Song of Songs 4:7

God doesn’t see the blemishes, the faults. He sees the person He created you to be: holy, a reflection of Himself, and He longs to be united with you in Heaven. Whose voice would you rather listen to when it comes to who or what defines your worth?