Duckling Words.

     All my life I have had supportive parents. They have been there telling me I was smart and pretty my whole life. All the things you should tell your child. But there were other words too. Unanimous words. Words from peers and teachers alike. Ugly, stupid, and worthless. Now, I did believe my parents did think I was good. but thanks to Warner Brother cartoons, we all know the old adage, "She has a face only a mother could love." All my elementary classmates knew that one too. I grew up failing and flopping around because I was, in reality, stupid, ugly and worthless....right? I ended up firmly believing this to be true.
     My parents had it right. I should have listened. It wasn't until 5 years ago when more and more friends started being intimidated by my intelligence did I realize I was missing something. I had more and more people coming to say that I was scary smart and did I have any insight into their problems. No one. I mean NO ONE had ever said those words to me. Now, everyone in my life was saying and still saying them to me. This was stunning and new to me. I still felt really ugly though. I was now the ugly smart girl.
     Last year. 36 years into my life, God started breathing the words, "You are beautiful" into my soul. I was stunned. I mean I had the 1 Samuel verse framed in my bathroom to encourage me. "Man looks at outward appearances, I see the heart" See? It didn't matter I did not have a pretty face with a clear complexion God saw my heart. No matter what the outcome of primping was to be, God loved me on the inside. So when in the spring of 2013 when God started daily telling me "You are beautiful," I became very very confused. "Who me? I still get zits! I'm never happy with my Hermione Grainger hair. I'm a little pudgy around the middle. I think that is my genetic shape. You can't mean me, God." But He did. He made me. He does not make trash. None of us are trash. NONE of us are worthless.
   Then my life fell almost completely apart. God used His healing words echoed by good friends, amazing parents, and my husband to hold me together. "You are pretty. You are smart." I was being attacked by Satan in those two areas right on the head. He was whispering, "See, you're ugly and you should have seen this coming. You're stupid." Our words are important. Our words have the power to take life and to build it up. Today my Bible reading was from Psalms 52. As I read the words as I am asking you now to do, I was struck at the havoc the words of others had caused my life and heart. I want to be rooted on the words that bring life. I want to be rooted on the very Name of God Himself.
     No matter where your talents lay, God has given us each a spark from His hand. He has given us each a special gift that is important to life here on this planet. You may feel unimportant or average, or like I did, waaaaaaaaaaaaay below average. I am here to tell you that God has given you a gifting. Call out to Him and ask for truth and love to be spoken into your life. You are important to God. You matter. I had to stop believing lies from Satan and hear the truths of God to learn that I mattered.