Loneliness.

You know those times in life when we feel things just aren't going the way we want.
We feel left out of friendship circles,
we don't have the romantic relationship we desire and God seems silent.
We enter into this constant battle once again.
The battle of loneliness.


It plagues every single one of us.
From our single days when we are waiting on God to bring us that romantic relationship we are looking for.
The days of long distance relationships, where we miss that significant other so much it hurts.
The days of engagement where we feel as though our wedding day can't come fast enough
because then we won't have to do life alone anymore.
To the early days of marriage when life has completely changed,
the honeymoon is over and hubby goes back to work.
The days of being a mommy to small children,
where even though there is perhaps never quiet. It can still be oh so ever lonely.
Or even those days when our children grow up and leave the nest, the loneliness of an empty house.
It affects us all. Wherever we find ourselves. 


I definitely didn't set out this morning to share these thoughts, but as I was reading my devotional this morning, the Lord laid this topic on my heart.
No matter where we find ourselves, we battle loneliness.
It doesn't go away as our life circumstances change.
But God can really use these times of loneliness if we let Him.


Jesus often went away to seek His father.
To spend time alone with Him, being refreshed and ready to do what His father asked of Him (see Luke 5).
When we're alone with God, we hear His voice more clearly.
Moments of loneliness may in fact not be a bad thing.
They could be gifts from the Lord,
times when we are able to get away from the distractions of the world and seek him without hindrances.

'Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.'

{1 Peter 4:10-11}

Even when we are lonely, God calls us to serve others.
Everyday we encounter people who are hurting and need to hear of the Lord's love for them.
By serving others we even take our eyes of our own situation and instead focus on others. 
The best way to battle loneliness, serving. 


But its also important to remember that no matter where we find ourselves in life friends! Whether we have broken dreams or feel we don't have anyone to turn to in life. We have Him, who promises to meet all our emotional and social needs. He is dependable and will do exactly as He promises!
So as we change our attitude from looking inward and feeling sorry for ourselves, to being grateful we have time to spend with God and looking to reach out to others in need.....there we find the way to battle loneliness.

And honestly, I'm beginning to think life is all about those little moments where we struggle and grow. Not about the moments which we always long for.

{Image from google, edited by me}

I'm clinging to this beautiful truth today friends, would you like to join me? 

Much Love,

L

As the dawn breaks, I will praise His name.

'Shout joyful praises to God, all the earth!

Sing about the glory of his name!

Tell the world how glorious he is.

Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!

Your enemies cringe before your mighty power.

Everything on earth will worship you;

they will sing your praises,

shouting your name in glorious songs.'

[Psalm 66:1-4]

I so wish I was a morning person. But I am definitely a night owl. 

Some of my most creative ideas and deepest thoughts have happened late into the night. 

However on our recent trip to Kentucky, we left before the sun rose. 

As I was unable to sleep, I watched the sun rise over the fields and shine through the fog.

It was such a beautiful even to watch.

I couldn't help but be in awe of the Lord while watching. 

Whenever I am awake early enough to watch the sun rise, I never regret it.

As pretty as sunsets are, I think the sunrise is definitely more eventful.

Maybe its because I don't see it as often.

Either way, I hope someday it will become a regular occurrence to rise early

and watch the sunrise while praising Jesus.

Much Love,

L

Where do you find your worth?

{Via}

I don't know how many of you ladies have had the opportunity to watch

 (or read if you are a book-lover) The Help. 

I watched it when it came to redbox with a precious friend when she came to visit last December

and just loved it. 

This past week, while I had no internet and felt completely pooped from all the moving and cleaning.....

I decided to watch it again.

This time the sweet interaction between Skeeter (the main character) 

and the maid from her childhood, Constantine, 

reinforced a similar thing I had read in my devotions 

(I started reading Rebecca St James Pure about a week ago).

Skeeter is feeling depressed about her school friends and mother telling her

she isn't pretty and is sitting alone in the garden.

Constantine says to her:

'I wish you'd quit feeling sorry for yourself!

Now that's ugly!' 

She goes on to tell Skeeter how everyday that you wake up in life

you have to make a decision about whether you are going

to believe what other people are saying about you.

It so resonated the message from the day two devotion I had read about 

who you let determine your worth.

As women, are we basing our value on what others think of us? 

Do we spend all our time making ourselves beautiful because of

how others will respond to us? Do we behave a certain way to win the respect

of those whose opinion we value?

Do we let other people's negative comments about us get us down?

Do we hear those comments and opinions above what our precious heavenly Father thinks of us?

There are a few people in my life who I would love to have positive opinions about

me. But to what extend should I want those opinions?

I certainly don't think I should change who the Lord has made me and change

the ways He is using in ministry just to seem better to a select few.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? 

Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.

And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 

So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

[Matthew 10:29-31]

I am not trying to preach a self-worth message, I am just talking about seeing

oneself with God-worth (not self-worth).

Choosing to believe the Lord's truths about yourself instead of trying to win the approval

and respect of others to find worth.

{via}

I hope to never live life with a sense that God is disappointed in me,

that I will never be good enough.

But instead to choose to believe His truth.

That I am loved and secure in Him.

I belong to Him.

I am accepted and cherished - By Him.


Remember that there is one person whose opinion matters.
He has already told you what He thinks of you.
(Read the Bible to know more...)


Don't base your opinion of yourself on false or conditional love from others.
You are not more important to Him because of what you do or don't
do for others.
Don't get so wrapped up in selfishness that you can't see beyond yourself
to see who you are in Christ.
(Yes, that is possible....)


You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, 
though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: 
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
[Romans 5:6-8]

{Via}


Remember ladies.....

The Lord loves You.
He wants to spend time with You
(even if it feels like no-one else wants to).
He values You.
He won't exclude You.
He understands You & Cherishes You.

Know that you are Loved by the Lord.


Where do you find your worth?



Much Love,
L

P.S. I hope to be back now with regular internet =) Thanks for being awesome hosts for my guest posters.

Allowing God to Satisfy.

When I was thirteen, I couldn't wait to be kissed. 

It sounded so exciting and so grown up.

Not to mention that everyone else in middle school had started pairing off into relationships, well as much as those were 'relationships.' 

Suddenly who was kissing who became a really hot topic among the girls I was friends with. 

I was really frustrated with the fact that no boy was interested in me enough to want to kiss me back then. 

When I was sixteen, the feelings of wanting to be kissed intensified. 

I began to question whether I was normal or desirable because no boy had even tried to get close to me romantically. I watched friends all around me enter into what seemed (at the time) such beautiful romantic relationships. I thought if I finally had a guy who liked me back, I would be normal and complete. Then there would be someone who was exclusively mine.

We are totally made with this desire for companionship.

A desire to be known by another romantically and intimately.

I struggled in high school with feeling lonely and hopeless. I was single but it certainly wasn't by choice back then.

I had accepted Christ as my Savior at a young age, 

and even rededicated my life back to him at thirteen. 

I was still growing in my relationship with the Lord, but I had yet to grasp an important concept. 

The problem was I was looking for identity and fulfillment in all the wrong places.

My soul felt lonely and I had thought that a relationship with a guy my own age would fill that hole. I thought that a special relationship was what I needed to complete that loneliness and emptiness deep within me. 

Then I wouldn't feel those negative feelings anymore, I would fit in with all the other girls my age.

Truth is I did need a relationship, just not the kind I thought.

I needed my completeness to come from the Only One who would ever be able to give it to me.

Jesus.

Only He loves perfectly.

'No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, 

nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, 

nor anything else in all creation, 

will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.'

Romans 8:37-39 

'In this the love of God was made manifest among us, 

that God sent his only Son into the world, 

so that we might live through him. 

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us 

and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.'

1 John 4:9-11 

Only He never fails me.

See entire of Psalm 136 here.

'Even youths grow tired and weary,

    and young men stumble and fall; 

but those who hope in the Lord

    will renew their strength. 

They will soar on wings like eagles; 

    they will run and not grow weary,

    they will walk and not be faint.'

{Isaiah 40:31-31}

Only He is with me always me.

'Where can I go from your Spirit?

    Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

    if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me, 

    your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

    and the light become night around me,”

even the darkness will not be dark to you;

    the night will shine like the day,

    for darkness is as light to you.'

{Psalm 139:7-12} 

As I grew older, I understood these beautiful truths more and more. The more I learnt these, the more He began to satisfy me. I came to realize that I am only complete when I seek Jesus to fill me and satisfy.

This is truth regardless of a relationship with a significant other.

Graciously the Lord began to teach these truths to me toward the end of my high school years.

Those days of loneliness served a wonderful purpose of turning me to the one who then captured my heart forever.

He began to show me in my senior year of high school and the year that followed, that He is the one I need to run to, no-one else.

Believe me when I tell you girls, I tried to look elsewhere for a long time.

I tried going to a guy I liked, I tried looking to my friends for comfort and fulfillment, I tried running to my parents for the love and affection I was craving, I tried in the relationship with my sister. 

Slowly God stripped all of those relationships away as I transitioned from living at home to living in a different city, a different country and went to college.

The summer of 2006 He truly got through to me, that He alone had to satisfy.

He paved a way for me to go on two different mission trips that summer and revealed his love to me in more ways than I can even remember.

He placed new people in my life who truly encouraged me and pointed me to Christ.

He started the process of learning (and sometimes relearning) that He is enough.

A lesson that is far from over.

He was enough when I felt I had lost my best friend for good after I moved back to England.

He was enough when I struggled and felt depressed because the pain from having my whole life changed was unbearable.

He was enough when I found myself in India unsure of the purpose of my presence.

He was enough when I felt Him call me on a trip to Africa which was due to depart in six days.

He was enough when I felt I would never find godly friends at college.

He was enough when my finances became a sudden mess, and financial support I thought I would receive fell through.

And when I thought through it all that I would never again be happy, He was enough.

He began to satisfy me fully.

To help me see that no other relationship in my life would ever be able to make me feel the way He could.

He filled that feeling of loneliness completely.

He filled the feelings of emptiness.

I see now as a married woman that this was an incredibly valuable lesson.

Loving my husband is only possible because of Christ's Love for me. As precious as my God-given marriage relationship is, I am never satisfied completely except through Jesus.

That significant person given to you will never satisfy you the way Jesus can.

They aren't supposed to.

Relationships in my life go so much smoother when my relationship with Jesus is being given the attention and intimacy it needs. When I am investing my time and energy into getting to know my prince, I don't look to my husband or friends for completeness.

When I do seek that love from others....they fail me.

Because they aren't able to love me the way He does.

Just as I can't perfectly love them in return.

I'm so glad now that Jesus broke my heart during those single years.

Because He pieced it back together and revealed to me my utter dependence on Him.

There is no perfect husband.

No perfect fiance.

No perfect boyfriend.

No perfect date.

Except for the one who creates them.

And he loves you.

Imagine that.

Much Love,

L