Hello everyone! Yesterday, a friend remarked to me that I looked comfortable in my own skin. I was more than thankful for her encouragement! I am working on some additional fitness goals and some other goals for myself but I am truly comfortable, for perhaps the first time in my life, in my own skin. I know my true worth. I know my true value. I will not accept anything less that my true value or worth – not for convenience, not for ease and certainly not to please anyone else. This has been quite the process over the last five years, a process I didn’t even know I was working on to be honest. God has been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work on me that had nothing to do with my abusive marriage or my late husband’s death. However, those deep heart issues led me to make some bad decisions. He has been very much at work on those deep heart issues. I’ve written about many of these issues in my recent blogs. He has truly set me free to be me!
I want you to know God wants us comfortable in our own skin and if we let him, He will do the heart work with us to get us there. This has been a five year process for me so don’t think it will happen overnight or that it will be easy. I had to do serious heart work and examine myself and my motives in ways I never had before. I had to ask God a lot of “why” questions and I had to be prepared for the answers – even if I didn’t like them. I had to seriously consider the counsel of others as well – even when I didn’t like what was said to me. The hard stuff was not likeable but I learned I can deal with it and pass through it to get to what is waiting on the other side – a God-confidence like I’ve never had before and my whole, true self as He made me to be!
I can tell you, once you are comfortable in your own skin, no one can take that from you. Other’s opinions don’t matter anymore. You don’t care if you are understood or not. You also begin to realize who you want in your company and who you do not. You see who is real and who is playing a good part. You have no issues walking away from anything or anyone who is purposely hurting you in any way. You begin to realize you are far more worthy than some people see you. You will not allow yourself to be treated “any old way.” You can finally focus on your purpose, not on the millions of things that beckon our attention every day. The only thing I care about now is doing what God would have me do through my writing and in the ministry opportunities he continues to lay before me. I am not interested in whether people understand. I am not interested in whether people agree or not. I am not interested in people’s approval of me or if they like what I am doing. Let me tell you now, you won’t click with everyone and not everyone will like you. That is impossible. There are some people you are also better off without as they can’t follow you where you are going nor would they follow you. I am not saying I have dumped all my friends and found new ones. What I am saying is I’m more selective in my choosing, not just of friends but of the places I do business with and the people as well. Not everyone you meet is a good person and not all business success is good success based on honest gain. When you become comfortable in your own skin, you can tell the difference. Why? Usually where you find bad masquerading as good, you find a lot of emptiness and a lot of confusion and chaos. When you know who you are, and are comfortable in your own skin, you won’t allow confusion and chaos to impede on your peace – no matter where or who it is coming from.
I am no different than anyone else. What has been made available to me is available to you in Jesus Christ. You can get comfortable in your own skin. You can know who you are – just as I do. You can have peace – despite the world’s chaos. You don’t have to go around on the same merry-go-round day in and day out – the choice is yours! Jesus will meet you where you are just as He met me! He will walk you through finding yourself. Call out to Him – He will answer! He will find you! He will give you peace!
“To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.” – Socrates
And to know ourselves and be comfortable in our own skin, we must turn to the One who knows us inside and out and loves us anyway – Jesus Christ. Get to know Him and in turn get comfortable in your own skin. Love, Elizabeth