Pursuing Perfection: To my 18 year old self

If I could sit my 18 year old self down and look her in the eye. I would give her permission to stop striving for all of the wrong things. She felt like she wasn’t half the woman her mother is. That made her feel like she was only a fraction of who everyone needed her to be. She was always using the opinion of others to define her worth and it won’t be for years until she begins to learn that even the people that love you the most can evaluate you wrongly. She didn’t realize that truly only God knows the heart and out of good intentions and ignorance people can hold you to their standards and not Gods standards. I would warn her about how dangerous it could be when you hold the opinion of others to the same regard as the word of God. If I could sit her down I would tell her that the enemy wants to use her short comings as evidence that she is not good enough, I would remind her that he can only speak lies. I would tell her the feeling of inferiority does do not have to dictate your behavior, and sometimes the best blessings are waiting on the other side of fear.

Even if I could tell her all of these things I know she would not believe me. All of this knowledge was ready and available, but none of it is applicable with out the revelation of the Holy Spirit. He teaches us how to walk the word out one step at a time. I didn’t need to know off of those things then to become the person I am now. God has the ability to take us from where we are right now and put us where he needs us to be. In fact, if you are praying for his will to be done in your life and submitting your self to the word that is exactly what he is doing right now. Sometimes there is a gap in your vision between who you are right now and who you want to be in the future. The enemy wants to stand in that space a whisper lies to redefine who you are becoming.

The only way to keep him from standing in between you and your destiny is to fill that gap with the word of God.  You need biblical stepping stones to keep you moving in the right direction. Here are a few scriptures I try to put in my own vision gaps.

Hebrews 13:5