Comparison steals joy!

Comparison steals joy.

Did you hear that?  Comparison steals joy, among other things.

It begins with little remarks, little jabs at yourself, that at first seem so harmless.

It may even appear that you are humble.  That you are just praising someone else's

strengths.  Yet you are subtly discrediting yourself.

Remarks like...

"She/He is way better at ______ than me."

"I am not pretty like ______."

"I don't have the qualifications like ______."

"I can't do ________."

 "She/He has more of _______ than me."

Add in whatever word(s) applies, but you see how these little snippets can tear down?!?!

There is no encouragement in it, for yourself or the person you think you are praising.

It doesn't build someone up to have you torn down in the process.

It doesn't comfort someone to have you point out all their strengths whilst you indirectly point out all your weaknesses.

Every comparison breaks you down a little.  Every comparison makes you pull back a little more.

Every comparison IS A LIE!!!

A lie from the enemy, a lie to keep you trapped, to keep you chained, to make you feel worth less, to make you feel invaluable and useless.

And in the comparison(LIES) you lose...Joy. Peace. Trust. Strength. Courage. Freedom. Uniqueness.  You lose you.

You have been created for a purpose that ONLY you, yes, only you can fulfill.

You have been created uniquely to be you and you alone. 

You have been created to SHINE. 

You have been created for GREATNESS.

But if you want what everyone else has and to be who everyone else is, how will the world experience and see you?

I read this wonderful quote from Marianne Williamson (usually misinterpreted to have been a quote from Nelson Mandela):

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

This quote has really stuck with me for some reason.  Maybe because I too have compared myself.  I too have stepped back to let others shine.  I have shyed away from being to great, to talented, to fabulous, to ______! 

But I realized, I want the world to experience me.  The me, God purposefully and intricately created.  He made me the way I am for a reason.  He is within me and wants to shine all the creativity, beauty and goodness HE IS through me.  I am like him, why would I want to hide His creative, beautiful, good, fabulous, talented, brilliant daughter from the world.  Why would I want to be like someone else that is showing the other creative, beautiful, great attributes of our Heavenly Father? 

God didn't intend for anyone of us to be a replica of another.  What a bore that would be to have us all be the same as the last.  What good would that accomplish? 

I am rambling now, LOL ;)

I hope you understand though, you are you...you are uniquely and perfectly you. 

Don't let comparison steal away the you God created.  Don't let it take away your joy.

Instead, be proud, shameless, free, joyful, fearless, brilliant, worthy, creative, bold,  courageous and live your life out loud as YOU! 

Cuz no one else can do it ;)

Love,

Christy Creative Dreamer Dawn

p.s, I didn't want to add creative dreamer to my middle name for this blog(in the beginning), but that IS what I am and I am no longer afraid to declare that in my life, among other fabulous truths ;)  What truths will you begin to declare and live out loud in your life? 

Complacent No More

Aren't we sick of complacency?  Sick of the stress, the drama, the lies, the bondage/chains?  Sick of broken families and relationships?  Aren't we sick of the fleshly desires?  Don't we want MORE?  Need MORE?

THERE IS MORE.  There is Jesus.

He came for all the reasons listed above and more.  He came to restore, heal, set free, to seek and save the lost, to bring truth and life.

You CAN change your life, your thoughts, actions, words and you can change the condition of your heart.
If you are drawing in, pressing close to Him and pursuant of His heart.  Reading your bible, which gives life and truth.  Spending time with people who will encourage and comfort you.  Praying, worshipping and praising daily(all day long is even better) Becoming constant in your relationship with abba.  I tell you friends, you change.  Your life transforms.  You begin to look more like Him.  Your actions, thoughts and words begin to look more like Him.  You begin to see yourself through your Heavenly Fathers eyes.  You start to look for ways to press in, all day long.  You start to smell the burning of your flesh.  Cuz let me tell you, you can't get in realCLOSE(yes, I did that on purpose) to abba and not expect your old self to fall away.  To get sick of all the lies, to have such distaste for the things of this world, for the drama, for the stress, for the bondage and chains.  It starts to fall away and you even ask God to continue to show you where your old self is still hanging on.  Oh, let me tell you friends, your old self WILL try to hold on.  He'll twist and draw back and beg you to just leave a little, cuz what is a little?  But God wants all of you.  He wants to chisel away everything of the old man(woman). He wants to mold you and shape you.  He has a great plan and purpose for your life.  But you have to let go of the flesh life you are trying so desperately to hold onto.

I can say I am a "christian", but it is not enough to label myself and continue to walk in this old self. NO, it is not enough.  I want to be more than a label.  I want the world to see His light and His beauty shining through me.  I want to carry His peace, His truth and His strength wherever I go.  I want my life to point back to Christ.  I will not sit in complacency.  I WILL get sick and tired of all the lies, stress, drama, bondage/chains, broken relationships and selfish desires.

I believe that when you get sick and tired of it all.  Others will take notice of how much change has taken place in your life. They too will seek change, they'll ask questions, they'll wanna know more.  You become a beacon of light pointing towards hope, towards life and truth, towards Jesus.

I don't want people to see me, I want them to see Christ through me.  I want to reflect Jesus when people look at my life.

I will not be complacent.  I will be constant.  I will go deeper, closer and press in to my Father's heart.

Will you join me?

Galatians 2:20 - I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Luke 9:23 - And he said to [them] all, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.


Christy Creative Dreamer Dawn

Infinitely Awaken

 

There you lay sleeping; peaceful at last. Your heart is so heavy and overwhelmed, but for the next eight hours you are at rest. Head on your pillow, unaware of me watching and waiting for you to render your heart once again to me, your heavenly Father.

 

O my precious child, if you only knew the great things I had in store for you.

 

With excitement and joy I choose to bring you into this world. I formed and shaped you into the masterpiece I once saw. Now you stand broken, confused and unsure if I even exist. Who lead you astray? When did my love not become enough? Yet, I will never stop loving you.

 

 I will never give up on you.

 

I created the stars and the sea. I hung the universe with just the sound of my voice. But it is you that I created in my image. You are my prize possession. My beautiful creation surrounds you when you wake up and fall asleep, yet you continually ask, "God, where are you?”

 

I have and will always be with you.

 

Return to me, my child. Turn your eyes and heart to me. Do not be distracted from cheap imitations and false fulfillments of this broken world, I am the one and only. I am the one who desires to pour out blessing and good things from above.  Daily, I speak words of such love, hope and healing into every area of your being. I send angels throughout the day to guide and protect you. Oh how I hear your ever cry and prayer. I am aware of your every anxious thought.

 

Open your eyes and hear my voice.

When you wake up will you respond to my longing to be close to you?

 

Now I wait…..

 

Waiting for you to awake…

 

Waiting for you to see that I am here…

 

Waiting for you to respond to my relentless love for you…

 

Maybe today will be the day you finally awake!

 

Love, Your Heavenly Father

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Life Laid Down

I thought this journey began only a few months ago, but a conversation earlier showed me that this was something that began some time ago.  It started with a book called The God Chasers by Tommy Tenney.   It spoke of being ruined for The Lord, about laying down your life...dying to the flesh.  A portion that spoke loudly to me from the book was:  The more death that God smells, the closer He can come.  As well as: When more of our flesh dies, more of our spirit lives. 

I remember sitting on a plane flying from Melbourne to Sydney, Australia with my sister.  And as she slept beside me I read about how I needed to die.  I didn't get it, it sounded scary.  In fact, I remember thinking, this sounds waaaaaaaaaaaay to difficult and way to out of my comfort zone and I am not going to do this. Just as I declined this invitation to journey deeper and become more raw than I'd ever been in my life, horrible turbulence began.  Gods way of shaking things up and letting me know something?  Maybe, at least, I remember thinking it seemed like God trying to tell me something.  Little did I know this was just the beginning of an adventure I was going to be taken on.  

Sometime after I read that book I asked God a very weird(to some maybe) question.   God, I want you to gut me.  Now, I know that word seems a little over the top, but it's the word that came to mind.  I pictured myself laying on a surgeons table as he carefully took out the parts of me that were not needed and no good.  I told God I wanted to be opened up and everything that wasn't of Him, anything that was of me, of this world, well...I wanted it taken out of me.  I wanted to be completely emptied so I could be fully and wholly filled with Him. 

It came at a cost.  That cost was my life. 

Matthew 16:24-26 says:  Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for my sake will find it.  For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

and

John 3:30 says: He must increase, but I must decrease

I had to be willing to lay it all down at His feet.  Be willing to open old wounds, call out inner vows and ask forgiveness from iniquities I had buried deep.

It was and has been uncomfortable.  I'm not going to lie.  It's not a process that was or has been fun and it definitely brought more tears than I'd have liked to shed. 

You see.  When you ask God to show you those dark, hidden, shackled up, broken, wretched places of yourself...He will.  He is faithful like that ;)

I wanted more times than not to just stop this cleansing, this gutting of myself.  This emptying of all I had boxed up and shoved away for no one to see, not even myself.  I didn't want to remember the scars and I definitely didn't want to re-open them.  But God gave me people to encourage me along the way, or I'd read His Word, or hear a song and I'd remind myself that all that I was truly losing was doubt, fear, anxiety, hurt, bitterness, jealousy, anger, resentment, un-fruitful thoughts and really was that worth being upset about?  NOPE!!!

I've had to confront people, I've had to re-live moments I'd had rather not.  In fact there were times after I asked God to show me more areas of my life that I needed to rid myself(internally and externally) of, I wish I hadn't opened my big mouth.  But it's been a process that has been refining me.  It's made me see more clearly who my Father is.  What He wants for me, what His promises are and that no matter what, He loves me and won't ever give up on me.  

I'm still being "gutted" and it is getting easier.  I'm learning so much about myself, about my Father.  I've become more aware of the areas in my life that I need to take out and move on from.  I've realized that though the laying down of life can be difficult, the reward is so very much worth it.   I'm beginning to hear my Fathers heart.  I see the woman I can be through His eyes.  I see only the life laid before me that is full of dreams, hope, love, peace, joy freedom and a steady stream of faithfulness to carry me through the storms that may lay ahead. 

Laying down your life, allowing God to gut you, empty you out, is not always going to be an easy thing to do. But the end result is a life that is built upon a firm foundation.  It is a life that is filled with thanksgiving and peace, a life that in the midst of the emptying, you hear your Father's voice whisper...you can do it...I am here, I will never leave you or forsake you. 

My prayer for you all, whatever stage you are at in life.  Is that you will allow God to heal and remove any pieces of yourself that you may be clinging to that are not of Him.   That you'd allow Him to refine, mold and transform your life.  It is a story(of your life) that has a most beautiful ending.   

Love always,

Christy Creative Dreamer Dawn

 I love this song: