Let Jesus awaken the Sleeping Beauty in You!

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Ever felt like there’s a slumbering beauty inside you? 🌸 Let’s chat about how letting Jesus into your life can be the wake-up call you didn’t know you needed…

I’m a girl. I like girly things… fashion, jewelry, makeup, my hair and nails done from time to time (but never during gardening season, lol). Who doesn’t feel like a million bucks after a new haircut and finding that perfect new little black dress before a night out with the girls? (Y’all, I wrote this back in 2013 before I started homesteading, so forgive me!)

I used to think that I had to be beautiful on the outside for people to like me. Especially during my high school days, because come on now… what high school boy looks inside a girl’s heart? FEW, if any!

But no matter how much makeup I put on, or what clothes I wore, or how I styled my hair, I never truly felt pretty. And I sure didn’t feel beautiful. I had so much hurt and pain in my life back then. I was broken and lost and confused. I felt so ugly, like no one would ever want me, and not necessarily because of my appearance on the outside, but because of who I was on the inside. BROKEN. LOST. CONFUSED, with lots of built-up hatred.

It’s so easy for people… for YOU, and for ME, to wear masks! We can smile and pretend to be happy, when all we really want to do is cry. We can pretend that our lives are going great when we are really falling apart inside. People ask how we are doing and we reply, “I’m great! How are you?” when what we really need is a lifeline to keep us from drowning. We try to keep it together… we try to look beautiful and put-together on the outside. We wear our masks to keep people from seeing what’s on the inside.

I did this for YEARS!! But no mask ever fit well enough.

Until Jesus.

It started off like any other relationship…. Jesus? Who is this guy? He sounds intriguing. I want to get to know him! Wow! He’s amazing. I want him to like me! No, I want him to LOVE me. I need to impress him. I need to look pretty. I need him to think I have my life all together. I can’t let him see inside me. There’s no way I can let him see how lost, broken, and angry I am. There’s no way I can let him see all of the baggage I carry with me. If he sees the real me, my broken heart, he won’t want me. So, I’ll wear my mask! I’ll look pretty on the outside so he’ll want a relationship with me.

Like any other relationship, I was having fun “getting-to-know” him, but there came a time when our relationship reached a road block! We could only have the same conversations for so long before the relationship started to get boring. I had walls built around me, walls that I had built sky-high. Walls that I wasn’t ready to let come crumbling down yet. My own little self-created relationship road-block! I held a big sign that said, “TURN AROUND. DO NOT ENTER.” This was the point where most of my relationships ended, where I pushed people away so they couldn’t get to know the real me.

But I wanted so badly to be loved, like no one had ever loved me before. These following words resonated in me, and I wanted love like this…

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

“I WANT THAT! HOW DO I GET THAT?”

I was tired of searching. Exhausted, actually. I was ready to give up…. until it finally all clicked in my brain and somehow, I realized that only Jesus could offer me that love. Somewhere along the line, I realized that my walls could not keep him out, could not prevent him from seeing the real me. He already knew me, inside and out.

He knew, because he was the one who was walking alongside me since my birth. Through the good times and the bad, he was there. I may need to keep my walls up with earthly men, because they are capable of breaking my heart and making me want to build my walls even higher, but not Jesus!

He, and he alone, makes me beautiful. It’s like I spent all those years, wasted, like Sleeping Beauty. Until my Prince came and woke me up, and made me realize that I was beautiful on the inside.

He is my Prince. He had already fought for me, and won! And no, he didn’t slay a fire-breathing dragon to get to me, but he was nailed to a cross, died, and rose again, just to win my heart!

He, and he alone, helped me to realize that my brokenness is what makes me beautiful. He, and he alone, has changed me from the inside out. He has shown me love, compassion, understanding, hope, healing. He has proven his faithfulness. He never walks out on me. He makes me feel wanted. He shows me real love. Because he is God.

He, and he alone, makes me beautiful. He did this by making me new. He broke down my walls, scooped up my hurt, pain, confusion and brokenness and said, “LET ME GET RID OF THIS FOR YOU. YOU DON’T NEED IT ANYMORE. YOU’VE GOT ME!” He came in, riding on a white horse, my knight in shinning armor! My prince. My superman. My hero. He took it all away for me. Tossed it aside. And what he gave me in return was healing, faith, hope, and LOVE. He showed me HIS purpose for my life.. a life with meaning. A beautiful life.

It amazes me how one man can take such an ugly person and transform that into beauty. Jesus is no hairstylist or fashionista. But man, does he know how to work a chisel! Every day, he chisels away at my heart. He chips away at the old and ugly parts, causing the hurt, pain, confusion, bitterness and anger to just fall away. He reshapes it into a heart that KNOWS his love and can therefore SHOW his love. He has turned my heart into one who loves orphans, the homeless, the poor, the lost, the hurting, the confused, the broken, those who have yet to let their walls down and let him in! He chisels at my heart to the point where it cannot deny that it belongs to him! He chisels at my heart and makes it more and more beautiful each time!!! He is making me new.

He has awoken a Sleeping Beauty!

Let Jesus awaken the Sleeping Beauty in You!

I used to be an empty flower bed… dry dirt on the ground with no cloud in the sky to water me. But then, he poured his love down on me, and out of the dirt, I rose to be a flower. A strong, faithful, beautiful flower.

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All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us