When I Need Courage to be Myself

Originally published Friday, 21 November 2014.

You are priceless to me. I love you and honor you. So I will trade other people for you. I will give up other nations to save your lives. Isaiah 43:4 (NIV)

Our home went on show this Sunday. 

We spent hours preparing it for strangers to traipse through and put a value on it. 

I’ve been hiding all the ugly. 

Shaking out cushions that have lost their life, putting bins in the cupboard to open up the space, placing shampoo out of sight and appliances in cupboards. 

We’ve been making our house look perfect. 

As I hid the laundry bin in a cupboard I thought about how my instinct is to hide the ugly too. 

My nature is to hide the things about myself that I think other people won’t like. 

I edit myself for others all the time. 

I laugh at what I think others will laugh at. I only wear certain clothes in public because they hide body parts I don’t like. I often hide the “crazy” from people because I think if I show the side of me that dances like a white girl and sings out of tune no one will like me. 

And I spend hours preparing for strangers to put a value on me instead of realizing that

because God is my father, I am priceless. (tweet this)

Maybe I need to write Isaiah 43:4 on the full length mirror in my room, and read it whenever I feel like hiding the ugly:

You are priceless to me.

I love you and honor you.

So I will trade other people for you.

I will give up other nations to save your lives.

It’s pretty crazy to think that God loves me that much, that he loves me just as I am, even with all the ugly hiding in the cupboards. 

Ponder: Are you allowing strangers to put a value on you instead of God? 

Pray: Father, help me to live like I am priceless. (tweet this)

Other places I’ve been writing lately:

I'm also sharing what I learnt about my husband from our first kiss over on Arleen Spenceley’s blog today. Click here to read the post

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- This was orginally published on my site in August 2014. To read more devotionals like this go to ilovedevotionals.com

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