For the Ladies

I don't know about you ladies, but man, I can be swept up in finding my worth from men. Don't get me wrong, I have come a long way from my early twenties. I still cringe when I think back to times in college when I aimlessly tried to find my value from a guy that could care less. But even after a long time of processing and learning, I can still fall into that same ol' trap. Am I standing alone on this one ladies?

It's even in the Bible in Genesis. It says "Yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." There is the feminist in me that wants to scream at this text and say that women never struggle with this and that we can't let a man tell us what to do. But deep down, time after time, I think we all find ourselves looking for value from the opposite sex.

The thing is, I don't think guys are fully aware just how much they can affect a girl. For instance, lets say you have a dead beat dad. He's never there for his daughter, lets her down again and again, and spends his time selfishly instead of devoting time to her. This girl, from the time she hits puberty, will settle for any male attention she can find, usually not the good kind. It's up to her dad to teach her the way she should be treated. She'll have bad boyfriend after bad boyfriend. It's a bad cycle that isn't fixed easily.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately ( yes even in the midst of processing Africa) I think Jesus has a lot to say about it. When God, the creator of the universe, tells YOU, you are LOVED and BEAUTIFUL, how can we rely on a mere human's view of us. It says in Psalm 45 that God is "enthralled by our beauty." I've been questioning whether or not I really grasp that concept. The God of the universe finds me beautiful? He loves me so much he died for me? He'll never let me down? You mean He loves me no matter how much I screw up?

I think once we grasp these truths, no matter how you were treated by men in your life, we start to realize just how much worth we have. We stop settling for mediocre. We find value from the Lord and it shines on everyone else around us. We start to attract people that have that same type of God-given confidence inside them. It's a beautiful thing.

It's the moment you see men just as human, faults and all, that things start to change. You realize they are your brothers in Christ and that deep down they struggle just like you do. You take them off the pedestal and love them for them.

Some people tell me that I'm too picky and that I just don't date anymore. It's not that I don't want to meet someone...its just that I don't want to settle. Maybe, its the fact that I've come to love and appreciate the value Jesus has given me as a daughter of Christ. How can you date just anyone when you know that you are deeply loved by Jesus? It just doesn't work that way.