Ready to swap “BLAH” for “WOW” for your life, friend?

I made this1 quilt.

Yup.

“Who made this quilt?” our friend asked, on visiting our lake cabin and seeing such stunning beauty in this fish quilt that her eyes could no longer focus on anything else, including the picturesque beauty trying to capture her attention outside the window, the sun2 glimmering on the water of the lake.

Thank you for liking me! I like you too! Let’s journey together!

“Oh, I did,” I mentioned casually, humbly.

“YOU?”

I tried not to be offended at her incredulous astonishment, as if it was IMPOSSIBLE that I could produce something like this.

“Of course!” I tried to divert her embarrassing incredulity with more of my humbly low self-assessment.

She stuttered and spat in an effort to talk, unsure how to respond.

Which brings us to THE POINT of today’s newsletter.

I’m amazing.

I am ALSO self-assured enough to admit, however much this admission is a drop in the ocean of my grandiosity, a BIT to my perceived or actual faults. (What my therapist called, “Neuroses.” Whatever!)

So that day, a few months later3, I let the judgments of other people affect my actual or perceived self-esteem.

You see, some people think that I waste every day of my life. For example, homeschooling our kids has much less value in our society than it could, as mentioned HERE, where every person I met at the party after I began homeschooling my children desperately needed to speak to someone ELSE at the party. When I had a culturally successful career, people gathered around ME (!) at the party to hear my stories. I will vulnerably admit to not being perfect soon (I’M GETTING THERE, OKAY?), but I’m still building myself up first.

It’s a well-worn strategy that works for me.

That day, about a year ago, I had been visiting a new friend’s house, and it was repleef4 with beauty created by inhabitants of the house who love to make things. There were improvements everywhere we looked, which spoke to the talent and eye for beauty of both of these remarkable people. You know the type – They’re sooo annoying that they make us feel immature! I’m sure you can relate!

My editor says I have to be specific here, so imagine this:

• handmade railings with wooden details that a machine could never create
• bits of driftwood carefully crafted into various animals as décor on the table (Made by THEM – the jerks!)
• beautifully handmade curtains (I made curtains once! Just saying)
• gorgeous quilts reminiscent of nature scenes and other indescribable beauty adorning every wall

And THE POINT of today’s Substack “Newsletter5.”

I found that my self-esteem had drastically plummeted after encountering this house.

“Why don’t I have quilts on every wall?” I wondered to myself.

My husband and I “do other stuff,” which is another way of saying we waste our time playing video games, and so our house doesn’t look quite as decorated with handmade beauty!

To add insult to injury, throughout the previous year and after this visit to the home, I continued to feel a nagging urge to write.

But at the end of every day of writing, I don’t have a beautiful new sculpture for my coffee table.

So, after I finished comparing myself to them and firmly grounded myself in a culture of competitively creating art (This is the culture that I personally value and gravitate towards), I was a lowly worm in the food pyramid of that worldview.

Until the next day.

Until I felt God nudging me to set my sights in the direction He was looking.

But that conversation is for next time.

THE POINT is that sometimes we don’t set our sights for ourselves in quite the right place.

And so, how do we become amazing? We trust God and follow Him on the adventure He has for our lives. True, we may not be amazing according to how others (I.e., quilt culture) see us, but if God and our Mom like us, isn’t that what matters, friend?

You’re welcome!

Good luck!

As the song below sings “show me who I am and who I’m made to be”, consider asking God how you may have inadvertently aligned your perceived value with what our culture values. How does God see you, friend? And in what direction, even if it’s a bit off-center, is He asking you to travel?

God, help us all to have eyes for you alone, we pray.

You will show me the way of life,
granting me the joy of your presence
and the pleasures of living with you forever

The Message

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Photo Credit – A Quilt! (Not My Quilt – See Footnote 1) by Linus Belanger on Unsplash

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Thank you for liking me! I like you too! Let’s journey together!

1 Actually I can’t find the picture I took of the quilt I made but who says I’m NOT organized?

2 Or Son – This type of beauty reminds me of its Creator

3 Unlike every other day when I am full of wisdom

4 Fancy word! – Wait, my editor says that’s NOT a word? What does she know! I like that word so it stays!

5 Ha! This is news? Haha!

I was swimming that day when God seemed to whisper in my ear, touching a deeper place in my heart with the words that called me to correct the direction of my life by only a degree.

This is what happened.

I was mindlessly living my life, as we all do, being blown by the wind of the general opinions and attitudes of others, as the hidden currents of our culture pull us. (And by the way, if you think you are immune to the pushes and pulls of your current culture, that is the very air you breathe, then HAHAHAHAHAH! We laugh at you!) The only thing more ridiculous than being blown by the wind of the general opinions and attitudes of the culture you live in is NOT KNOWING you are being blown by the wind and of your culture!

THE POINT is that we are all shaped by the voices of others that enter our minds unobserved, and that God’s voice serves as a salve, as medicine, correcting our lives by a degree or two, if our ears are open to hearing Him convicting us.

This is what happened to me recently.

I had been swimming that day, as I do in that lake in the summer.

Usually, I see one fish, maybe two, as I swim along before I tire.

But that day I saw a school of fish, something rare in this lake. “Wow!” I thought. When I saw another school of fish, a large fish, and another large fish, and then two more huge schools of fish, I began to think, “This is VERY, VERY unusual.”

Literally hundreds more fish passed me that day, until I finally asked, “God, do you want to speak to me?” through this very unusual situation.

And He did speak. And His voice healed my heart. But that is for next time because my time is up again, and as mentioned HERE, your attention span is much too short (No! It’s NOT that I get distracted and forget what I’m even writing about – of COURSE NOT!)

God uses anything, everything, to grab our attention – poke and startle us a little- if our eyes, ears, and hearts are open to this possibility.

How is God trying to wake you lately, friend?

And so, the best way to course correct to avoid walking off the cliff by the invisible wind of culture? Clean out your ears to the voice of God, friend. He’s already speaking. We simply need to find our ears on the ground and reattach them to hear what He is saying—more on this next time.

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Photo Credit – Will He Fall Off The Cliff Or Receive Help? by Felipe Souza on Unsplash

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Thank you for liking me! I like you too! (Proven HERE, HERE and HERE!) Let’s journey together!