From the Archives... Cherished

It's my birthday.  

So, of course this little Bloggy Break is still on, but I wanted to take a moment and reflect... repost, if you will, a post (Pt 1&2) that stemmed from a Five Minute Friday that stirred up the story of my birth.  And, of course, because it is better to give than to receive, I am also including a link at the end with an invitation to join me in letting our sisters in Africa know that they, too, are so very Cherished!


This... from the Archives:


Five Minute Friday - CHERISHED

{GO}

Cherished... just pondering the word itself stirs up Flashbacks of how I have always known it.  I am cherished.  I have always known it, but I haven't always felt it.  No, there are memories that come in a flash that feel anything but... it feels lonely, dark, unprotected, forgotten, wounded, invisible... it feels like truth, but I know it's not.  I haven't always remembered that though.  Somehow, it's easy to forget.  But in the deep of who I am, and in knowing Whose I am, I know.

Flashbacks come in the story of my miraculous surviving of birth and blood battling and too many 'She's not gonna make it through the night' warnings... of how tears and pleadings came 6 weeks after I first gasped for air and finally... FINALLY my skin was soothed and held by the one who pushed me here.  I believe it was in that mothers' touch that healing first rushed in. I knew... I was cherished.  From that moment on, it was spoken over me, whispered to me at bedtime, said about me... "God has saved this one... She has purpose.  She is cherished."

Things can be said about you, but still life unfolds and reality can come crashing in - but how many times is reality not real? Good and bad spilled out around me, from within me, and I grew... There were moments when I remembered, but months when I did not. And then, suddenly, I came face to Face with the One who cherishes me most... and somehow I fell madly in love with my husband and my Lord at the same time and I had never felt such power in the true Truth of how I was cherished.  Again... romance ebbs and flows and motherhood can rob you of focusing on more than your own heart beating outside of your chest and religion can bind you and use you and you can reach the end of being tired of being tired.  You can so easily forget.

It's not in your doing... it's in your being... and always - no matter WHAT you do or be... you are cherished!
Yes, you! Always!

{STOP}

I am so wanting to continue this line of thinking... of revelation... of remembering! So I think I will refer to this post as Part 1... and write on! 

--

(Part 2)

Do you know -really KNOW, that you are cherished?  Because I can assure you without an ounce of hesitation that you are! Oh, how you are!  Join me in traveling through flashbacks... seeing how He has loved you all along the way to here!

My prayer is that you DO know... REALLY know, my friend, that you are cherished! I have no doubts about it!  No hesitations... there are no questions I must ask first, no hoops to jump through... no qualifications you must strive to meet beforehand.  No.  Right here.  Right now.  YOU are cherished... all of you - the good and the bad... the cleaned up parts and the hidden messes... the you that you pretend to be, and the you that you are trying to escape from! All of you is cherished by all of Him!  It's true! If it weren't true, trust me, I could not walk in such bold confidence of it for myself!

As I mentioned on Friday... I too have Flashbacks... some good, yes. I was blessed to have someone whisper to me in the dark of night that I was destined... saved for a purpose... cherished.  But I also have some memories that want to scream out that this is not the truth! I have had dark seasons when "Cherished" was not what labeled me or gave me identity.  That was not a word in my vocabulary nor an emotion of security that I was privy to.

I am like you... I have failed.  I have tried my best and come up short.  I have clawed my way out of pits too deep and too dark to believe that any one... Any. One. - could cherish me.  I have put on a smile and spoken a "Fine" and faked my way through too many days to keep track of... when all along I knew - even if no one else could see through me - I KNEW that I was anything but fine. Yes... these Flashbacks try to grab hold of my attention and once again cover me in labels of 'Not Good Enough'... of 'Never Gonna Measure Up'... of 'Damaged'... 'Broken'... 'Not Worth the Trouble.'

It's tempting... with all their bright lights and smoke screens to turn my eyes to take them straight on. However, the One who knows me best and Cherishes all of these parts of me has captured my heart and even when the flashbacks, and the voices in my head, and the world around me may be fighting for my focus - it's HIM that my eyes stay fixed on!

Flashbacks come as I rocked my little one... cherished - that is what SHE was... still is - even when I could not believe it for myself!  Oh how I purposed in my heart that she would always know this!  That it would be truth to her, and always True. But like it did for me, life unfolds and 'reality' can feel so real... despite our biggest wishes and best words, she went through her own struggle with knowing, but not remembering. How it can break our hearts when we so clearly see the Gold and the Glory in a precious one... a friend, spouse, daughter, son... and yet they are blinded by the enemy and cannot see anything worthy of Cherishing.

You see, I first tried to believe it on my own... to freely receive it when I first heard Him say so.  It wasn't long after, however, that I began to feel like I could make it MORE true... that I could do something to bring increase... and if that was true - then surely I could do things that could make it LESS true... cause decrease too. I see it so clearly now as a slight-of-hand trick of the enemy but at the time, it felt like there was no other way.

It was not until I doubted it all together and gave up hope when He came beside me, and grabbed my hand... I heard Him speak my name with so much love that it took my breath away... and in an instant, I knew! I remembered! It's not in my doing... it's in my being... in my becoming.  He cherishes all of me  - not because of anything I do or don't do... but because of who He made me to BE! I am His Beloved... His cherished one... His Bride.

He had been prompting me to read through the book of Hosea in the midst of all my trying to Earn His love... I ignored and put it off time and time again thinking, "I know that story... I have read that book..." I was wanting something New... something personal... but when He laid down beside me and simply surrounded me with His mercy, He spoke softly once again.  "Now will you go read Hosea?" I could not get to my Bible fast enough to drink it in... it's when I got to Hosea chapter 2 that I was undone in all the right ways!  I encourage you to go... read it all.. and find the power of the Truth within the power of His Word.  It's right there... and if it's for me, then I promise you that it is for you!

We are... no matter how we FEEL or what WE think... we are His Beloved and because of who HE is (not who WE are) and because of Whose we are (not WHAT we've done)... He is All. In.  He is madly, passionately, unabashedly, unfathomably in love with us!

So if ever you begin to doubt it... or find yourself working for it, simply this: Cry out "My Husband!" and watch and see how Cherished you are!

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,Will bring her into the wilderness,And speak comfort to her.I will give her her vineyards from there,And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;She shall sing there,As in the days of her youth,As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.“And it shall be, in that day,”Says the Lord,“That you will call Me ‘My Husband,And no longer call Me ‘My Master,’…… “I will betroth you to Me forever;Yes, I will betroth you to MeIn righteousness and justice,In lovingkindness and mercy;I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,And you shall know the Lord.”                                               ~ Hosea 2:14-16;19-20 (The Message)

Lastly, I am inviting you to join me in showing our sister in South Africa that they, too, are Cherished... that the way they pour out Love to their Community matters, and it is making a difference and we have an opportunity to make all their work a little easier and really, who among us doesn't want that?

For more info, and to join me in giving, go here to help build a Community Center in Maubane, South Africa:

P.S.  I'm linking up with:

Jennifer Dukes Lee for #TellHisStory

Holley Gerth for #CoffeeforYourHeart

and Holly Barrett for #TestimonyTuesday