So I forgot that today is Thursday. I mean, I knew it was Thursday, but my car died this week so our schedule has been all wonky and I just forgot that it was blogging day.
Anyway! I recently had a conversation with my children that really underscored the gulf between our upbringing. We were talking about how you know if God is saying something to you, so I was sharing about my Bible study from that morning. The thing that really hit me out of my Bible study at the time was a statement by Beth Moore: “Love cannot be offered when we perceive ourselves as unloved.” She finished off by saying that we need to practice the mindset of being profusely loved by God (Children of the Day, 21).
I really love that idea–that it’s a matter of practice. I’ve been trying to view my circumstances through that lens. For instance, I could panic over my car dying. But I’ve actually been feeling pretty chill this week. God can totally take care of our car situation. And because He loves us profusely, He will.
So I shared all that with my girls and their reaction was basically “Well, duh! Of course you’re loved. Why would you need to practice thinking that?” It really made me quite cheerful that my children have no doubts about their belovedness to the point that they can’t even fathom having doubts. I realize those will probably come up when they hit puberty, but it’s nice that they’re grounded for now.
Belovedness really does change things. It’s like my tai chi instructor likes to say all the time: “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” When I live out of the knowledge of my belovedness, I don’t have to worry about pretty much anything. I’m pretty sure one of the main differences between trauma and adventure is knowing that the event will have a happy ending. Because we’re God’s beloved children, we can know that whatever circumstances we’re experiencing, they have a happy ending.
What circumstances are you going through that you can utilize to practice the mindset of being profusely loved?
This was timely encouragement for me, Liz. Thank you! I’m being challenged to trust God in the area of finances these days. I think it does get a little easier after seeing Him provide over and over again through the years (although it’s still easy to worry, for some reason!).
And it makes me smile too, to hear that your children know in the core of their being that they are LOVED. Although that doesn’t surprise me too much, knowing you and Evan as their parents. 🙂
Sweet! It’s hard, isn’t it? I was so challenged realizing that if I don’t change my attitude about finances, I’ll be just like those people I know who are still super stressed about them after decades of seeing God provide. You know how terrified I am of getting stagnant. I recently realized I need to redefine success in the area of finances. Somehow I ended up with this definition that involves always sticking to your budget–and always having categories where you’re pinching pennies vs. being able to buy what you need–and yet also having money saved up where you can afford to not work for a couple years. We’d do our budget and I’d rip my hair out every month feeling like a total failure because I couldn’t keep our groceries under the family average for two people, despite the fact that we have four. Or I’d categorize things like “fixing the car” or “buying shoes”(as in my usual one pair/year) as “wants” vs. “needs.” I’m slowly redefining financial success as being intentional with our money, which may mean we spend more than we’ve budgeted if something comes up–like our car dying. But it doesn’t mean we’re failures. It doesn’t mean we’re not good stewards.
I know! Isn’t it so sweet?! Makes me feel like we’re really breaking this cycle.
And I just realized that I forgot to say the most important re-defintion–the “why.” I’ve always tried to budget because for as long as I can remember I’ve had a lot of fear around money–fear that we wouldn’t be able to pay the bills, fear that something would happen and we wouldn’t be able to fix it (cars, house repairs, health issues, etc., etc.). So, success for me looks like budgeting because I love God and want to be faithful, rather than letting my fear run the show.