Return to the Girl You Once Were

Don’t allow individuals or circumstances to turn your heart cold. At your core you are loving, kind and wise. How do I know that? Because as dearly loved children of the most high God, you have been given the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). He has taken out your heart of stone and replaced it with a soft fleshy pliable loving heart (Ezekial 36:26). Traumas come, heartbreak lurks, betrayals taunt yet in all things we are victorious (Romans 8:37). Greater is the God IN us then the sin laced pain out in the world waiting to pounce (1 John 4:4).

Dear sister in Christ please know that the ultimate response to anyone or thing seeking to derail your journey is to look to the one whose love for you is never ending and enduring. Draw upon His power by looking that person or thing squarely in the “eye” and understanding that they are not worth denying your identity in Christ by growing cold, by trading insults, by behaving in ways unworthy of your calling. They have already hurt you don’t give them more power by allowing them to CHANGE you. Give that thing to God. There’s nothing you can do in your own power to truly change a person or uproot a toxic situation. Allow yourself to be free of that burden sis. You weren’t meant to carry it (1 Peter 5:7). 

Does that mean we should resign ourselves to mistreatment or toxic and dysfunctional people and circumstances? Absolutely not. It means that we should release the burden of them unto God. When we do that it allows us the peace of mind to make better decisions and erect proper boundaries --not in anger-- but in wisdom. We are called to love others in spite of their sin. It takes grace to do it.  We ourselves are not always easy to love. Yet that is the grace we all seek from others. The grace Christ has freely given us in spite of ourselves.

Recently, in my own life, I've noticed that I have allowed OFFENSE to turn my heart cold. Words that would make me cringe in times past; were now rolling off my tongue with ease. Why? Because of the facade of self protection. I have grown weary of continuing to be vulnerable in the face of indifference.  I weep for the woman I have become. Who is she? And why is she so angry and distrustful? PAIN ...But God, because of his gentle tugs on my heart, I’m returning -- albeit slowly -- to the girl I once was. Trusting, loving, joyful... No devil in hell will be handed the power to change me again. Cheers to that. 

With love and reflection,

Ogo