Please Love Me!

Please love me the way I am.

I am lonely and broken, helpless and afraid.

I am a pleaser only to find love.

I smile and comply because I want to be accepted.

I don’t speak my mind, for I am afraid.

I don’t want to be myself. No one will like me.

I’ve been betrayed. I’ve been rejected.

I cry out, “Please someone want me!”

Notice my pain.

Help me to see that I am not alone.

Let me see my worth.

It’s not based on what I do, or who I am.

I am accepted, loved and belong in one place.

Help Your love to be enough.

Meghan

Our Ultimate Need Filler

God has made us to be individuals who have inner needs. Our shortcomings, desires, worries, insecurities, are all present for a purpose. They are unique because they were made by Him, and can only be met by Him. God wants our needs to draw us closer to a deeper relationship, and may I say, a dependence upon Him. He wants to be our Need-Filler, for everything. If God intended for us to be filled somewhere else, by someone else, then we wouldn’t need Him. The Lord uses circumstances in our lives and positive people to show us that He cares about us. Ultimately, only God can satisfy all of the needs of our heart.

The Bible says…”The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.” Isaiah 58:11

We have been created with three God-given needs. These essential inner needs are:

To Be Loved- to know that someone loves you unconditionally.

To Matter-  to know that our lives have meaning and purpose.

To Be Secure-  to feel accepted, safe and that you belong.

God has already provided a way for us and has taken care of our ultimate needs. He says:

You Are Loved- “I have loved you with an everlasting love: I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3

You Matter- “For I know the plans I have for you, ‘declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

You Are Safe- “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you, He will never leave you, nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8

God makes His plans clear to us:

“My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus.”

He is our Ultimate Need Filler. He wants to put all your broken pieces back together. Hug Him today. He is waiting for you.

Meghan

Finding Kisses From Heaven- You Are Beautiful Just The Way You Are

I watched the Miss Universe Pageant last night, as I have done since I was a little girl. I have always loved to see the extremely beautiful women and wish that I was one of them up there on that stage. Last night though, I thought something different. As I was checking off the names of the ones that I thought would be the winner it came to me. Only one person will win. This means that 87 of them will go home feeling like failures. Were they not good enough?

I was ranked the 10th prettiest girl in my high school. This knowledge should have made me feel special, but it didn’t. I always wondered if I wore makeup, or more expensive clothing would I have been deemed prettier? If I hung out with the “in” crowd, or had gone to parties would more people have voted for me? I hated wondering and not feeling good enough.

As I have gotten older I’ve realized that beauty comes from within. It is not the stuff that you put on that matters. God looks at the heart, not at your clothes labels. I feel beautiful now when I spread smiles and hug the down trodden. I wish I would have known that back then.

Unfortunately the “I’m not good enough” feelings still come back though, just in different ways. I feel that I should be doing more, that I am not successful enough. I look at my accomplishments and frown. The devil gets us where it hurts the most. I know that I just have to look to God. He is the reason that I am beautiful and talented, kind and funny. He gives me my worth. It is not what I do, or the who that I am. It is the WHOSE I am that matters.

I loved this video. This man is inspiring. To have so little, and yet be so uplifting. If he can do it, I can too. I will be grateful for what God has given me today. I will lift up my hands and say, “Thank you God for making me beautiful, just the way I am.”

Meghan

The Broken Beautiful

I reblogged this from a friend, but every time I tried to play it it wouldn’t play. So I am redoing it separately. I wanted everyone to hear this song. It is beautiful. Meghan

Finding Kisses From Heaven- Day 9

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

God does not waste out hurts!

Someone said this to me last night and I stewed on it all evening. The thought of God being a recycler, a penny pincher of every part of my life, including the sad, awful and painful parts is very interesting to me. I know that God made me just the way I am, with all my perceived faults and flaws. I know that He doesn’t make mistakes and that He knows what He is doing. So when bad things happen can I sit back and be Ok, knowing that God knows what He is doing? Can I be happy, assured that He won’t waste any opportunities to bring His love into my life?

I have sat and complained the normal complaints of  “Why me,” to my Lord. I’ve been so bold as to tell Him that He better make lemonade out of these lemons in front of me and quick. I have felt in many ways a lost Israelite wandering in the desert, not knowing where I am going and wondering how much longer till I reach the “promised land.”

Aren’t we all this way? Aren’t we all roaming around wondering when the good things will be heaped upon us? When will I be happy? When will I be successful? When will I find love?

I know that God is not taunting me with a cookie over my head. He does not smile knowing that He is withholding something from me that I want so desperately. Instead, He is saying let’s make cookies and eat some cookie dough (not worried about the raw eggs) while we are waiting. He has blessing for me during my waiting periods.

The Japanese have a form of art that takes broken ceramic and glues them back together again with gold seams. This reforms their brokenness into beauty. They do not disguise the cracks, but highlight them in shimmering gold. These reformed ceramic works of art represent a pricelessness that is acquired by overcoming suffering.

They believe that with maturity and the struggles of life that we become the masterpieces that we were intended to be.

I’ve had many broken dishes that I have thrown away. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t have gold laying around to mend things. In America, if you break something you throw it away and go buy something new. This is so far from the way the Lord deals with our lives. He actually waits for us to be broken so that He can use us.

1 Corinthians 1:27 says that He chooses the weak and broken, “Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that “He makes everything beautiful in His time.” I am sure that the word everything includes me.

God has plenty of gold to mend my brokenness. Doesn’t it say that the roads of Heaven are paved in gold? He waits for me to give Him my broken pieces so that He can use them, and in the process make me beautiful.

God will not let my hurts be wasted. He will not toss me aside. He is in the process of making you and me to be His masterpieces.

Today’s blessing- I have broken pieces that I am handing to the Lord. I wait excitedly to see what He will make of them.

Meghan

Abused Women- Bethany

I had this story up on my blog when a few women protested that they didn’t want their stories up for all to see. I immediately took them down. Bethany came to me and told me that I could put her story out there. Hopefully it helps someone. If you have a story, or knows someone who does and would like to have it told, contact me at findinghopessunshine@aol.com

or http://www.findinghopes.sunshine@facebook.com

Let Finding Hope’s Ministry help you tell your story. You have a voice!  Meghan

Bethany-

Why didn’t someone tell me then (or did they) what I know now? Would I have listened? Would I have understood the importance of it? Could I have felt the intense pain then that one can feel when you go through it? Why did God make us to desire and long to be needed and loved? I missed all that special blessing that I could have had if I had done it God’s way instead of doing it my way.

Many of my friends got married right out of high school. I wasn’t even dating. College came and went. Finally with blind eyes and getting someone addicted sexually the wedding bells did ring. I wanted to be the perfect wife. Life seemed to be great. The only thing I felt was that he was not interested in knowing who I really was. He didn’t have time to listen to me.

Everything was his way. I, the dutiful wife went along with what he said, never to rock the boat! We never had a fight. I always did as he wanted.

Then 12 ½ years and 3 ¾ kids later, he left! Yes, I was pregnant with baby # 4. Lip stick on his collar told the tail on him. He was off with one of his many girl friends that happened over the next 21 years. At first I waited and longed for him to come home. Then later I tried to do the divorce many times over the years. Each time he would get angry with me that it was not a good time for his business financially. Oh the threats would come, not in so many words, but in inferred statements. Would he really burn the house down, or hurt the kids, or take them from me? Or could he kill me in his fit of rage as when he would scream at me. Not only was I afraid of him, I was also afraid of me not being able to make it on my own.

My advice would be to anyone going through what I went through would be to lean on God totally. He will get you through whatever you have to go through. Once you know that there is no reconciliation get the divorce over with. Don’t wait 21 years like I did. Get the protection you need to get through it. Get an emotional support system. Remember you are special and God loves you!

Bethany

The Beauty of Brokenness

        BEAUTY FROM BROKEN GLASS
                                                                        by Mary Beth Berry

   Often we have heard that God makes beauty from ashes – that He uses the hard times in our lives to
mold us and purify us just like a goldsmith might heat up the gold to burn the impurities out.   Those hard
times may or may not have resulted from direct choices that we made.  However we usually want to ask
the question, “Why?”  We ask, “What should I have done differently to prevent this pain?  I thought I was
following God’s leading but I must have been mistaken.  Now how do I trust myself to be listening and
hearing God’s leading in my life?”  We seem to think that if things are going well for us, we must be in
avoiding pain and discomfort.
   God, however seems to be interested in developing our character and deep dependence on Him which
will in turn develop in us deep strength and peace that cannot be shaken.  He is interested in
transforming us into reflections of Himself and His most beautiful glory.
   Let’s consider a beautiful glass vase.  The vase represents my life.  I know that God created the vase
according to His design and His purpose.  For much of my life, I have been trying to cooperate with God
as He is making me into a beautiful vase.  A vessel filled with His Holy Spirit that can be poured out as
love to others.  I understand that I am supposed to take care of myself as His vessel and to appreciate
what God has made.  But life comes along and the vase that is my life develops a crack.  Maybe the crack
is from an internal weakness or from a direct hit from outside.  All that was held within leaks out and I try
to hide the unsightly crack.  I had wanted to be a beautiful, useful vessel for God.  Now I am useless for
holding liquids and am marred.  However, I can now be recycled as a great candle holder.  The light from
the candle of the Holy Spirit within me can be seen all the better through my “crack.”   I’m a bit
disappointed.  I wanted to be the perfect, elegant vase.  But, I guess I’ll settle for being a “cracked pot”
with God’s light shining through me.  However, more and more cracks keep coming.  As I get older, I
notice cracks that were there all the time, but I never had the eyes to see them.  This does not seem to be
fair!  I thought the idea was to become more like Jesus over time, not to become more broken and
“aged.”  Sometimes, shattered is a better word than cracked to describe the vase of my life. A glass vase
completely and totally shattered, nothing left of the original vase at all, just the colored glass or pottery in a
heap on the floor.
   Maybe this is when God does His most amazing work.  Maybe God is up to something totally different.  
Maybe instead of fixing the old broken vase, He is planning to make something more amazing and more
beautiful than we could have ever imagined.  He is not likely to force those shattered pieces from our
hand.  But if we will hand them over to Him, make the broken pieces of our lives our offering to Him,
maybe, just maybe, He will glean great joy in transforming us. Think about a beautiful mosaic or the most
beautiful stained glass window you’ve ever seen.  Awesome beauty!!  And it is all the more lovely with the
light shining through!  Maybe the broken pieces of my life will get to be part of a beautiful creation that only
God can imagine.  Can I trust Him to make the best decision of how to use my offering of shattered glass
in His creation?  Can I trust Him to value each piece and to truly understand the pain that comes with the
offering?  Can I release all the questions and bitterness about the fate of my original vase and trust Him
to transform my life into whatever He thinks is best rather than what I have envisioned for myself?  These
are really hard questions and sometimes take quite a bit of wrestling to settle.  But peace finally comes
with relinquishing the end results to the One who created us in the first place.  Maybe some of us will get
to be lovely vases that remain intact.  But others, who have been shattered, might look forward to being
transformed into stained glass, a part of an amazing work that God is doing.  
   Might it also be possible that the work God is planning to do with us and in us is more important than
our avoidance of pain?   We will not get to experience the joy of cooperating with Him if we blame Him,
resist Him, and fight against Him.  I do not personally believe God inflicts pain on us (or throws the vase
to shatter it) but I do believe that He is powerful enough to prevent it.  When He chooses not to prevent it, it
must be that He has a better plan, a plan for transformation.  Remember when the children in The Lion.
Witch and Wardrobe, were asking about the great king Aslan,  “Is He safe?,” they asked.  “No.” was the
response, “But, He is good.”
   So, could it possibly be that when we think we are “in God’s will” and trying with our hearts to honor and
depend on Him, we might still make some decisions that lead to disaster and STILL be in His will? I
think so. Is the depth of our faith measured by the “blessings” in our life or by the lack of pain?  I don’t
think so.  Surely our faith can be strengthened by difficult times but I believe that difficult times can and will
come to those who already have a strong faith.  The blessings that God has in mind for His children that
trust Him through glass shattering times promise to be better than the benefits of having avoided the
glass shattering in the first place.  This is hard to believe in the midst of trouble, but gives me hope when
I get completely beyond repair and feel like shattered glass.
   Our God can be trusted, even when He has allowed life to shattered us, even when we have nothing to
offer but shattered pieces of broken glass.  He is the great transformer. He may chose to use the pieces
of our lives to create the most awesome stained glass window- something beyond my wildest
imagination!!