Month: March 2014

Renewed and Restored

purpose

March is known as the month where spring emerges; where grass starts to turn green, where flowers are in bloom and the leaves of trees begin to appear. March is kind of like the renewing season, a restoring of what once was but went away and is new again.

For me, March has always been a great month of celebration. When I was in high school, March was the month that my now-husband asked me to be his girlfriend. Mind you, it took him 45 minutes, standing in my parents’ driveway, to ask me to be his girlfriend. And the fact that I was in the shower when he arrived (I had a banquet to attend that evening) and I stood in that driveway with him with wet hair, no makeup and mismatched clothes, and he still asked me anyway…yep he’s a keeper!! 🙂

Two years after we had been dating, another great thing happened in March. His little sister was born on our exact anniversary (bet you thought I was going to say we got married…haha…keep reading).

Looking many years into the future, another great day in March arrived…our wedding day! We got married 4 days before the date of our dating anniversary. And last weekend, we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. I’ll let you do the math on that one to see how long we’ve really been together!! 🙂

So for us, March has always been a great time of year, with many things to celebrate. But last year, March took on a whole new meaning for us. Added to our month of great memories and celebration came sadness and disappointment. Last March was when we found out we were pregnant and then three short weeks later, found out we were no longer pregnant. What was once a great month had been shattered and our hearts broken into thousands of little pieces.

A year has now passed and the healing continues. I look back on this past week with excitement for our anniversary and all that we’ve accomplished in our 11 years of marriage. But I also look at this past week with a sadness that still resonates in my spirit; a longing for a hole to be filled and for something to take away the void that remains. The time is ripe for God to renew and restore us and for our broken hearts to be mended in a way that only God can.

As this blog was percolating in my brain this morning, the scripture I kept hearing in my spirit is found in Malachi 3:10. This scripture is mostly known for the references to tithing, but this morning I kept hearing over and over this one specific part, “…and see if I don’t open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams.” POUR OUT BLESSINGS. This is going to be my scripture of renewing, of restoration…God is going to pour out his blessings on me and my husband and the family that He is going to give us and it will be BEYOND OUR WILDEST DREAMS!

The loss will always remain and the memory will always be there, but I stand at the ready for God to pour out His blessings on us that will be beyond our wildest dreams.

The Best Version of Me

Quick Note: Because I’ve been so busy and haven’t had time to sit down and think of something original (okay, original for this blog!), I’m going to share with you a blog I wrote for our church’s women’s ministry blog.  I really liked it and got some great compliments on it, so thought it best to share again.  And, if you’d like to check out our women’s ministry blog, you can find it at http://www.cherishedministriesfcfc.com (shameless plug, yes I know!).

At the beginning of this year, I decided I needed to make a few changes for a healthier me.  I didn’t refer to these as “resolutions” as those tend to be broken by mid-January.  I chose to refer to my changes as a lifestyle change.  The two areas I decided to focus on were my eating habits (health) and my weight (fitness).

I’ll say that I completed the month of January by being very consistent in my exercise and eating.  But what I soon realized is that to see the major changes I want to see, it’s going to take me a lot longer to accomplish them than just four weeks.

I’ve been attending a bible-based fitness program for the last several years, so all the encouraging words of my trainers have started to really click in my brain.  Their words have helped me to remember that I need to take this one day at a time.  It took years for my body to look the way it does, so it will take a while for me to get it back to where I want it to be.  There’s no magic pill or overnight drug that will get me there; only determination and consistency on my part to do it day after day, week after week, month after month.

My weight has been a struggle for me for too many years to count.  Even when I was in junior high and high school, I wasn’t happy with my weight.  In junior high, I was tall, but I wore a size 12-14.  Although I never looked fat because of my height, I never felt skinny either. Then, in high school, thanks to the fact I didn’t have a good, healthy body image, I lost a bunch of weight and then I was too skinny.

The weight has always been my biggest foe when it comes to being happy with me, but it also stems from not being confident in whom God created me to be.  I’d like to share a few scriptures with you that have helped me find the best version of me.

Psalm 139:14 says, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…”  And Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created human beings in his own image.  In the image of God he created them…”

I have paired these two scriptures together and have taped them to the mirror in my bathroom.  “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made and created in the image of My Heavenly Father.”  It helps for me to see this every day; and several times a day.

The scripture helps me to remember that God doesn’t make mistakes and He didn’t make one when He created me.  I have to remind myself that God created me just the way He wanted me to be.  He. Created. Me.  Me.  Single, solitary Kara Michelle Justice Hyden.  He created me…to look like Him!  Have you ever sat long enough to think about that?  And how amazing that is!?!

Jeremiah 1:5 says, “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.  Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you…”  Before I was ever a thought or a twinkle in my mother’s mind, God already knew me.  He knew what I would look like.  He knew how tall I was going to be.  He knew what specific gifts and talents and abilities He was going to give me.  He knew what special qualities I was going to have that make me unique and like no other person on the planet.  And He knew that I would often struggle with my weight and outward appearance.  But He created me anyway.  God did this.  For me! Because He loves me!!

A few years ago I read an article about liking myself for the person God created me to be.  In the article, the author challenged the readers to make a list of 10 things they like about themselves that have nothing to do with their outward appearance.  I was intrigued by the article and decided to take her up on the challenge.  I thought the list would be hard to make, but it turned out to be a pretty easy challenge.  And I have my list taped to my bathroom mirror so I see it every single day.  And to make it even better, I attached the scriptures I mentioned above to it, so I can fully soak in God’s unconditional love and the good things about myself.  For the sake of space and droning on and on, I’ve only listed 5 of the 10 things on my list.  Here’s what I have:

  1. My husband loves me and calls me the love of his life
  2. I’m great at organizing and planning
  3. My friends like my sense of humor
  4. Everyone can depend on me
  5. God created me in His image

This helps me to remember that even though I may not always like the way I look on the outside or how my clothes fit; there are good things about me that I do like.  And it’s nice to have a visual reminder in the one place I see myself every day…my mirror.

While I will be continuing on with the lifestyle changes that I set out to accomplish in January, no matter what happens, God loves me always; He created me in His image; and this will always be the best version of me.