Criticizing His Creation. . .?


Psalm 139:13-14     You alone created my inner being.  You knitted me together inside my mother.  I will give thanks to you because I have been  so amazingly and miraculously made.  Your works are miraculous, and my soul is fully aware of this.

Psalm 119:73-74     You made me; you created me.  Now give me the sense to follow your commands.  May all who fear you find in me a cause for joy, for I have put my hope in your word.

Isaiah 64:8     Yet you, LORD, are our Father.  We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Jeremiah 29:11   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.

1 Peter 4:10-11     God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.  Use them well to serve one another.  Do you have the gift of speaking?  Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you.  Do you have the gift of helping others?  Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies.  Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.  All glory and power to him forever and ever!  Amen

 

I don’t know if men/boys do this as often as women/girls, but females are continuously comparing themselves with others.  And yes, although I am writing that we have NO business doing that, I still commit this faux pas. . . often.  I am very self critical regarding looks, thoughts, behavior, and whatever.  Absolutely, I know I am not supposed to allow these thoughts to dance throughout my mind, and should stomp on them the instant I am aware of them….but unfortunately those seeds of incompetence, wrong behavior, most anything that is yuck to God that pertains to me, I fret over.  (And yes, after I worry over them for a couple minutes…thankfully now it’s down to a couple minutes instead of hours!).  Then I apologize, remembering He created me just the way He wants me and He loves what He created.  Who am I to argue with Him? !

How insulting to my Creator!   He fashioned, molded me—all of me, yes, even the areas which are bigger than I prefer, and filled me with all the personality traits which are mine, good and bad, things I may detest for a myriad of reasons.   Yet, WHO am I?  And SHAME on me!  And how selfish and self-centered of me to spend that amount of time being critical of “crap” rather than being grateful I am healthy, busy, full of lovely family and friends, independent, and able to make decisions, come and go as I want, and have absolutely NO reason to criticize or envy anything!  Now me writing this, and recognizing that I am wrong with my self judgment, does not necessarily mean that will change.  I think that is one of my huge works in progress.   As I mentioned above–I do spend less time with these poisonous thoughts floating in my head.  I KNOW He values me and I am insulting Him by finding ALL my imagined faults, and focusing on them!!   One of my goals is to write that in 12 months time, as a negative self thought jumps in my head, I mentally boot it right out in less than 5 seconds.  I’ll keep you posted!!

But each time I remind myself He created me, He chose me, He knew me before I was born, then I feel grieved that I have so harshly judged this person—me.  Who do I think I am negatively judging His creation?   So, obviously, I recognized this is wrong, yet my negative self assessment still seems to rear its ugly head and invade my being at times.  I pray it is less often, but I am so disappointed when I recognize I’ve done this AGAIN, that I say things like, “There I go again.  I’m always saying how fat I am, how grumpy I must seem, how lazy I am. . .” 

Then I get hung up on the word ‘always’.  Have I really not decreased my self criticism?  Unsure.  When I catch myself in this critical cycle, I believe the “always” and that it is common behavior.  Do I continually grumble about my failing each time I catch myself doing something silly–stuff that may often just be making me repeat steps, or groan because I forgot something at the store I need to go back for, and I’m sure you have your own lists. But maybe I am making progress, and yet NOT giving myself the praise for recognizing when negative thoughts pop into my brain, so then berate myself over that.   And yet, perhaps I have made improvement.

But women are fierce in comparing themselves to other women over EVERYTHING—looks, personality, weight, different abilities and gifts, and on and on.

Why can we not appreciate that He created us uniquely?  Why can we not treasure that He gave us each certain strengths, gifts, abilities, looks, personality strengths and passions?  Why do our narrow minds think someone else’s life, looks, strengths are better than others?  They are different, not better.

He has made us unique.  Individual.   Strong in our own gift.   He wants us only to be the best each of us can be—the best He designed us to be.  So recognize you are a positive influence in this world, in His world and be thankful He made you the best you can be.  Work to be better for no one else but Him—He loves you just the way He created you, and cheers each of your achievements and what He designed you to accomplish.  We are all made for a purpose.   “God has given each of you a gift according to his great variety of spiritual gifts.”   (1Peter 4:10).  Therefore, we need to recognize how important and wondrously we are made.

It is lies from Satan and our own insecurities that make us self criticize.  But God took special care to form us the way He wanted us to be.  He gave us strengths, dreams, body, physical abilities, emotional attributes, and all sorts of things in JUST THE PATTERN HE wanted us to have, and to use our gifts for His purpose.

Lord, I apologize and confess I repeatedly catch myself criticizing me—Your creation—and comparing to something I see or think is better.  Shame.  You made me perfect for You and according “to the plans I have for you.”  Jeremiah 29:11.  I truly have no right to find fault or criticize Your creation.  I am so sorry;  I pray I interrupt the negative thoughts before they are fully formed so I can send that bum Satan scurrying out of my mind.

Thank You, Lord for the many blessings You have imparted to me—physical, strength, good health, good eyesight and hearing, many family and friends, my enjoyment of reading and writing…..wow! so much.  I am sorry sincerely for finding faults with my imaginary ‘faults.’  There is nothing wrong since You created me as You wanted and needed.   You are wonderful, my Creator to me and ‘mybellaviews.’

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