All about the image

I have come to realize more and more that so many of us Christians have become so focused on what's on the outside or what something or someone looks like that we have totally lost focus on what we are called to do which is LOVE.

I'm guilty too, I want to look a certain way, be around certain people, go to certain places but when it really comes down to it I want to be around people that love ME. Not what I look like, not where I live, not where I go to church, not what ministries in the church I'm involved in.  I want people to love ME and to love me unconditionally. 

I'm so tired of trying to fit the status quo.  I/we don't live in this neighborhood, does that make God love me any less?  My/Our kids will go to this school instead of that one, does that make them any less of a person? I'm/We're overweight or even underweight. Does that make God cover His eyes and run screaming the other direction because I'm so unsightly? I/we/he/she may not always smell the best.  Does that make God plug His nose and change seats in church?

So if God sees us as beautiful, created in His image, loveable, worthy to be His child then why on earth do we treat others the way we do? When did we start caring more about perception than actually loving people?  When did we start caring more about what our décor in the church looks like than how we can minister better? When did we start caring more about which kids we want in our Sunday school classes or AWANA groups or church events rather than reaching out to those "unlovable" kids that need love and need to know what real love is? When did we start turning the other direction when a person who may not smell the best or dress the prettiest, or even annoys the mess out of us just wants a little bit of attention but we don't have time for them because they annoy us?

We have become so quick to push people aside and hope that someone else will love them rather than us taking the time to just love them even if it's for a minute, even if it's just to listen to some drawn out sometimes made up story or some silly drama that's going on, just to give them enough time to feel loved for just one minute.  Why do we push aside someone else's feelings and think "they'll get over it."

How often do we stop ourselves and think "how can I show someone love today?" What can I do to reach that person that is ready to give up and are just hoping that "the cool kid" will acknowledge their existence even if for one second.  How can we just look at someone, know they see us looking and we just keep walking by thinking I'm too good to speak to them, they aren't worthy of my attention. What if God did that to us?

I'm so over trying to fit in someone else's box of what I should be.  I want to be who GOD wants me to be.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 ESV /         
Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

 1 Samuel 16:7 ESV /        
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”