Okay, I’ll go first. Deep breath.
I don’t always believe it.
I don’t always feel it.
I don’t always hear it.
And the worst part is – when I do hear it, I’m often the one saying it.
Before I called myself a teenager I called myself too much. Before I went to college I tacked on not enough to my name. I carried the words and the names with me through friendship beginnings and endings, good grades and poor grades, and leaving for college.
I could have left them behind when I packed up all of my belongings but there they were when I lifted the cardboard lid in an Alabama dorm room. It doesn’t seem to matter where I go, they come along for the ride.
My pants are too tight. Too much.
No one liked or favorited or commented on my social media post. Not enough.
She turned down a coffee date. Again. Too much.
I received a low grade on a test. Not enough.
She walked away from our friendship. Too much – and not enough.
Sometimes it’s a both/and, not an either/or. We can tell ourselves we are too much of all the wrong things and not enough of all the good stuff and we can spin ourselves silly in circles of performance and we will never ever measure up.
We hold the measuring stick of expectations and we forget that grace doesn’t measure, it moves.
Grace moves us to rest in what already is instead of pushing forward to climb one more rung of a never-ending ladder. Grace moves us to gratitude for the gifts already given.
When we move to the rhythms of grace we are caught up in the slow dance of already enough instead of the quick tempo race to be more, less, better, best.
I went all the way to Haiti and found the truth pointing its long finger straight at me: there are no accolades or jeans sizes or number of blog comments that can increase my joy or my worth
There is no boy that can make you more valuable. There is no test grade that can make you smarter or better. There is no clothing size that can make you more beautiful.
You are already enough.
Just as you are.
There is nothing you could do or un-do or not do that would change the truth.
Stop the inner dialogue that you play on repeat. Shut down and shut off the lies. If we’re going to measure anything we’ve got to measure out grace for ourselves.
He is the God of Alreadys so let’s hold onto His words and let go of the ones we’ve been clinging to.
Let’s stand together and be the Already Generation.
Already beautiful. {Psalm 139:14}
Already loved. {Romans 8:37-39}
Already accepted. {John 6:37}
Already forgiven. {1 John 1:9}
Let’s break the measuring sticks and drink from the ocean of grace. Let’s pack up the lies and unpack the truth.
Let’s live like we believe it until we truly do.
“You don’t think your way into a new kind of living. You live your way into a new kind of thinking.” Henri J.M. Nouwen
Life is not a race to be perfect. It is not a contest to see who deserves the accolades or the titles.
As they say, the ground is level at the foot of the cross. We bring nothing but our dirty selves to Him. There will be no trophies or blog statistics or straight A’s and more than that, we will no longer care about any of it.
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To read this entire post, please click over and visit More To Be. After a long summer break, we have all gather together in that space to share and encourage teens, moms, and mentors.
Whatever your weeks holds, nothing can change that fact that in Christ you are already enough. Put down the measuring stick. Pick up grace.
