From Wasted to Beautiful

There have been those times when I looked back on my life – especially the past 8 or so years – and think to myself “what a waste”.

There was a time when I was younger that I had the same thought in my head that Carrie Underwood sings in her song, “Wasted”.

I don't wanna spend my life jaded, waiting

To wake up one day and find

That I've let all these years go by

Wasted

But, I did wake up one day and felt the cold emptiness of a life that I indeed thought was a complete waste.

As I have grown, both in maturity and wisdom – and that only by the grace of God – I have come to learn that nothing is ever really wasted. Even all the stuff that in my mind’s eye seems to have had no reason, no purpose… it does. God uses everything for His glory – but we don’t always recognize it.

All the poor choices I made - and the resulting pain to myself and others around me? Not a waste. I am able to take those experiences and share with others the truth that has been exposed from it. God is using the “bad” from my life for the “good” in someone else’s!

That is such a gift.

Oh yes, perhaps to the person who is able to bypass some of the pain I went through. But it's also a gift to me. To know that God loves me and finds me worthy enough to use me as an example...I am humbled.

I am not proud of my mistakes, but I am more than happy to share those mistakes with others if it will open their eyes and their hearts to His love as well. I am more than happy to swallow my pride in order that I may be a vessel that He uses for His glory.

Now I have a new song that expresses perfectly how I feel about myself....Beautiful by Mercy Me.  I am:

Treasured.

Sacred.

His.

Beautiful.

It is my hope and prayer that you will find your beauty in Him. You, too, are treasured, sacred, His… so beautiful!

“But we all, with unveiled face,

beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, 

are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory,

just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

2 Corinthians 3:18