Sugar, Spice & Resilience

 

Winnie the Pooh & Piglet-A.A Milne

"You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." ~ Winnie the Pooh

Facts:

    22 lbs- heaviest baby born (!)  

    2 yrs- how long an elephant is pregnant

    79 yrs- female life span (73 yrs- male)

    14.65 sec- time it took a lady to crush 3 watermelons between her thighs

    16 sec- time it took for a woman to score 3 goals in Women's World Cup game

    50%- how many more women than men survived famines in different countries

Along with sugar and spice and everything nice, women are BEASTS & are resilient. That means we have the capacity to withstand or to recover from difficulties (Oxford) .

⚔ God made us able to experience & recover from the pains of childbirth, go for nights on end with little to no sleep, on-call for 24 hours/day, while nurturing an infant (and other human beings who need us).

We work, manage, create, organize, analyze, counsel, and instruct, to name a few.  And some have great singing voices (not me).  God enabled us to have a family, a job, relationships, and be able to float back and forth between all these roles.  He has empowered many women throughout history to fight for others and for ourselves.  

This is not a "girl power" moment where we rely on our own power, but more like a "you got this because He's got you" that relies on God's power working in us.  

⚔ Throughout the Bible, God has shown how much He esteems women.  He put His wings of refuge over them then, and He does that for us now.   

⚔ What is your battle today?  Or is there someone you care about who is having a battle?  Go to the front lines of this fight with God's Word: our minds are the thing that control our battles, not others, so again we say, "Not today, Satan."

⚔ In the windstorms of this life, are you feeling:

    ...less than?  He died for you no matter what you've done 

    "But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." Rom 5:8

    ...alone? There is literally no where you can go where God wouldn't be 

    "Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love?  Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?" Rom 8:35

    "And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love.  Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow - not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.  No power in the sky above or in the earth below - indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. " Rom 8:38-39

    ...unappreciated? Our worth comes from God, not man 

    "Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.  Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ." Col 3:23-24

    ...unequipped?  He gives us His Word & His Spirit & that's all we need 

    "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." 2 Tim 3:16-17

    "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Eph 2:10

⚔ Don't let the lies creep in your head and steal your joy from you. Remember,  

    "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Rom 8:31

Now, girl, in the timeless words of Pat Benatar, go get "All Fired Up".

✙ Heavenly Father, You are our Fortress, our Rock, our Refuge, our Counselor, our Redeemer.  There is no other like You; the earth is Yours and everything in it.  Let our minds remember, if You are for us, who can be against us?  Hallelujah and Amen!