Scripture
Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as if it were coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who made us adequate.
~2 Corinthians 3:5-6, NET
Quote
Did you have circumstances early in life that made you feel less than enough?
~Charles Stanley, Jesus Our Perfect Hope, p.145
Not all abuse is sexual. Some kids were beaten and battered and some were scorned, mocked and made fun of by adults. It is a sick form of adult entertainment. Some kids grew up being told their were stupid or losers or worse. It is not just parents that our guilty of scarring children emotionally, family members {aunts, uncles, GP’s, cousins}, teachers and coaches can be guilty also. My best coach, and I had some good ones like Rod Goode and Bill Gimerman, was my track coach in college. If I didn’t have the least ability on the team {went undefeated for two straight years}, I was very close. He never said one demeaning thing to me and he never used one foul word when instructing me.
Let me go ahead and say, I deeply regret what happened to you as a child but what I want you to understand is this: it is a part of your conditioning. I don’t mean that God intended it, I mean He will use it to your advantage. God is at work in you. We are his creative work, His masterpiece and He is making something glorious out of each and every believer in Christ. You have to learn to connect the dots. What ever phobias and fears you have, they go back to a prior experience. Once you begin to connect the dots, you will see a direction and you will know that providentially, God is leading you to His higher purpose. Your ministry will eventually come from your pain and you will be able to help others because you understand where they are coming from. Pharisees know the Bible, they teach, they instruct, they judge, they pray in public, they tithe but they do not minister because they have no compassion and no ability to empathize.
Feeling inadequate is not a sin; the sin is to allow these feeling to control your behavior. Jesus makes us fishers of men; Jesus makes us holy and Jesus also makes us adequate. It is a work of grace; accept it and enjoy the rest of your life.
It has been a week. Tuesday, we felt compelled to visit those in the hospital in Birmingham because of the critical nature of their illness. We knew time was running out for Larry but we thought Thomas had a few weeks. We were wrong: Thomas was promoted on Tuesday, shortly after we left the hospital and Larry yesterday morning around 10:00 a.m. Pray for the two widows, Rhonda and Barbara and their children. The COLS for Thomas is Saturday at 2:00 and we think Larry’s will be Sunday evening.
My children scolded me for picking on Spencer in yesterday’s blog. I was kidding but I do offer an apology. All my children and grandchildren love Spencer and so does Big Mama. Sorry Spencer, I will try to do better.