Blue Jeans – The Enemy of Our Souls

By: Chloe Grabeman

Forward:

My dear friends,

We would like to thank you. You have made the past year of writing an absolutely incredible journey filled with encouragement, inspiration, joy and love. So, it is with two hearts full of thankfulness for all God has done and what you have made this blog, we say to you our journey is coming to an end, this will sadly be our last blog. Since I graduated in May, Momma and I have been praying about what our next steps for the blog and our book, Real and True, should be. This week, God made it clear that it’s time to focus our energy on some other things He has called us to do. No, we are not writing a new book right now, but we are working to further spread the words of hope that God has given us in our current books. The blog may start up again in the future, but right now we must take a step back. We can’t thank y’all enough for your faithfulness to us and we trust it will stay that way. Thank you for all your comments, shares and words of encouragement, they have meant more to us then you will ever know. We ask now that you continue to keep us in your prayers as we take these next steps. We love y’all so much and continue to pray God’s blessings upon your lives.

Love,

Chloe and Linda Grabeman

A pair of blue jeans.

That’s all it took to COMPLETELY unravel my self-esteem and begin an endless stream of self-deprecating thoughts.

All of a sudden, my efforts at the gym feel worthless and I am the newest contestant on The Biggest Loser.

Awesome.

Thoughts that were all untrue. All lacking perspective, but most of all lacking grace and love.

If you are like me, you are pretty good at giving love and grace to everyone but yourself.

So, my dear friends, on this last blog, I would like to leave you with a challenge that may make us slightly uncomfortable but will probably lead us to lives that look a lot more like the way Christ sees us.

Love yourself.

Yep, that’s the challenge.

It’s ok to squirm at the thought that this sounds a bit narcissistic and selfish, but I assure you it’s not. Not the way God intended it.

Because we know blue jean criticisms can be a little squirt gun in comparison to the rest of our ammunition.

We criticize our dreams and abilities telling ourselves we will never be good enough, especially compared to…

We over analyze every conversation we’ve had and imagine a hundred ways we could have appeared smarter, calmer or more godly.

And once our demands for perfection fall flat, the menacing lies take their aim.

So, anyone ready to live a little differently?

What if we started to listen and believe God’s thoughts of us. To treat ourselves the way He treats us.

I once heard that God always addresses us in our new life with Christ. That if all of His wrath was poured out on Jesus taking our sins, then there is nothing left for us but His love and grace.

If God can give us love and grace, why can’t we give it to ourselves?

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 states:

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

What if the ways of love were meant not only to guide our love for others but also ourselves?

That patience and kindness should rule over perfection.

That truth should always be sought out and rejoiced in.

And that belief and endurance should silence comparison.

When we start living in the newness that God sees us in, we are no longer under the law of legalism. Our old self begins to slip away as God starts confronting the lies we believe, and restoring our thinking to what He intended it to be.

His remedy for negative thoughts isn’t simply positive ones, but rather the truth of who He says we are.

That every day of your life, you are a constant and continual source of joy to God.

God desires us to live as new creations and love who He made us to be. To not chain ourselves to something He died to set us free from.

So, my dear friends, I encourage you to start this new journey of seeing yourselves through the eyes of Christ. May we all come to know even more of His unfathomable and unconditional love for us.

Playlist:

You Say – Lauren Daigle

Love  Never Fails – Brandon Heath

Hallelujah – Tenth Avenue North

Captivated – Shawn McDonald

Alter – Emilie Weiss

Father – Emilie Weiss

Listen here at the Real and True Playlist on Spotify: (newest blog playlist are always first songs at the top) https://open.spotify.com/user/128815512/playlist/3YfqgeMjEUj7ZB8ydKd5qL 

Check out Chloe and Linda Grabeman’s book Real and True: Hope for the Restless Heart at www.realandtruehope.com