As Only Your Mama Can…. 

T is for Testimony, Truth and Tippy Toes

 

A lesson I should have known clearly but did not fully understand until 2010 is the importance, the significance….the life-changing value of my personal testimony.  Testimony, by definition means, “a solemn declaration, an outward sign of an inward truth.”

How you behave on the outside tells the world the truth of your heart on your inside.

Think about that….imagine that in your head. 

The reality is that sometimes we behave a certain way out of fear, desperation, defeat….anger, hurt, desire to remove ourselves…..ignorance, selfishness, stupidity…..and yes, at times, sinfulness. 

You and I both have moments in our lives where our personal testimonies do not reflect the truth of what we “want” our hearts to be testifying to the world…but, it is all the world can see….. 

Lest you feel defeated in this, don’t.  You and I are not unique in this failure in testimony.  All are.  No one’s testimony is perfect and for those who think theirs is….THAT is their failure in testimony…believing they are perfect in their living.

But…we are only responsible for ourselves, our lives, our testimonies.   

Your testimony is a gift you give back to the world in the name of Jesus… 

How you live your life, the words you choose to use, the photos you select to display, the work ethic you produce at work, the love you show others, the way you dress, to drink or not to drink, to be a giver rather than a taker, to worship in your daily living… 

These are all your testimony to the world….and they answer the question…. 

“Whom does Madison love the most?” 

Does her testimony bear witness for her love of God…His son?  The Holy Spirit? 

Or does she live for the world?

Every day…every moment of every day…your life is a testimony of what your heart cherishes and treasures… 

Make yours a beautiful Testimony, sweetheart….. 

Make your daily living be a beautiful work of art…a treasure…a gift of love and laughter and “light”….

Let your words, your actions, your personal character be that of sweetness and bold witness to the one who gave you life…and, take that life and make it a masterpiece…not of perfect living for that is not possible, but of sincere striving to live a testimony which brings glory and honor and love to Him……

And, by doing so…..you will have a life that when you return it back to Him, you can smile that Father’s daughter’s smile of peace and joy and faith…..your days will be witness to the greatest of all things… 

His love. 

T is for Truth 

You know that one of my absolutely, positively, much beloved verses is: 

John 8: 31032:   So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." 

Our family lived many years hiding an ugly truth behind closed doors and surrounded by a white picket fence.  I realize now the sin of that and, our family is broken because of that hiding.  Some lessons need only be learned one time, and this is one of them. 

Live in truth, daughter. 

As Beth Moore told me (via her Bible Study) this week, “live in the light of God’s truth so that He can shine on the darkness that would exist if not for His light of Truth.” 

We don’t live this way because it is “messy, ugly, painful.”  But, you know what.....there is a reason for that.  Sin hides in darkness….and, that darkness will not…never…never ever go away until the witness of God’s truth shed’s its light on that sin….. 

This is truth. 

BUT, conversely, when you live in truth….your world becomes free. 

Free indeed. 

There is a freedom God gives to truth-tellers which is HOLY….which is BOUNTIFUL….which is LOVELY….which brings about a peace like nothing in this world can bring.

The more you come to know God….the more you are able to live in truth. 

Come to know Him….study His heart….learn His ways…. 

And live in the truth of His Word… 

One of the things I want to pass along to my clients which was passed along to me by my counselor, Rhonda Souder, is the verse I listed above…. 

She told me, Chose this day whom you will serve and Lesa…..Tell The Truth 

I am so grateful for her sage advice because while to the world my personal truth may be ugly….to God it is beautiful.  When you go to the Father and lay it all down in humble effort to be God’s Girl….He receives you with open arms and full forgiveness….He makes you whole and pure and white as only He can!

That, my precious daughter is Powerful.  And, honestly, it is ALL of which matters.

When we do this, He promises…to make us New….

II Corinthians 5:17:  Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,… 

Ezekiel 36:26-27: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. ²⁸ Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

So, tell the Truth…..and, live such a life that being a truth-teller is an easy thing for you to do. 

T is for Tippy Toes

Live a life on your Tippy Toes…..in Awe!  In Amazement of all that God provides for you!! 

One of my very favorite pictures of you was at a church family’s pot luck.  They had a white fence and you climbed to the top rung with your feet on the second from the top rung…you were on your tippy toes and I was afraid you would fall.  You wore a navy and red (4^th of July outfit) and had the sweetest little piggy tails.  I believe it was Aunt Tita (Anita McIntyre) who reached over and grabbed my arm as I started to run to “save” you from a great fall.  She stopped me…and said, “Lesa…let her be.  At worst, she will fall a short distance onto the soft ground below.  But, at best, she will come to feel safe.  Look at her little face….the joy she feels from reaching “up”….that’s the direction you want to point her….UP…to Him, so let her go.” 

And, with my heart in my chests about ready to burst, I did that….I let you stand on tippy toes…and reach up.

Stand on those tippy toes even as you mature into this life.  Mature in wisdom of His word, but with the hearts of a child…. 

Matthew 18:2-4:  And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. "Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.… 

And, always, always……always look “up”…. 

ILYAOYMC,

Mama