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I’ve always determined to keep life simple and slow. Rushing leaves me with anxiety, so I avoid it as much as possible. And now that I’m hustling to a new schedule, it’s more important than ever to stay organized and on top of things, so that I don’t get behind.
I’m pretty good at doing that staying organized. Another thing I want to continue being good at it is posting about Christ.
Though I post fashion photos that now serve a pursuit in modeling and acting, I’m very cognizant that I am never a stopping point for people in this long-term plan of life. I just read a few days ago in Acts 8:9-25 that we are to lead people to Christ not ourselves. I can post a pretty photo and be inspiring for ageless beauty or fashion, but only Christ can minister to hurting souls and uplift them.
Only he can raise people up to a better place, to generate greater love within hearts, heal those with crippling issues that have gone on for years and seem impossible to overcome, and heel deep wounds. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg as to exactly what the Holy Trinity, God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit can do for our lives.
A while back I read a line out of Job 23:12b, “…I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.” When I first read that about three years ago, to be honest, I couldn’t relate. I mean I had faith, was saved, loved Christ. But I didn’t know him as well as I do today, hadn’t been pursuing him daily back then as I have everyday the last three years.
Today, I get it.
Each day, I can get up, workout, get dressed, look great, have some nice fashion posts for Instagram, scroll through my feed, head to work, spend time with my husband, have a good meal, and go to bed, to put it simply.
But what is ingrained in my heart that wasn’t three years ago, is that without Christ my value would be based on images I see each day, likes and follows I get, others who leave nice comments, my status at work, how family members treat me, and other things, as well. It’s easy to allow all those things to make us feel, to affirm our identity. And often, those things can be exhausting and mercurial.
I know that I know that I know that my value is in my Heavenly Father. He is the ultimate person I want to impress. I know that because I fear Him, pursue Him, He delights in me. I am a crown of glory in His palm. He loves me unconditionally, has set me apart, has healed me, teaches me everyday how to be a better person, always listens, always hears, will always work things out for my good in the best possible way while I am patient, and will never EVER stop loving me no matter how badly I may screw up.
There is nothing I have gone through, will go through that Christ has not already experienced. Well, maybe not childbirth, but he knows pain. He was adored, criticized, called "crazy", laughed at, mocked, admired, worshipped, yelled at, beaten, tortured, and brutally killed, so I, a sinner, could live.
I also know that I know that I know that while I am pursing modeling and acting, I am still anointed, commissioned to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. People need Christ. Christ provides what we crave – love, importance, acceptance, trust. He provides me with joy despite my daily circumstances. Humans weren’t built to be the sole responsibility of someone else’s happiness. To expect that of anyone is brutally unfair.
But Christ can. He’s the foundation. What anyone else provides is lovely embellishment. And things aren’t going to fill the soul. They haven’t throughout history, and they won’t now. No amount of money, fame, titles, power, admirers will fill a void in the spirit. They serve as temporary fixes but never long lasting. Only Jesus Christ can do that. And when Christ is working in my heart, I don’t have a need to fill my heart with manmade things.
So, while I enjoy serving a community of women on Instagram as a source of age positivity and casual, elegant fashion, I know that I am not the stopping point for people. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to humankind by which we must be saved,” Acts 4:2