Tag: complete

in Your eyes

Karla Lees

image

My best is just that.
Mine.
My best effort, filled with all the passion, skill and gifts I have to back it.

I have a hard time letting myself down, let alone people.

And God.

But I know myself. I have the tendency to see if I am pleasing those around me, family, friends & coworkers with my offerings.

While it is important to get feed back when I miss the boat, I am not to base my best upon their view point.

I am to do my best as an offering to the God I serve, in appreciation for who He is, all He has done & continues to do for me, and because it honors how He made me.

God put His best into our creation.
He doesn’t make second rate, its not in His character.

If I am made by Him, as the Word reminds me, I was well made. One of a kind, uniquely me, handcrafted with care.

His best.

And when, like all of us, I strayed and needed a shepherd to bring me back to safe luscious pastures to feed & grow, He gave His best to us in Jesus to make that happen.

Only the best will do when it comes to defeating evil.

God wins, every time.

I had a very long unexpected few work days. Technical glitches hit right after my weekend away, and I have been catching up ever since.

This time, however, I am not stressing about it.

I am doing my best.

I love all the hats I wear, but they are just that, temporary wares.

Who I am matters more than what I do.

My best is listening for what God has to say to me, who He says I am, what He has to teach me, the guidance and love I have longed for in the secret place from even before words.

When He gets my best, the rest becomes the best I am capable of.

Keeping my eyes fixed on the Best that has ever happened to me?

I see my reflection in His eyes.

I find rest, so I can offer my best.

And I am complete.

🙂

In Your Eyes: Peter Gabriel
(awesomely sung by either Peter Gabriel, or Nichole Nordeman)

love I get so lost, sometimes
days pass and this emptiness fills my heart
when I want to run away
I drive off in my car
but whichever way I go
I come back to the place you are

all my instincts, they return
and the grand facade, so soon will burn
without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside

in your eyes the light the heat
in your eyes I am complete
in your eyes I see the doorway to a thousand churches
in your eyes
the resolution of all the fruitless searches
in your eyes
I see the light and the heat
in your eyes
oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light
the heat I see in your eyes

love, I don’t like to see so much pain
so much wasted and this moment keeps slipping away
I get so tired of working so hard for our survival
I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive

and all my instincts, they return
and the grand facade,
so soon will burn
without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside

in your eyes the light the heat
in your eyes I am complete
in your eyes I see the doorway to a thousand churches
in your eyes
the resolution of all the fruitless searches
in your eyes
I see the light and the heat
in your eyes
oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light
the heat I see in your eyes

complete or compete

Karla Lees

“God never wanted us to compete with each other. He wants us to compete and celebrate each other, embracing who we are in Him.”
-Renee Swope

Are you competitive?

Competing can be a good thing, when you are trying to do your best in a sport or skill competition.

Putting others down isn’t part of competition.

For years, I have seen people joke and tease others, under the guise of friendly competition. I have been the brunt of these barbed jokes when they let their insecurity do the talking.

God wants us to look out for each other, and in the ways that we are lacking, encourage one another. Help each other figure out how to become complete.

It sometimes takes an outsider to inform you what is really going on our inside.

Others can see what we fail to, likely because we are too close to the matter, or oblivious to what they are seeing.

I love to network. Whether its live, Twitter, Facebook or Linked in, I love to see people connect and be blessed by one another.

My boss say this gift and encouraged me to begin to use it more often, to take a leap of faith and put myself out there. Two years later, things have taken off in a way I never good have fathomed…and wouldn’t have if someone hadn’t seen the potential for growth.

I have two friends who took a leap to both work part time, and form their own business to make up the other ‘half’ of their jobs. They are excellent at what they do, but are also wise enough to know what they shouldn’t be doing, and have partnered to refer those jobs when appropriate.

Calling someone out, encouraging them to be fully who God designed them to be, and celebrating all their victories- is a godly trait.

Putting them down for their apparent lack of skills is not from God’s hand.

God wants us to be soaked in the knowledge of who He is, and how He sees us.
He named us His own.
He celebrates our victories.
He cries when we cry.
He loves with abandon.
He keeps no record of our, my wrongs.

Out of who we truly are on Christ flows our as attitude. Will you be gruff & hurtful, or encourage & mentor those around you for such a time as this!

Look out for how you can /might be a blessing to other around you take our focus off the negativity of comparison.

Besides, there is only ever and one of each of us. We really can’t line ourselves up alongside one another and compare ourselves to everyone else.

There is no comparison if we are one of a kind, only between who we used to be and who we want to be.

I want to be the kind of gal who completes her friends, by being a blessing to them and celebrating when they move closer to being more complete in God.