Christmas Advent Devotional

Every morning I wake up, pour myself a cup of coffee, and sit down to spend some time with God. Sometimes I'm not exactly sure where I should be reading in my bible, which is why I love devotional plans. They give you a structured plan of scripture from the bible and a valuable lesson or two you can take away from it.

This Christmas season I have started using a devotional by the girls of She Reads Truth.  SRT is a community of women devoted to growing closer to God and staying in His word.  They have created an amazing app for your phone and iPad that combines a bible and beautifully written devotional plans, accompanied beautiful photography and design.

For this years advent, they have created a devotional titled "O Come, Let Us Adore Him" that gives you scripture and a lesson for 28 days.  It's a great way for us to stay connected to God in this wonderful yet hectic time of year.  Every day a new devotional is posted, and you can set a reminder on your phone or iPad to keep you going.  Its such a magical thing to wake up early, snuggle up next to a fire with a cup of coffee, and learn more about God and the truth of this Christmas season!

Find She Reads Truth here

Comparison

I have always struggled quite a bit with comparison.  I think it is one of those overlooked problems, simply because other things seem to be a lot worse.  While there may be more detrimental problems, comparing yourself to others can be significantly hurtful to yourself and to the God that created you.

God has been trying to open my eyes to my struggle with comparison.  There have been quite a few things popping up lately that are pointing to this, and I have started thinking about it a lot. It is a problem that many teenage girls struggle with, myself included, mainly because we are unhappy with parts of who we are.

While we may overlook the fact that we compare ourselves to others daily, it is actually a big problem. Doing so says a lot about who we are and the God we put our faith in. It says that we are unsatisfied with who we were created to be and therefore want more than what we have: we want to be prettier, nicer, more patient, have more money, more opportunities, more adventures. It says that we are unhappy with how God created us to be.

The reality is that God created you EXACTLY the way he wanted.  He is a perfect God, so how could he make a mistake? Yes, he may have given you a bigger nose than you'd hoped for, or a more stubborn personality then most, but he didn't do any of this by accident.

Think about it: if he created us the way we wanted, each of us would probably look like a beautiful model. While you may initially think that would be awesome, where is the fun in it? We wouldn't have any of the unique qualities, gifts, or talents God has blessed us with.  We would all be carbon copies of each other, created from the same overused mold.

I think we need to view ourselves less as what we see in the mirror and more how God sees us.  We are his masterpiece: he created us in his image, and all of the things we see as imperfections he sees as perfect.  We are the beautiful art of a creative God who built us each exactly the way we are meant to be.

Just remember: you are beautiful and perfect in his eyes, and that's all that matters!


"For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." -Ephesians 2:10





photo credit: seyed mostafa zamani via photopin cc