Worthy To Be Seen

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Hello Beauties! Happy hot July to you! It’s too hot for porch sitting these days, but my oldest captured a quick photo of me with a handful of Limelight Hydrangeas this week. These beauties redeem an otherwise hot and sticky summer! Hydrangeas, lightning bugs and iced green tea lemonade with fresh mint leaves are the highlights of summer heat for me. How about you?

Okay, I’ve got to get right to it. I’m in between travels and visits with family and only have a 30 minute window to sit down and write, but there’s something welling up so strongly in my spirit that I know I have to give it voice today.

In my last post, I wrote about a willingness to be seen.  God has really been getting my attention on that topic recently, but in the weeks since I’ve written that post, He’s been speaking something along these lines: a willingness to be seen comes from knowing you are worthy to be seen. 

We don’t tend to show something to someone unless we think it has value, worth, importance or significance. Do you see that you have all of that? If we don’t start with the truth that we are worthy, it makes sense that we won’t risk allowing ourselves to be seen. Who shows someone something they think is worthless? And yet, sadly, we often view ourselves as if we have little to no worth.

So where do we find our worthiness? I’ve tried to find it in performance, perfection, the opinions of others and all kinds of other things. But the thing is, a worthiness that’s tied to what we think about ourselves or what others think of us will always leave us feeling unworthy in the end. Because we can never be enough, do enough, perform enough or be perfect enough to attain and sustain our own worthiness.

Here’s the rock solid truth: our worthiness comes from God alone. It’s not up to us to secure and maintain our own worthiness. It’s not up to us to prove our worthiness. It’s not up to us to “hustle” for our worthiness {as Brené Brown likes to say}. What is up to us is to choose to believe and agree with God about who He says we are. We are beloved children of God. We are image bearers. We are radiant with His glory. And so much more. When your identity is rooted and grounded in who God says we are, there is no one and no thing that can influence or redefine our worthiness. Bravehearted Beauties, your worthiness is secure! 

The real work for me has been in not only believing in this truth once, but in claiming it over myself day after day. When the lies of the enemy threaten to steal my identity or the fear of what others think of me leaves me hustling for my worthiness, I return again to God and agree with what He says is true about me.

A huge part of my calling is to remind you what’s true about you. It’s why I started writing as Bravehearted Beauty instead of sticking with LLH Designs. Because deep down, I know God is calling you a Bravehearted Beauty, too. And He’s using me to call it out in you. {And if you’re a man reading this blog – you’re awesome by the way – then you are a Braveheart. And the same truths apply to you!}

So back to allowing yourself to be seen. Why is that so important anyway? Is it just so you can be fully known? No, it’s so much more than that. By allowing yourself to be seen, you’re revealing more of the glory of God to this world. Because you, Bravehearted Beauties, are GLORIOUS! Made in the image of the most glorious Father, Son and Spirit! You are all of the Trinity’s love, glory, radiance and goodness combined! And now more than ever, this world needs a glimpse of that glory. You, my friends, get to be that glimpse!

Shine on, Beauties! You are worthy to be seen!

P.S. My 30 minutes are up, but there’s one more thing I want to say: our ability to love ourselves is also tied to our worthiness. We’re not very good at loving someone or something that we don’t view as worthy of love. And sadly, we often believe somewhere deep down we aren’t worthy. For more on learning to love yourself {which is directly tied to your ability to love others or receive love from others}, here are a few posts/videos. God’s been doing a lot more in me since then, but this is where He started:

Brave New Yoga Pants {And Learning To Love A Little More}

Learning To Love What He Loves

Loving…As We Love Ourselves

As You Love Yourself