I'm Certified to Pierce Ears, So What?

Last month, I was asked last-minute to give a devotional at my sister-in-law's baby shower. I was racking my brain as to what "valuable" advice I could give her as well. I put the word, valuable in quotations because I want you, my dear reader (if you actually exist :) ) to think that I am a humble person. I actually do strive for humililty but after ruminating on what I could offer to my dear sister-in-law as a single person, I started to doubt that I had anything valuable to say at all. Here's my line of thinking: Well, I'm not a mom, heck I haven't even been married, who will take me seriously? And boy, those women are going to think I'm arrogant or naive.


Thankfully, I didn't embrace these thoughts for too long because I wouldn't have agreed to share my heart with the women. Let me just say that after much prayer, the Holy Spirit gave me the right words and even my thought process changed.


The world likes you to have a credential or experience for everything before you espouse your opinion. However, this is not the way the Lord works and He brought to mind examples in other areas of my life where this is true. I am a lay counselor at church, I don't have a degree with little letters that follow it but I have been equipped by the Ultimate Counselor-Jesus Christ. I already KNOW that I am not adequate in anything on my own. It hit me: a counselor, therapist, psychologist doesn't have to experience the same thing as their patient in order to be effective, right? If I look at myself as a vessel where the Lord can work through my life, and not the other way around, then the thought process changes. I have to rely on the Lord to give me words, it's not all about me- but it's all about Him. Nothing I say is profound and if it is, to God be the glory even though sometimes my pride would like to take a bit of credit.




It seems that God always uses the poor, weak, pathetic, powerless, inexperienced,unthinkable person to carry out His plan-David fought Goliath, Gideon defeated an entire army, Moses delivered the Isrealites from Pharoah's hand, Rahab hid the spies, Mary bore Jesus, etc. All of these people were inadequate but God used them for His good.

So, as a single person, I spoke at the shower from a different perspective. I looked at my job as an encourager, not someone wrapped up in their inadequacies that could offer little advice. I also applied what I learned from my mom, from my jobs over the years, as a daughter but most importantly, from the Bible.



Even though I am licensed to cut hair professionally, it doesn't mean I can cut hair well. Even though I am not a trained chef, it doesn't mean that I can't cook well. Anything that we do is all from the Lord and when we rely on Him, He will accomplish whatever He wants through us and He will give us strength to do it.

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.-II Corinthians 3:5,6 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.-Philippians 4:13