Sarah's Words of Wit(sdom)

Saturday, I went to see a Beth Moore Simulcast at my church. She talked about her book “So Long, Insecurity”, and how to be a woman secure in Christ and in the world around her. A secure woman is… S aved from herself – I have nothing to gain from my insecurity. It will never improve anything. Insecurity is not humility, it is selfishness. When I choose to be a secure woman, I don’t have to be obsessed about what others think of me and can think of myself less often. E ntitled to truth – Insecurity is not a weakness, it is unbelief. The truth is God doesn’t make mistakes. He made me the way I am and thinks I am beautiful. I am wonderful in his eyes. C lothed with intention – I must choose to be secure every day in every situation, even if I don’t feel secure. I can’t just wait to feel secure because it will never happen. U pended by grace – Grace is forgiveness. Insecurity causes me to be easily offended and not want to forgive. But grace is something that I can give away yet ...

Growing up, I’ve always heard that sexual purity is important. But lately, I’ve been hearing how it’s just as important to save your emotional purity as well. Emotional purity? What on earth is that? I assumed it was much like sexual purity, but in this case, keeping my emotions pure for the man I’ll marry. But how do I do that? So I asked my friend, who has a lot more experience than I do with the ups and downs of relationships what she thought emotional purity meant. “When I start any kind of relationship with a guy,” she told me, “whether it’s dating or “just friends”, it’s my goal stay emotionally pure. This means I’ll only let him have a little corner of my heart and I’ll still have the rest of it. That way, if this guy ends up leaving me, the part he took with him can still grow back.” I nodded at the visual. “That makes sense…” I said slowly, “but especially if I’m dating a guy, I’d want him to know I like him, too. It just sounds like I can’t show him any emotion.” “...

As you may already know, I have been praying for my future husband for years. I have even made up a list of characteristics he must have – or should have. Some of the things on that list are going to be hard for the poor guy to live up to. That got me thinking: what am I doing to prepare myself for this amazing man of my future? Shouldn’t I be practicing character that’s hard to live up to as well? I read Proverbs 31:10-31 this week and it talks about being a “wife of noble character”. Now this is a difficult list to live up to. We don’t necessarily have to get up before dawn every morning to make breakfast and search near and far to find wool and flax, busily spinning and twisting the fibers. Unless you really want to, it’s a little outdated. Now we buy our clothes and blankets from a store and have pastries you can pop in the toaster oven for 5 minutes and voila! they’re done. But we can learn a lesson from this Proverbs 31 woman. The lesson is hard work and discipline . Th...