Not Measuring Up

(yes you see a cracked screen, this is my life: broken.)

Can I be real with you about me and measurements? First off, I don’t own a scale and never plan to buy one. I don’t believe in measuring myself by a number on a scale. If my jeans fit, I’m doing good. If they are tight, I know when I’m eating too much ice cream or chips and salsa. Like lately. With cooking, I rarely follow recipes because I find it tedious to measure a teaspoon of salt and cups of flour. And lastly, I rarely look at Google Analytics to measure how many people visit my blog. I just write.

Then there are places where I can’t avoid measurements and I cringe. I see a number of “likes” or followers on my Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts.   What does this mean if I have ten likes and someone else has ten thousand? Is what they say more valuable? Or does that even matter? Recently I got excited when I started a new creativity Facebook page and got over 100 likes in a weekend.  Then the growth stopped.  So much for the wave of excitement, instead I felt deflated. What just happened? It’s crazy to be out here in cyber space.

The truth is I’m resistant towards measurements because I am a recovering over-measure-er. 

I’ve spent much of my life measuring myself. In high school I measured my body, including my ankles and wrists. And throughout my life I measured my self image: Too flabby. Too pale. Too insecure. Or am I too vain? I’ve measured my personality: Too much. Too little. Too indecisive. And I’ve measured my heart. Too emotional, too prideful, too honest, too ashamed. I’ve even measured my productivity: way too slow. Basically if there is a way to measure something about myself, I came up short or over the top.

So these days I avoid measurements whenever possible..Because I’m tired of a lifetime of measuring. I need a mental break. I need God alone to help me measure what is true and forget the rest. Because I don’t need to hit a certain number of likes to prove my worth to anyone.

According to God, I measure up, just as I am. With wrinkles. With a quirky, forgetful personality. With a lot of creative ideas and little energy. God doesn’t measure my life, instead he just loves me. And His love covers my life (in full) from conception to my last breath and into eternity. God’s love covers every flaw I see in me. His love is big and beyond anything I could ever try to wrap a tape measure around.

So no more measuring for this girl.

Time to rest and settle into Truth again.

Truth is I am enough. Broken, yes, but loved beyond measure. Not because of something I did to earn it, but because of Christ and His redemptive work on the cross. I measure up because of God’s immeasurable Love. For the whole world. For me. For YOU. Forever.
Amen?

(This post was inspired by my friend Jennifer Duke Lee’s new book, Love Idol: Letting Go of Your Need for Approval and Seeing Yourself Through God’s Eyes. I loved her book because it’s real and story driven and beautifully written. Her message is so needed. We are #preapproved in Christ. There can never be enough books on this topic. Check it out, you won’t be disappointed. You may even be changed in a beautiful way. 🙂 I also love Jennifer’s idea, The Love Idol Movement . Also find FREE “#preapproved” printables there too.