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Welcome to the “God’s Design” Series of the Beautiful You E-Devotional!

I’m so glad you decided to journey on with me. I anticipate many different series as we travel together and I believe “God’s Design” is a beautiful start to a beautiful destination in Him!

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Every word of God heals. His words are filled with life and can do nothing but bring life, healing and restoration. Everything God is, brings beauty and glory into our lives. He has shown us Who he is in his word. It’s up to us to believe it and appropriate it in our lives by the Holy Spirit.

God’s Design is about doing just that. Looking into those beautiful attributes of God and allowing them to transform our lives and then extending them to others. Especially those closest to us, family.

It is by no means easy, but by the power of the Spirit of Jesus within us, our hearts and our families can be transformed. But we must choose to go a different way instead of the default setting we’ve lived in all our lives because of trauma or abuse. We must desire a different way before we can walk in it. Intentionality is a must as we go forward.

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love

Everything in our life with God begins with love. His love. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

It’s vital to understand that love never started with us. It was God who initiated it. 1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (Emphasis mine)

None of us in the human race was seeking God. It was He who reached down into the sinful world and rescued us. ,

Romans 3: 10-12

“There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”

Romans 5 tells us that while we were sinners, with no strength of our own, God demonstrated His love! How? Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God’s love was demonstrated by sending his own Son to die for our sins so that we could be reconciled to Him. He knew our condition and in his glorious love, through His own life, healed us, redeemed us, and through the gift of His Spirit is transforming us!

This is the Good News of the Gospel! And it all begins with God’s love!

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With that being said, how do we take that love and extend it to others? First, we have to realize, we cannot extend it in our own strength. We have to call on our Helper and Teacher, the Holy Spirit, to help us do it.

The emotional and even physical injuries we’ve sustained work very hard to keep people at a distance out of fear and protection. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have boundaries that keep you safe from harmful people. You should. Yet if we desire healthy relationships with our family, we have to take steps of faith to open ourselves up.

Let me give you an example: Say you have a parent who is verbally and emotionally negative towards you. I’m not suggesting you endure abuse, but I am suggesting that you shift your perspective of that person to extend love to them. The same love that God extends to you, He extends to them. He’s not pleased with how they treat others, but His love is just as present for them as for you. That is the first shift.

Then, realize that person may have injuries of their own, actually, I guarantee they do, that have absolutely nothing to do with you. When you understand this and stop taking others’ behavior toward you personally, it will change your life! You will experience peace deep within when you realize that person is not after you, they are simply putting up walls of their own because of their fear, not because of you! This is the second shift.

Our very first step to extending love to others is letting the revelation of God’s love for us sink deep within our hearts. I think he’s ever revealing that to us and the glimpses we get, we can apply to loving others. Not because they deserve it. We didn’t deserve God’s love, but he gave it nonetheless. In the same manner, we extend love to those who are undeserving.

It’s not easy because you have to work through all your stuff. like, unforgiveness, bitterness, offense, fear, etc., for love to break through to them. So you may have work to do, which is why the Beautiful You devotional was created, to walk through some healing work. These are baby steps that require faith and perseverance.

I believe with everything in life, we don’t ever “arrive” we just continue to grow. So don’t put the pressure on yourself to arrive at perfection just take the next small step. :)

Think of just one person in your family this week that you can take a step of faith to extend love to them. Perhaps a display of love by doing something for them, a loving attitude towards them or some words of love or encouragement you can give them. Don’t be discouraged if they don’t reciprocate or even receive it- that’s about them, not you. Extend it anyway. You’ll be planting seeds that will reap a harvest of God’s love in their life and yours!

Next week we’ll continue with LOVE by unpacking the love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13, which is familiar to most of us. Here are more scriptures to meditate throughout the week about God’s love.

John 3:17- “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

1 John 4:19- “We love Him because He first loved us.”

Romans 8:38-39- “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Love always, Crisie 💕

[DISCLAIMER: I am not a licensed counselor or therapist of any kind nor is this devotional an attempt to provide those services. The contents and suggestions in this devotional are results of my own personal experience with these issues and are not meant to be professional advice or therapy. This devotional is not a substitute or replacement for regular therapy or the use of mental health resources. If the content here causes triggers, please see your regular mental health professional. Any content applied to your life along with any consequences is of your own volition.]

[If you or someone you know is in a domestic violence situation, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, available 24/7. or visit https://www.thehotline.org/ ]

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