One Solitary Life

For unto us a child is born
Unto us a son is given...
And He will be called
Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.

"He was a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself...

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.

All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that ONE SOLITARY LIFE."

Set-Apart Feminity

I am currently reading a book called Set-Apart Femininity by Leslie Ludy. I've never been one for all those "girly" self-help books. I actually thought them to be a little over the top. However, as I was at the bookstore this past weekend, it caught my eye. After reading just a little bit of it, I know it was God who directed me to this book. It's not easy to read because it challenges women to truly live in a radical way that look beyond our culture's measure of beauty to what God's perfect plan for femininity is. It's so much easier to build our lives around the pursuit of worldly applause and selfish pleasure and just "sprinkle" Christ in somewhere on the side than to radically pour our lives in sacrificial devotion to Him. It's always been this struggle for me: perfection. It seems to dominate every area of my life~ the way I view myself, my relationships, and how I view God's love. I was told by a very close friend that I demand perfection from myself and that spills into my relationships: I demand perfection from those too. I had never thought about that before, but I have begun to see how true that really is. And then with God, it's as if I have to earn His acceptance. I know this is not true, in theory, but it is hard to make myself actually accept that. And yet the more I try to make myself "worthy", the farther away from perfection I feel. My efforts are wasted.
I think I have realized that I am a 'Christian' woman, but not a set-apart woman. Set-apart femininity exudes a beauty that is not of this world: it's the spectacular radiance of a woman completely transformed by the Author of all things lovely and pure. It's the idea that I am no longer going to conform to the world's measure of beauty, an almost unattainable goal, but to Christ's. Realizing that His creation is perfect and His plan for femininity is flawless. It's so much easier to say than do.