It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Christmas is here which means this month is filled with parties and events to attend. As I looked at all the events I have to attend I began to do a checklist in my head on my appearance: What will I wear? I will need to find a new outfit for every occasion. Don’t forget to exercise; all this holiday eating has got me fluffy around the mid-section. Maybe I should do a cleanse to drop a few pounds?

As I had this conversation with myself in my head, my heart sank. I began to see the self-centered girl from my youth rearing her ugly head. In that moment I cried out to God,  “When will I ever be enough?! When will I accept my body and my appearance just the way they are? When will I stop finding my worth in what people think of me? I am so broken Lord, fix me!”

I love these “come to Jesus” moments in my life because it is there that the true healing and life begins. I am reading Ann Voskamp’s new book “The Broken Way” and God brought these truths from her book to my mind as I poured out my broken places to Him:

• The seed breaks to give us the wheat. The soil breaks to give us the crop, the sky breaks to give us the rain, the wheat breaks to give us the bread. And the bread breaks to give us the feast. There was once even an alabaster jar that broke to give Him all the glory. Never be afraid of a broken thing.

I don’t think it is a secret that we all have some unspoken broken areas of our life. Some of us have traumatic, life altering events that broke us and others have years of pain that was never dealt with that left us feeling broken, shattered and unworthy.

I love how Ann digs deep into this truth that God is all about broken things. In fact, it’s in those broken places that miracles occur. When we are broken His love shines through and beckons us to a deeper relationship with him and others. God is in the business of making beauty from ashes.

My broken began as a young teenage girl who discovered if I take care of myself, “watch” my weight and look the part, then I am accepted and loved. Eating right and exercising is a gift from God until it turns into an idol. Any idols in our life will own us and boss us around. We have no control over the idols but instead they control us. They tell us where to go, what to spend our time and money on and how much we are worth. Those idols bully us into places we never dreamed we would go and they leave us feeling less than, beat up and broken.

As I’ve walked through my healing journey in this area of my life God gave me questions to ask Him and myself. I encourage you to take some time alone today with God and ask these questions (please modify them to your area of broken).

Ask Yourself:

• What is my definition of beauty?
• What defining moment did I realize that if I had that beauty I would feel loved and seen?
• What lengths will I go to get that ideal image of beauty?
• What has the enemy stolen from me on my quest for this beauty?

Now ask God:

• What is your definition of beauty? What beauty do you see in me?
• Where were you when I was broken?
• What do you want to redeem in my life?
• What do you want to do with these broken pieces of me?

My friend, I want to encourage you that being broken does not mean you are less than, left out or not loved. In fact, being broken means we have finally come to the end of ourselves. God loves you and all of your broken pieces. It is there where we truly meet Him and find His perfect plan for our life.

I cannot do Ann’s new book justice in this blog post so I am giving away a FREE copy of her book, the study guide and DVD. Enter the rafflecopter below for a chance to win!

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