At All Costs...The Highest Cost!

Photo Credit: Roger Coles

So, a couple of weeks ago, I wrote a blog about “the side chick.” If you missed out, you can read it here.

The responses I received were kind of what I expected, although some were made solely out of assumptions. But that’s okay. I’m coming to a place in my life where I don’t see a need to justify, argue with, or defend myself for MY truth.

With that being said, in my last blog I mentioned that I would discuss how I was able to allow God and counselors in on my healing process. It wasn’t easy. There were times when I wanted to retreat back to what I knew. What seemed easy and less judgmental. But somehow, I knew in my heart what I was doing was wrong. Just like that smoker who knows all well the consequences of smoking, but she just has to have it. That’s how I was. I felt the need to quiet the screams of my flesh by enabling it with lustful desires.

But the beautiful thing in all of this is that God doesn’t leave us to wallow in our mess. He always provides a way out. I’ll say that again, because it’s the truth. He ALWAYS provides a way for us to get out of our sin. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you can endure.” I can raise my hands at the numerous times I’ve gotten myself into situations and I saw a “door of opportunity” to walk right out of but instead I chose to stay. Got burned every single time.

As I moved through the healing/restoration process with God and counselors, I began to understand more and more who I was. Now of course, healing didn’t come easy either. It took years for me to get to a place where I could say that I was totally healed and free.

And oh, how wonderful God is…to speak to us through our love languages…the way He created us to express and receive love…I don’t know if He does that for you, maybe it’s just me. One of my love languages is words of affirmation…and that’s how He speaks to me many times. But as He took me through this journey, He showed me something in His word. Something that I actually came across again today. He took me to 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. I almost leapt from my sofa when I read it! It says, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”

Picture that beautiful pair of shoes you buy a loved one. It cost a pretty penny for those shoes and you want that loved one to have them, love them, and appreciate them. So, what happens when you see that loved one stomping in the mud with those very shoes on that you spent that pretty penny on? I’m quite sure you won’t be smiling and it won’t be roses and daisies. There will be some words exchanged and a check in the back of your mind that says “humph see if I EVER buy him/her ANYTHING else!”  That’s how most of us would be…or is that just me…let me just raise my hand right on up, because I know it’s me. See how belligerent we can get over something materialistic? Something temporal? Well imagine how God feels every time we misuse and abuse ourselves, our bodies, our existence which was bought not with money but with pure, innocent blood? That realization you may be coming to from reading this is how I felt. I was straight up disrespecting Jesus Christ by treating my body like garbage.

Ladies listen, I could go on and on with this for it is a topic near and dear to me. But please understand this, we are worth more than the price we place on ourselves. We must learn to get to a place where we recognize that and begin to live in that knowledge. Not in all cases, but in some, we get what we put out. When we give out mixed signals or signs of low self-esteem, no worth, no values, and standards, that’s the treatment we will receive. Choose today to rise above that and live in the knowledge of knowing that your life means so much that it was bought…at all costs, the highest cost. Be blessed sisters!

Me :)