Hurt Feelings and God's revealings

God is so good at giving us what we need when we need it. But let me back up a bit first.

Recently, a certain person hurt my feelings, and turned something good into something that well, hurts. Now this person wouldn't want to hurt my feelings, didn't mean to hurt my feelings, and really, if they knew, would probably feel really bad that they did. But that made it even worse, because I couldn't be angry at said person, I just felt sad and hurt. And at work I have been working on a project that requires sitting and holding this tube, for hours on end, with nothing else to do but think. So I have been sitting and thinking about how my feelings were hurt. And then, because I don't even think my feelings were valid to begin with, I started feeling like a horrible, awful, self-centered person, for getting upset. So there I was, sitting with a tube in my hand, feeling like poop.

But then I remembered what I have been learning in my Beth Moore study this week - Believing that I am who God says I am. She showed us that in Ephesians 1:3-8 God says we are Blessed, Chosen, Adopted, Accepted, Redeemed and Forgiven. The ones I needed to hear were chosen and accepted because the truth is, I was feeling rejected.

But that isn't how God sees me and I need to believe Him. Sometimes it seems like knowing God accepts us isn't enough, like knowing your mom likes you isn't always a big help when you are in 6th grade and no one else seems to like you. But knowing that God loves me and accepts me and wants me needs to be enough. Because everyone else will let me down at some point, my friends, my family, even my husband. But if I know how God feels about me, then other people letting me down isn't the end of the world. It will hurt, but I can stand firm in who I am. And I am free to love people the way Christ loves us. He not only knows that we will let him down, he knows how. But even though he knew Peter would deny him, and I'm sure it hurt him, he didn't say "Hey, Peter-man, I think we need to go our separate ways because your going to hurt me and I need to protect myself from that." Nope, he loves him anyway, just like he loves me anyway. So today, I will now be sitting in my chair, holding that tube and thinking of how God loves me...and how I want this tube holding project to be over.