Girls!  I have been blogging about marriage a lot lately, and Steve and I will continue to share things we have learned and are learning each week through a Monday Marriage Moment you can subscribe to if you want.   But the more we talk about marriage, the more my heart longs to just grab a cup of coffee and sit down with you, my fellow-wives or wives-to-be, and just talk –  just us girls!! 

And if we could – sit down over coffee,  I wouldn’t ask about your marriage first off;  I’d ask about you!   For before we can become thekindofwife we all long to become, we all first must be free to be the girls we long to become!!

Author Francois’ du’Toit tells a true story about an exciting moment he witnessed with an Australian Wildlife organization .  I don’t remember all the details, but he was invited to attend the release of an exquisite eagle into the wild for the first time.  This particular eagle had been rescued very young and raised in a safe, controlled environment until he became healthy and mature enough to be released and allowed to fly for the first time, back into his natural environment.  All the onlookers were on tip-toe with anticipation as they brought the eagle out into the wide open space, unbound him, and raised him up high – free now to fly!!!   As all who were there held their breath, all were astounded that the eagle did NOT fly at all;  it chose to merely look around and remained right where it was.

The moments seemed like hours as no one wanted to move, waiting to see what would happen.  Suddenly above them, in what seemed like divine providence, they heard the sound of an eagle flying overhead and calling out.   In one split second, the earth-bound eagle looked up, began to flap his grand wings, and took flight – beautifully soaring into the sky.

Du’Tuoit explains that all it took for the eagle to realize his true identity and potential was one revelation of his origin,  one glimpse of an example of himself – like in a mirror – to understand who he was and for what he was designed!   Just One sound that resonated in the core of who he was, calling to him – and he knew he was designed for freedom – he was designed to FLY!

GIRLS!   We were designed for FREEDOM –  you and I are designed to FLY!  To soar in grace and beauty  as we step into our true identities and BE whom God designed us to be!  But here’s where my heart has been breaking:  so many of us are not flying;  we are looking around unsure of who we are, feeling captive & bound by fears and lies and unaware that we have been set free!

Let’s try a quick exercise.  Grab a pen and paper, or your journal, or phone.  (I’ll wait here…)  Ok. Now, imagine you are at a party and you overhear, in the next room, some of your friends and family talking about you. What would you long to hear them saying?  What words or phrases would you hope they would use to describe you, not just the practical but the core of who you are? (Note:  this is not what WOULD they say, this is what YOU WOULD WANT them to say, what you really wish would be what they see?)  Now write the first things that come to your mind.    (I’ll wait here again…  no rush…..)

When you are done, let me ask you this:   how many of the things that you wrote down are true of Jesus as well?   Circle the ones that also describe Him.  Do you see it?  Deep down, this is who you truly WANT to be!!!!   This is the desire of your heart – to be LIKE Jesus.   Why?     Because that is who you were CREATED to be:   you were MADE in HIS IMAGE!    Therefore, to be like Him is to be the truest YOU that you can be!   Like the eagle, when we see HIM, we recognize all we long to be – all we were made to be!!

This is my story, too.   I am on a journey with God to understand who I really am!   I used to think I was a sinner, saved by grace, and my goal was to try as hard as I could to get it all right, so that I could one day become like Jesus.   But over time, I have heard a sound – a revelation – that has resonated in the core of who I really am.  God has graciously been calling out – not just to me – but to all of us – and I have looked up!  I have seen a fresh revelation of my true origin:  and it is JESUS!   I am beginning to understand that what He did for us on the cross was so much MORE than just forgiving our sins:  He actually restored us to our original design. We were ALL made in His image, and because Jesus defeated the sin that bound us, He has set us FREE to become our true selves!  He has ‘flown ahead, above us, leading the way’ as a revelation of what it now looks like when God’s Spirit fills a girl:  we can spread our wings, rest in what HE has already accomplished for us, and FLY!!

Jesus is not just an example FOR us, but an example OF us, of what flying looks like!  Like the eagle who didn’t realize who he was, I, too, need a revelation of who He has made me to be when He forgave my sin, set me free, and filled my with His very own Spirit.  I no longer have to ‘get it all right,’ because Jesus got it all right for me.  (Can you pause here, and take a deep breath of THAT truth?!!!)     He has ALREADY made me like himself!  He has taken the exam for me, passed it with an A, and that is the grade that is permanently in the books under my name!   I no longer have to pass the test!  I have been granted the status of COMPLETE!  FULLY and JOYFULLY ACCEPTED!  IN THE FAMILY!   I no longer have to try in my own strength, looking around at others to see how I’m doing;  I now look to Him and thank Him for making me new – like Him – and ask Him to lead me by His Spirit in me as I understand more fully what is possible; what it means to be FREE!!

Practically speaking, what does this look like?   This means knowing and applying who I am in Christ to the every day living of life!  I am passionate for us as women to realize the enemy has been lying to us about who we are and how far we fall short and how disappointed God is with us – and thinking our husbands must be as well.  He has bound us up in fear of never being good enough, never getting it right, never pleasing God ….and we begin to think this is true.  That’s why we must look UP and SEE who Jesus and Father really are:  loving us so dearly, already accepting us, & delighting in us with great joy!  And having done all the work of setting us free from sin, Father is now calling us higher-to freedom –  to fly as His children!

SO – on this day of Freedom – this 4th of July when we celebrate that we are free – I’m here to sign another Declaration …  The war has been WON!  Our enemy has been defeated!   The accuser has been silenced!  The word is out:  We are truly and completely FREE

!For the next few weeks, maybe months, I’m going to blog about all the ways Jesus has set us free from the fears and anxieties that have held us captive!  We will talk about being free from the fear of failure, the fear of never being good enough, the fear of missing out (FOMO), etc.!  We will encourage each other to LOOK UP and see Jesus as our example, and hear His voice calling us to let go, and be who we are, and know that we are so dearly loved!

Girls!   The FREE life that Jesus has purchased for us and filled us with (it’s already inside of us!) is one marked by LOVE, and JOY, and PEACE …   patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and yes – even self-control .    Anyone besides me long to know THOSE as your daily reality?  Anyone else besides me long to be THAT kind of wife?    Any area of my life that is not enjoying these things is under the influence of a lie – for these things are already ours – already IN us because HE is in us!  We no longer have to TRY HARDER, we just have to realize what’s already been given to us and who we already ARE!!!!    And just be.  In Him.  Keep our eyes on Him and allow the wind of God’s very own Spirit to fill us & lift us up above the fears of this earth-bound life.   THEN we will know FREEDOM!  THEN we will fly!!   THEN we will soar in the freedom that has been purchased for us!  THEN we will be FREE to BE whom we already are!

“But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.  For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord.  And the Lord – who is the Spirit – makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”    2 Corinthians 3: 17-18

PRAYER:  Much like our earlier example, Jesus is at the party and talking about you right now!  Ask Him, “What are you saying about me, Jesus?   What do you see that is true about who I AM?”     Now write what you first hear, write your first thoughts.    Ask him again, “Is there more?  What do you want me to know about what you think about me?”  Write your first thoughts;  you can trust that it is Him within you.       Next, ask Him if there are any lies you have been believing (or speaking) about yourself that are different from His thoughts about you!     Write them down.   Then renounce those things out loud, (“I am NOT _______”)  and cross them OUT!   And ANNOUNCE or confess out loud what JESUS has said about you!     End by thanking him and agreeing with Him that He is truth, and that truth will set you FREE!

Happy 4th of July!    (If you want to join us for ‘Just Us Girls’ blog every week, click on SUBSCRIBE at the bottom of this page!)