Red Lip Society

We moved a lot when I was a kid.  I wasn’t an “army brat” or anything like that….just a family of musical, gypsy souls.  Wanderers. Dreamers.  I was constantly the new kid.

Every time we moved to a different state the other kids would make fun of my accent.  I remember at one of the schools I went to in second grade, we were sitting in class and the teacher called on me to answer a question.  I had only been at the school a couple of days.  The answer to the question was “yellow”, and that is what I said….sort of.

I answered “yellow” but in my little girl, deep southern drawl it came out “yella.”  All of the other kids broke out into laughter.  I thought I had gotten the answer wrong and I put my head down a little bit, completely embarrassed that the other kids thought I was so stupid that they had laughed.  I didn’t realize until recess later that day that they were laughing at my pronunciation of the word “yellow”.  I realized this when a few of them surrounded me at recess and mocked me and laughed at the way I didn’t “know how to talk.”

That was a bad day.

I never did make any friends at that school.  I’d spend recess hiding in one of those little tunnels you can crawl through, sitting with my arms wrapped around my knees, watching everyone else play and just waiting for recess to be over.

I have a couple more stories that are similar to this, but I tell this one because it was the first one.  For someone that was already a bashful and shy kid, this was one of the worst things that could have possibly happened to me.  I use to embarrass very easily, and to this day, if I am not careful, I will dwell on a mistake or embarrassing moment for days…months…forever!

By the time I got to high school, I was the quiet, weird kid that sat alone at lunch and didn’t have much to say.  I finally started making a few friends at the school where I started tenth grade.  We stayed there until I graduated.

I tell you this story so that you can appreciate what happened to me today.

While I was listening to a sermon during my lunch break, I felt the Holy Spirit speak to me and say, “You were made fun of in school.  Kids made fun of your accent so much that you stopped talking.  The devil wanted to silence you.  I made you to speak.  I gave you a voice.”

Woah. Boom. #HolySpiritmicdrop

The devil wants nothing more than to hinder us in our calling.  John 10:10 says,

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

The thief would love to steer us away from that for which God designed us.  He is always looking for ways to break our spirit…..to stall us in the pursuit of God’s perfect design for our lives……to shake us.

Psalm 16:8 ESV  “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.”

That’s heavy to be sitting here on my lunch break, but I guess He wanted me to hear that today.  Because, Ephesians 2:10 says,

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Are you walking in the good works that He created you for?  Do you know what that good work is?  I understand if you don’t.

Sometimes I have these daydreams about things I want to do for God….these amazing, far-out things….. and then think, “Who am I to do that? People will think I am crazy if I say that!  People will make fun of me!”  But what the Holy Spirit spoke to me today really “sobered” me in my thinking.

These same thoughts tried to creep right back in and negate what the Holy Spirit had said to me.  But this time I thought, “Who are you, Devil, to tell me that I can’t?!”

Why are we soooo afraid to step out into what we know God has for us? Especially when His word tells us things like

Psalm 139:16-17  Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them,  the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.   How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!  How vast is the sum of them!

I am not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but still, God saw that when he formed me and knew what I could be.  And that thought right there….that excites me!  He created me just the way I am….southern drawl and all…in His perfect idea of Scarlett.  Created for His perfect will and plan.

If you have actually read all of this, maybe you can relate to some of what I am saying. God has designed each person for a reason….and that includes you, my friend.

Can I just encourage you today to dream big dreams?  I encourage you to step out!  I encourage you to jump, head first, into all God has put in your heart and make it a reality.

Can I pray with you?

Father, I thank you for the person reading this.  I thank you for the call on their life and the dream in their heart.  I pray that you give them clear vision.  I pray that you give them boldness.  Boldness to walk through the doors that you put before them and down the path that you have laid out for them.  I pray that you would surround them with people that will be wise counsel and mentors.  I pray that they would find the voice you gave them.  I thank you again, Father, for what you are doing in this persons life. I ask you these things in the name of Jesus, my Lord and savior. Amen.

I am so exited for what God is going to do in your life and I would love to hear about it or even pray with you in a more specific manner.  Also, do you have any encouraging words to leave for others that may read this?  Drop your comment below!

Until next time — Scarlett