God's Handiwork

When I was in my late twenties I had a craft shop: Cheryl-Ann's Needlecraft Boutique.

My boutique was in a very artsy part of Indianapolis. Broad Ripple was in a coveted area where any artist who was anybody wanted to be. Unfortunately, my shop was located in a section of Broad Ripple that didn't have much foot traffic. It wasn't on a main thoroughfare or visible to passerby. An important factor in being successful in Broad Ripple.

Eventually I had to face the fact that I couldn't stay open. I was going to have to close my doors. Not enough traffic, low sales, my dream shop had to close its doors. So, the closing began: I posted signs in strategic places and started marking things down. Some very lovely pieces that would have made a nice profit in another location were tagged at discount prices. Eventually I was practically giving things away.

These were sad times and where I once loved unlocking the doors of my little boutique, setting things up for the day, I began dreading being there. Hating going into the shop I was once so proud of.

Not only that, I began to feel like a failure and the more I watch beautiful things going at second-hand store prices the more I was sure something was wrong with me.

Each time I dropped the price on something that was truly beautiful and valuable I felt a part of myself being chipped away. Years later, whenever I passed a shop that beautiful pieces displayed at prices that reflected their worth and value, I regretted letting go of mine at discount prices, nearly giving them away instead of waiting until I found the right buyer willing to pay what they were worth. 

Ladies, have you ever done that? Maybe your experience wasn't exactly like mine where you were discounting things to sale that had higher value. Maybe you have cheapened yourself in other ways. Gave pieces of yourself away to the undeserving. Fearful of being passed by or over or left behind. Pretending you were okay giving yourself away for little or no return. Compromising values, principles, pretending you were okay when ll the time you felt terrible inside. 

There's a passage in the Psalms that says we are "fearfully and wondrously made" (Psalm 139:14) How much thought God put into us as he knit us together in our mother's womb. Gently, lovingly touching each part of us. Thinking about the future He was planning for us, envisioning us as we received each blessing that confirmed our value and worth. 

We are God's handiwork (Ephesians 2:1-10), more valuable than we realize, more talented and gifted than we give ourselves credit for. Our heavenly Father must ache when we are willing to cheapen ourselves or allow others to diminish us. Crying out each time we settle and accept mistreatment, abuse, less than crumbs, and hang a " reduced" tag on ourselves because we're afraid of being left on the shelf. 

What our heavenly Father wants us to know is we're okay to hold out and not settle. We're ok to wait it out until the right offer is made, until the job we know we're gifted and suited for is available, until we are treated in a way that affirms how great, wonderful, and beautiful we are. 

As the saying goes, " Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." The first eye that beheld our beauty was the one who made us to begin with, and the second eye that should behold our beauty is the eye that looks back at us every day of our life of our life. The first eye that beheld our beauty will never see us as anything except beautiful and highly valued and the second eye that looks at us every day should never be okay denying or diminishing our beauty and worth.