There's beauty in the ashes

Psalm 12:6, "And the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times."

Moving to Dallas when you're twelve was not easy.  In St. Louis, I had friends and think I would have been considered "popular".  I came to Dallas and knew one person who was an acquantaince.  And unlike anything I had experienced before, there was tremendous judgement here...what you wore, how you looked became of paramount importance.  Later, I clued in that it also has to do with perceived status and perceived money.  So, I became an object of bullying.  Really, by just two girls.  To the other "popular" people, I was just invisible.   These two girls, however, were mean every day.  And whatever words they used then, even though I don't remember them now, have made them part of why I remember them and  the not so kind feelings lie beneath if I let them have the space in my head.  

BUT....two favorite words in the Bible..."But God".  But God wooed me and soon encircled me with friends from band and church.  When I was 16, I invited Christ into my heart and now I had Words that were flawless that told me God's truth about who I was so as not to be defined by words from people that didn't even know me.  God's truth to us all is, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made, Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. (ps. 139: 14)  The beautiful thing is, He has Words for everything so whatever situation you find yourself in, His words are perfect.  They find your heart.  But, it's a daily choice you have to make.  Do I look to the flawless Word of the Lord and listen to Him or am I going to listen to the world?

When I find myself in a tough spot or thinking "why?"  I look to His refined, pure Word (2 Tim. 3: 16-17) and realize there is refining going on.  Those unkind words WAY back then have made me compassionate, help me defend the underdog and find my identity in Him rather than being sucked into something of this world.  "See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland?" (Isaiah 43:19)   His flawless Words refined me.  I get to call myself, no matter what the world calls me, "Holy, Righteous and Redeemed."  From these ashes, He made beauty in Him.