Perfectly Weak | Naomi’s Snow Session

There’s something really special about meeting other women who are unafraid to be vulnerable..It’s powerful. Authenticity, in it’s rawest form, opens doors to deep friendships, real struggles, and the joy to walking through life with people that love you and can speak truth into your heart. Making friends with other women as an adult isn’t as easy as it used to be in high school or college. We tend to carry around masks, smiling wide and nodding, “Yes, everything is great!”. The truth is, life can really rock us...you cannot predict it, or prepare for is sometimes, it just gets hard. You need other women to walk through it with. Here are some vulnerable words about resolutions and guilt from this beautiful gal:

"As we are headed into the new year,  I started to think about resolutions. What should mine be?

 How can I become a "better" me?

How can I be a better wife?

How can I be a patient mother and show my kids God's love?

How can I encourage my girlfriends?

How can I gain confidence?

How can I get out of my sweat-pants everyday?

Seriously, some days it's a real struggle.

The list of questions went on in my head for what seemed like an eternity of areas in my life I needed to "improve” on, and what had started off as a simple idea of a few New Year's resolutions,  turned into a downhill slippery slope of shame and guilt. Ideas of "resolution" quickly made me feel ashamed in areas of my day to day life, and especially in my walk with Christ.

Do you ever feel that way?

The guilt and shame beat me down to the point where I felt SO weak!!! I thought to myself: This is impossible!!! I felt so overwhelmed with the thought of how I could ever attempt to overcome all of these areas in my life where I feel less than... Trust me, there are a lot!

Out of nowhere I felt..."WEAK."

I know this word...

"When I am weak, then I am strong"

 I immediately Googled the verse because I couldn't remember the reference off the top of my head.

 I started to read 2 Corinthians 12,  I felt GOD's presence like I hadn't in along time.

2 Corinthians 12:9-11 says,

 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Wow!

God had stopped me dead in my tracks.

"My grace is sufficient for you"

For me? All of me?

God spoke to me so clearly through this verse.

Naomi, you are strong... IN ME!

Lean on me.

Love me.

Seek ONLY me.

When I do those things- His grace covers the rest.

I'm able to give it to God; my shortcomings. My discontentment. My insecurities. My failures. It's in HIM alone that I will ever find strength to do anything. I won’t be making resolutions this year. Instead, I'm making 2 Corinthians 12:9-11 my verse for this year. I'm relying on God's power (and grace) to help me in the areas in my life that I need improvement.

Will you join me in 2016?"