Validation
Photo Credit: Kriss Szkurlatowski, via Free Images
This week, I am back on track. No more take out pizza. I will eat lettuce and veggies and chicken. Yes, I will.
After putting together an impressive salad bowl for dinner, I reached into the fridge looking for my favorite salad dressing.
I pulled out all the bottles of half-empty vinaigrette, lined them up on the kitchen counter, put on my reading glasses, and started looking for the expiration date on each one.
One by one, the bottles got discarded in the trash bin as my husband groaned. He is not a big believer in expiration dates. He’ll eat anything that isn’t moldy green.
I must admit that some days I feel like an outdated dressing. I wonder if I missed my window — the one where I pour out and add flavor and zest to the feast. Maybe I sat on the shelf too long, and now I am spoiled.
Have you ever felt like that?
Tonight, I was reading in the Psalms, and God reminded me that He is not a big believer in expiration dates.
Open up before God, keep nothing back;
He’ll do whatever needs to be done:
He’ll validate your life in the clear light of day
and stamp you with approval at high noon.Psalms 37:5-6, MSG
Don’t let this world tell you that you are no longer effective. God’s mark is on you. Keep pouring yourself out.
I think this is a dangerous lie that the enemy would like us to believe so that we feel uninspired and unmotivated to do good in our lives for the Lord. Thank you for the truth today that we are never too far gone that God cannot use us for His glory!
Thank you for hosting Lyli! May your day be blessed! <3
Lyli, as I read your post, this reminder came to me… We can so forget that our God is presently active in our lives. This means that He is presently and continuously and presently validating our lives. Thank you for this powerful reminder this morning! Blessings!
And PS – You are not “outdated” for today you have poured yourself out, added flavor & zest to my day and I deeply thank you!
Good morning, Lyli. So identified with your words. So identified. God used you today and he’ll continue to do so–in little ways and big–until the very end. Thanks for sharing your heart.
Ha. I’m seeing myself doing that exact thing: putting on my reading glasses to check out the expiration dates. My husband is likes yours–those dates mean nothing to him. Maybe that’s a good thing where WE are concerned. 😉 No expiration dates matter on us!
I definitely feel like that often. We have to keep running back to our source of joy…because the blood of Jesus is what validates us. It’s what makes us enough. Have a blessed weekend!!!
Lyli,
You and your husband are just like my husband and I. (smiles). As I have struggled with my health this year, and feeling like my body is failing me, I too often feel like my best has passed, and I am “no good” anymore. Your post spoke right to my heart. Thank you
B
Beth, I understand exactly where you are as I spent most of 2012 praying for God to heal and restore me. The body can be quite a traitor sometimes. Praying for you this morning, my sister. Keep reaching for the hem of His garment. Hugs
Hi Lyli,
Thank you for your post, it encouraged my heart today. God bless.
I’ve had that “past my expiration date” feeling. I think it happens when I listen to the culture. When I listen to God’s Word I find many of the people God used mightily were much older than me!
Oh yes! When the lies assail you – that stamp of approval and purpose is so necessary to keep your Visa alive in the Promised Land! Thanks for the reminder!
Joy!
Kathy
It’s a familiar feeling! I love the verse you shared and will think of an expiration date when I read it now. That’s the stamp of approval I live for. ~Pamela
“He’ll eat anything that isn’t moldy green.”
Is your husband my husband’s long-lost brother?
Praying we never become outdated–no matter our age.
That’s the second time inside of an hour I’ve read the term “expiration date” used in a metaphorical way. God must be telling me something. I am listening!
Lyli,
You are definitely not “outdated”….a person who seeks to encourage others and to point others to Christ is always relevant and fresh 🙂
“Open up before God- keep nothing back”… love this! In His hands we are precious and effective and able to be salt (or dressing!) in this world. Thanks for the encouragement, Lyli. Blessings to you!
Lyli,
You have a way of saying just what is necessary. I needed this bit of encouragement this week because I was feeling a bit expired. 🙂 I love that you are just a click away and you always brighten my day. Bless you friend!
Hugs,
Dawn
I’ve always been stuck in time, obsessed with age, focusing on the outer deterioration of my shell when all I want to do is rip my brain away from chronos (earthly time) to embrace kairos (God’s time) which is the ageless, eternal, forever, deeply youthful inner soul hidden by the shell, because we have no expiration date to our Creator.
it was a good word for me when I read this on Thursday and it was good for me today. I am your neighbor at the Weekend Brew. And I need to print out this verse and put it on my screen saver! thanks Lyli