She Likes Me, She Likes Me Not

Upate: The winner of Lysa's book is Sheri! Thanks to everyone who entered...there's still time to order it before Christmas!

There is a fundamental need inside most girls to be liked.

We want some people of the female variety to totally get us and walk away thinking we're pretty neat. It's like we carry around a miniature scale. On one side we put our coolness and on the other side our total dorkiness.

Put a group of women in a space to mingle for a while and when you release them from that space, I guarantee many will walk away playing that daisy petal game in their head: "She likes me...she likes me not."

It takes me back to my brace-faced middle school days quicker than Rick Springfield singing, "Jessie's Girl." Which, by the way, I totally wanted to be. I didn't have a clue who Jessie was. But to think of Rick pining away wishing I was his...sigh.

Those were some good hairbrush-microphone rock concert days. I'd step up on my bed, hush the vast audience of stuffed animals, and suddenly my bubblegum-pink room was transformed into the downtown civic center. And Rick was totally into me. Braces and all.

But eventually I had to step out of my bubblegum-pink room into the pea-green halls of Raa Middle School. Let the mental petal picking games begin.

I talked too much. Dork.

But I did get a laugh from so-an-so. Cool.

So-and-so asked me over to her house. Way cool.

But I spit out that cookie crumb while talking to her. Why did it have to be her? Total dork.

And then the kiss of death...Popular Patty was having a party and everyone who is anyone was invited. But not me. Dork of epic proportions.

Good things we're all matured past those middle school days. Right?

May I let you in on a secret? Just because you write a few books, speak in front of a few crowds, and achieve what you always thought would make you feel special does not fix that deep-down internal security. External achievement never equals internal acceptance.

If just getting older and piling up achievements doesn't help us make peace with our feelings of inadequacy, what will? I've found a two-step process that helps--I must operate in God's love and operate with God's love.

Operating in God's love means understanding how His love can redefine my natural thought processes. When I feel insecure, I can combat that feeling with a reassuring redefining word from God.

Operating with God's love allows me to rest in a security beyond myself. It's okay that I'm insecure if it prompts me to rely on God more fully.

If I was totally secure in myself all the time, I don't think it would increase my qualifications for ministry. As a matter of fact, I think it would do exactly the opposite. So, in essence, my feeling like a dork sometimes is actually a gift.

Thank you, Jesus.

Excerpted from Becoming More than a Good Bible Study Girl by Lysa Terkeurst. Leave a comment before midnight on Wednesday and you'll be entered to win a copy! Or just get it now!