My life on earth will never be the standard of perfection, and that’s okay. When it comes to ‘getting it together’, here’s my job: trust God.

Dang, how often do people need to hear that? I’d think I should know this because God is so understanding and loving, I just get so wrapped up in my wrongs I believe the opposite. We try so hard to hold up to our own standard of perfection or somebody else’s, and we just don’t make the cut. This is because we were not made to be our standard or somebody else’s standard of flawless. Maybe you think, “I just can’t be perfect like God wants me to be. There’s no way He could love me after what I’ve done.” This is far from the truth. Read this aloud if you want: "He wants me as I am! He loves me immensely. The only perfect is God, and we can’t measure up to Him, and He knows this. He’s not blind to our imperfections, nor is He absent from His grace."

Something I’ve learned recently is that God is not mad at me! That shame and guilt embedded in my head when I do something wrong is not God saying, “Gee, Cassandra, you’ve done it this time.” That is Satan, and remember? He’s not welcome. When I do something I realize was a mistake, I won’t let myself forget it, and Satan joins the party by adding to the misery. This clouds God’s reassuring hugs that I’m loved, I’m free from sin, and I can start over. Conviction is from Christ. This is the little voice saying you shouldn’t be crossing that fence that will get you in a pile of manure.

Know 101: Satan has our worst in his interest – God has our best.

2^nd Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.”

I found these verses to be lifting to my soul. God isn’t checking off the ways in which I’ve acted ugly to my parents, the wrong motives I’ve had, or the careless actions I’ve displayed. Sure, He knows them, but He’s not going to disown me. He loves me in spite of these mistakes. Because of Christ, I’m new, and this is how He chooses to see me: a new creation.

Christ wants to use us, all of us, for His glory.

“And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Verses 19-21

Being an ambassador for Christ means to be a messenger. Go tell about him, and live the life. Lately, I’ve had a dreadful fear of sharing my faith. If you’ve been kicking yourself for that like I have, quit it! I received God’s peace through these verses. There are ways I’ve shared my faith that I don’t always feel is good enough, but it is. Small differences really do make huge impacts! I was in the bathroom the other day, and this sweet older woman was talking to me about P.E. classes and how she needed to take one. I told her about a few classes I had experienced or was planning on taking next semester, and she pampered me with sweet remarks as if I had just bought her a new outfit. I really didn’t do much, but to her, I had made a difference. Living out your faith for Jesus changes the world. Don’t worry about what to say or how to say it because The Holy Spirit will help you. If he wants you to speak, what comes out of your mouth will be a flowing river of grace from the Father. Go out and be a light by being different than what the world regularly sees. Bless someone’s life today by telling them you’re thinking about them. God is pleased with you, His precious child. He is crazy about you.

You don’t have to have it all together because you have Him.