Dear Claire Joanna,

I want to encourage you.

First of all, I want to tell you how proud you make me. You have made a remarkable impact on my life in the way that you love, serve, and care for our family and so many others. You are unselfish in so many ways, and I know God is going to use you to impact His kingdom. God has given you the joy and passion for action; you flourish when you can act, move, and serve in an immediate, physical way. God is using you when you give your free time to children with special needs at the local public school. He is using you at your own school when you show compassion to those who are afraid, lonely and overlooked. And He is using you when you serve and spend time with the widowed grandmother down the street.

I am amazed at the subtle yet wonderful ways Jesus is already using you to tangibly impact the ignored and the forgotten for His glory. God has obviously gifted you in the area of compassion and in seeing small details that others fail to see or fail to address. I am so proud that you don’t shy away from doing hard things.

But Claire, did you know that God is also going to use you in areas that you struggle in?

My precious sister, I know how difficult it can be to focus on one thing for a long period of time. I have seen how difficult some school subjects can be for you (and believe me, I have been there).

Oh sweetheart, I have seen you get frustrated. I’ve seen you hit the piano keys with tears in your eyes when your fingers simply do not do what you want them to do (not unlike a certain older sister, I’m afraid). I have seen you burst into angry, discouraged tears when the math concept doesn’t make sense and the problem doesn’t come out right. I have seen you (just like so many of us) become angry, impatient, and fearful when what you want to happen does not happen.

I know you, my gorgeous, caring sister, sometimes feel inadequate. We all do. Satan is so cruel (and sosmart) to feed and encourage the fears that we have already planted in our hearts. He tells us we are not smart enough, not good enough, not fast enough. It is so easy to listen to him, and it is easier still to wallow in self-pity and believe that we will never do anything well.

Claire, when you experience those moments and worry that you are not enough, I want you to remember something. It may surprise you, and it sounds almost unkind, but hear me out.

On your own, you will never be enough.

I will never be enough.

None of us will ever be enough.

But there is hope in abundance. Claire, if you forget everything else I have told you here, remember this:

Christ is enough.

God is enough for us. In fact, He is far more than enough. We ask for a cupful of love and grace, and He gives us an ocean. We ask for a plateful of forgiveness, and He gives us a feast.

Now, I want you to think about the awesome God who saved us. There is a passage in the Old Testament where God reminds Job of His strength and how He has formed all things. “Where Were You?” by Ghost Ship is based off of that passage.

Here are some of the lyrics. Imagine God speaking these words to you.

“Where were you the day that I spoke and told the sun to split the night open, caused the morning dark with its light to show?


Who shut in the ocean with stone doors, marked the reach of tides on those new shores, hung the day the waves rose and first broke forth?

Have you seen the springs of that great sea, walked the caverns carved in the black deep through the gates of darkness there on its floor?

Can you raise your voice to the storm cloud? Would the thunder answer and ring out? Does the lightning ask you where it should strike?”

What a powerful, unending, all-sufficient God we serve.

He is more than enough.

When you feel as if you do not measure up, experiencing impatience or frustration, growing angry with yourself, or feeling afraid, I want you to remember that Jesus Christ loves you more than life and more than that, God is sufficient.

You also should know that you are not alone in this fight. Paul battled something in his flesh, and he struggled with weakness. He is not specific as to exactly what it was, but it was an evil spirit from Satan trying to discourage him or a physical ailment. We do know that it tormented him, and he asked God to remove it from him. But God, in His sovereignty, allowed it to continue in order that Paul would rely solely on God to see Him through.

This is God’s response to Paul’s prayer.

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10, emphasis mine)

Claire, when you are struggling with school or piano, with impatience or fear, with anger, I want you to cry out to Jesus! Paul boasted of his weakness. He bragged about it, because he knew that without God, he could not succeed. If God did not come through for Him, Paul would be alone and he would fail.

Sister, that is faith. That is a life totally surrendered to Christ. And oh, I truly want you to learn that before you get to be any older. I’m just starting to discover it myself, and let me tell you, it is certainly not easy to learn to surrender over fears, desires, and weaknesses. But I can also tell you that saying “No, I do not need to be worried because I have Christ!” takes the burden of trying to be good enough off my shoulders. It is so freeing. Yes, it hurts sometimes, and it is definitely not easy, but Claire, I am now confident that God has my heart in His hands, and His Holy Spirit is beginning to shape my heart and teach my mind to trust His strength more than my own.

And I am released from my fears, my doubts, my insecurities, and the weight of inadequacy. I desire that same freedom for you, Claire.

And God, through Christ, has taken it one step further.

This Creator, this King, this Ruler of Heaven and Earth, when He chose to save your soul, He made you enough. On your own, you are not enough. It is only because of His blood that we are counted as righteous. You can do nothing to make Him love you more or to make yourself any better. Claire, that completely removes all of the pressure that the world puts on us to be smart enough, talented enough, and good enough. We are already enough in the eyes of the One who matters most.

Claire, when we are weak, when we feel like we are not enough, that is when Jesus comes through for us, because there is no way we can come through on our own.

I will tell you that, because our hearts are sinful and stubborn, it will be a constant battle to allow Jesus to command the journey of your life. I don’t tell you that to discourage you, but to prepare you. Paul wrote this in Romans 7:

“For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members [his flesh and heart] another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” (Romans 7:22-23)

Claire, as your earthly sister and as your sister in Christ, I want to encourage you and tell you that for as long as we live as daughters of the King, we will be fighting our sinful desires, but we will also be living in the shadow of Christ’s victory over sin and death, and that is something to take heart and rest in.

C.S. Lewis wrote,

“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.”

I love you, Claire. I am praying for you (in fact, I just prayed) and hope this encourages you.

As Aslan said to Lucy in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,

"Courage, dear heart."

Love,

Carly

P.S. I know how much you love worship music. Here are some worship songs that I listen to when I am feeling afraid, frustrated, and overwhelmed.

“Out of the Depths” (Sovereign Grace Music)

“The Perfect Wisdom of Our God” (Keith and Kristyn Getty)

“Good Shepherd of My Soul” (Keith and Kristyn Getty)

“Worn” (Tenth Avenue North)

“No Longer Slaves” (Bethel Music)