Unleashing Your Inner Bombshell

SO I've just turned 45 and I've decided it was time to take my first “selfie”.  I've been hiding behind the camera for the last 44 years and it is time to start living in front of it. I have come to terms with the fact that I am middle-aged and chunky. I've always been chunky. I’ll probably always be chunky. And you know what, it kind of works for me. I’m kind of curvalicious. 

But that doesn't mean that I can keep using that as an excuse to be lazy and just let myself go, especially for health reasons. I once heard a pastor reply when asked whether women should wear make-up, “If a house needs painting, paint it.”  Good point. So for Christmas I bought myself a whole drawer of make-up. I didn't plan to buy this stuff but on trip to a department store with my sister, we treated ourselves to a spontaneous make-over.  We wanted to try that popular “bombshell girl” eyeliner reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe.  WOW! I haven’t had that much fun in a long time and let’s face it THIS house needed painting. I was so excited about my “bombshell” eyes that I was obnoxious with the selfies, much to the embarrassment of my daughter. 

I recently read a post on Facebook about a lady who had refused to have her picture taken because she was self-conscious about her weight. Then after a serious car accident she realized that if she had died her family wouldn't have any pictures of her.  I read that and thought, “That’s me. Why am I hiding myself?”  So for my birthday, I've resolved to stop living in the past and start living in the present.  To stop making excuses for keeping the status quo which is easy and safe and to challenge myself to step out of my comfort zone. I need to stop putting my life on hold waiting for a better physical or spiritual version of myself to materialize. The time for action is now. We are not guaranteed tomorrow so why not do something worthwhile today.

Over the Christmas holiday I watched the movie, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013), and it really resonated with me.  Walter Mitty is a guy who in his youth had big dreams of traveling the world and was on the verge of going when he lost his dad. This changed the course of his life because instead of leaving, he stayed and started working in run-of-the-mill jobs. Eventually he found himself working in a dark basement at Life Magazine where he escaped into his daydreams for adventure.  He was too scared to take risks, to speak up at work, to approach the woman he admired, and life was passing him by.  Suddenly, he is required to track down a missing photograph and he dusts off his old backpack and travel journal his father had given him before his death and sets off on a great adventure of self-discovery. He remembers who he was, who he wanted to be, and ends up experiencing the life he always dreamed of.  At the end of the movie, I wanted to stand up and cheer because I thought Walter Mitty could be anyone of us. Something can happen in our lives to get us off track, to paralyze us with fear, to hurt us, and we retreat and play it safe.

When I was in high school, I dreamed of becoming a great advertising executive, living in New York, and in my daydreams I had every single outfit picked out. I was having Carrie Bradshaw aspirations before she was even invented.  But somewhere along the way I let fear hold me back and I picked the easier path. I have always let fear dictate my fate.  I was afraid to speak up, talk to the cute guy, afraid to take chances. But in my daydreams, I was always having great adventures while looking absolutely marvelous…

After I turned 40 something happened to me. I believe the Lord was preparing me for something. I started to laugh, relax, and I became more approachable. At 43, I had a hunger for God and desired His will for my life. Slowly, with God’s loving and patient guidance, I started making those daydreams into reality. And now at 45, I am ready to embrace my inner bombshell and unleash her. Because I've realized God doesn't want me to look or act like anyone else.  I would never have made a good Carrie Bradshaw. I can’t stand wearing heels, I hate crowded cities, and I’m a one-man girl.  And I may not be a big marketing executive but I can write an impromptu preschool puppet show. And let me tell you it was an inspirational tearjerker. 

You see we all have bombshells inside of us….

I bet you think I’m talking about your outward appearance…. I’m NOT.

The bombshell I discovered inside me was there all the time. Just like there is one inside you waiting to be unleashed. It doesn't matter if you are 25, 45, or 85 or if you are a size 2, 12 or 22. God has created us in His beautiful image; with the potential to unleash His loving character. But until we realize and embrace that image, we keep that bombshell inside of our protective shell.

Please let me give you a warning if you want to join me in this adventure! Don’t release your inner bombshell to please “man” because that only leads to emptiness and disappointment.  Marilyn Monroe was the greatest example of what the world considers a bombshell and yet she said, “I always felt insecure and in the way, but most of all I felt scared. I guess I wanted love more than anything else in the world.”  You see regardless of how much make-up I buy or if I fit into my little black dress from the 1980s, without love I will always feel empty. Man’s love is fickle but God’s love is constant.  God does not care about out our outward appearance. “God judges persons differently than humans do. Men and women look at the face; God looks into the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7.

So do you feel like releasing your inner bombshell? Have you heard the expression, “I’m the bomb”? It means to be cool, excellent, the best.  For us to be “the bomb” this year we have to be: 

B = BOLD

I am not a bold person. I don’t take rejection well. I’m easily discouraged. And I struggle with fear. BUT as I've gotten older I have come to rely upon the following Bible verse:

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4:16 (NLT)

God wants us to come to Him in our weakness and ask for help. When I approach His throne, He is faithful to fill me with His very own Spirit of Boldness so I can go and do His will for my life.  You may wonder, what is God’s will for my life? It is very simple. Get to know God. Share the Good News of His Son Jesus. Share what Jesus has done in your life. And love others. That’s it. You make think, I’m not good with words. I don’t know the Bible well enough. Guess what? You don’t have to. Because it won’t be you talking, it will be God. Jesus said:

…God will give you the right words at the right time. For it is not you who will be speaking—it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Matthew 10:19-20

I want to share with you a time that God spoke through me. I was in a college class and the teacher started talking about the Bible. Everyone, including the teacher, started to mock it. I remember raising my hand and stating that I believed the Bible was God’s Holy Word. Well, then they all started mocking me, asking me if I believed all the “stories” in the Bible. They were throwing out all these different stories when suddenly I remembered a Christian radio program I had heard the previous day that seemed to answer their cruel interrogation.  I was quoting dates, historical examples, and facts. When I was done the class was silent. The teacher said, “Well, I guess we will just have to agree to disagree.” Now this person speaking was not me because I cannot recall a single fact or date I gave that afternoon. God himself gave me the words and it was God who defended His Word that day, I just moved my lips and provided the vocal cords. 

You want to be bold for God. Ask Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit just like He did the apostles in the Book of Acts. They were filled with the power of Holy Spirit and they were “The Bomb” that exploded on the world and changed it forever.

After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness. Acts 4:31 (NLT)

O = OUTGOING

I used to have a great pastor. He founded our church and everyone loved him. We thought he’d preach from our pulpit until the Lord took him home. Then one day he announced he was stepping down from our church to start a Biker Ministry. WHAT? He went from slacks and a button down printed shirt to leather, tattoos, and a bald head. I remember feeling sad and hurt until he preached a few months later and told us, “The people who are lost, hurting, and unsaved are not in these four walls. They are out there and if the church wants to reach them, the church needs to go out there.”  Those words have stuck with me….

You see, church is for Christians to be fed from God’s Word, to be encouraged by fellow believers, and to be renewed by the Holy Spirit. But that only happens one or two days a week.  The rest of the week we are called to be among the unbelievers and to share what we have learned and to practice what we have been preached. 

Recently my daughter had the “it's not you it's me” talk with her BFF and unfortunately she was the one on the receiving end.  So along with the biggest glass of chocolate milk ever came the following mom advice, “In middle school, BFFs are going to make-up and break-up weekly. You don’t want to rely on just one person. God has blessed you with joy and a beautiful smile. Use it at school and be a friend to many, especially to those who are alone.”  And because God seems to inspire me in the most unusual ways; He used a piece of newspaper I found in a restaurant to help me get this message across to my daughter.  In the Dear Abby column was a letter from a senior lady called “Not Lonely in Woodstock, Illinois” who gave some great advice on friendship. She wrote, “If you want friends, we can’t sit back and wait for people to come to us. Smile, speak up, pay a sincere compliment – just communicate! If you do, the majority of people will respond positively…Many people of all ages fear they wont be accepted. But if they show up with a friendly attitude, they will be. You have to contribute – whether it’s with a smile, an opening remark or some other welcoming gesture….I think many people have forgotten we need to give in order to get.”  So if a little old lady from Illinois can be a “bombshell” than a 12 and 45-year old can too.

The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen. 1 Peter 4:7-11 (NLT)

M= MOTIVATED

So even if I’m curvalicious at 45, I know in order to be fabulous at 50 I need to move more. Writing is very sedentary and I tend to sit a lot.  My sister has been trying to get me to exercise and recently she shared a bit of news that supposedly today’s biggest health risk is being sedentary which is replacing smoking. I hate it when she’s right!

Because I’m the type of person who does better around people, I put a note in my coworkers’ mailboxes asking them to join me for an afternoon walk. The shy, lazy side of me was ready to quit if no one accepted my invitation. I guess God thought it was time for me to get moving because three of my coworkers agreed to join me.  I have already lost 3 pounds. It love having company because it makes exercising fun and it’s motivating. 

To motivate can be defined as “to provide an incentive, to move to action or compassion”.  These ladies have provided an incentive for me because I look forward to talking, laughing, and I hardly notice that my legs are burning.  And just like these ladies have motivated me, God wants to motivate us by His Holy Spirit. The Bible says that Jesus was motivated by compassion.

But when He saw the multitudes He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like a sheep having no Shepard. Matthew 9:36 (NKJV)

The compassion of Jesus moved him to heal the sick, feed the hungry, and teach the Good News. In Galatians 5:16 (MSG), the Apostle Paul said, “My counsel is this: Live freely, animated, and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness.” So in order to be a bombshell this year, I am praying that God’s Spirit opens my eyes to the needs of others so that I am not selfish, that His spirit moves me to compassion, and that His Spirit of Boldness motivates me to action and prayer.

B = BELIEVE YOU ARE BELOVED

This is probably the hardest step to take and the biggest hurdle to overcome when unleashing your inner bombshell.  Most of us have felt unworthy. We struggle with doubts and fear of rejection. But God has said that He loves us. He has proved that He loves us by sending His Son, Jesus, to die for our sins. He continues to love us by giving us His own Spirit to live inside our hearts. But even though I know all this, there are still days when I think that I have messed up so bad that God will stop loving me.

Then I go back and I reread my post, Jesus' Holy Hug, and I remember that on December 27, 2012, I felt God’s love in a tangible way.  I remember that God told me, through the power of the Holy Spirit, that He was proud of me. And then I stop the pity party. I put on my headphones, blast my worship music, lift my arms to Heaven, thank Him for His blessings, and breath in His love.  And I remind myself that God’s word says He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He is unchanging. That means if God loved me and was proud of me on December 27, 2012, He loves me and is proud of me today, tomorrow, and forever.   

You see most of us are like a pearl hiding inside a safe, little shell. Do you know how natural pearls are made? They are made when an irritant, like a piece of sand, gets inside of a mollusk shell. The mollusk secretes a substance over the irritant, repeatedly, forming a beautiful, priceless pearl. In the analogy of the pearl, if you haven’t figured it out, we are the irritants.  We come to Jesus imperfect, flawed, just a speck of sand. But we crawl into the safety of His shell knowing that we are safe.  God doesn't want to keep us as a flawed, speck of sand. He covers us with his Holy Spirit, repeatedly, continually, as many times as we require over the years making us into His shining, beautiful, pearls. But just like naturally made pearls are a prized treasure meant to be seen, so are we. Our testimony is the perfecting work that Jesus has done in our lives and we are meant to show it and share it.

If you are still not convinced that God can use you regardless of your age, insecurities, perceived inabilities, or lack of knowledge than let me tell you about one of my 4-year old preschoolers. Last Friday one of my students, to whom speaking is difficult because English is his second language, proudly proclaimed to me,

“Mrs. Yolanda I know all about Jesus now.”

“You do? Tell me.”

“God loves us. Jesus lives in our hearts. He takes away our sins. And Jesus helps the sick people.”

WOW, I blown away! That is the Good News of the Gospel in a nutshell. Now if a 4 year old who is just grasping the English language can be a “the bomb” for the Lord, I think we can too.

So I have a feeling 45 is going to be full of adventures with my Lord Jesus. Because you see, God never intended for me to go to New York and work as an Ad Exec in some small office killing myself to make a buck. That dream was too small for God. His dream and plan for me was bigger.  I’m His personal Advertising Executive and my assignment is global.  I’m to advertise His love and plan of salvation to everyone who reads this Blog. So watch out, because I've got my “Bombshell” girl eyeliner on and I’m on a mission for my BOSS.

So here I am in the place of worship, eyes open, drinking in your strength and glory. In YOUR generous love I am really living at last! Psalm 63:2 (MSG)

Love,

Yolanda