Letting God Break You Down So That He Can Build You Up

Founders Note: Today on the blog we have one of are monthly contributors Sophia, she is sharing her heart on this month's theme Beauty in the Brokenness. You can learn more about Sophia on the about page. 

As I go through life I have come to learn that it is the struggles that I have gone through that makes me stronger.  There are many times in life where I feel I cannot be stretched enough and if I go through one more thing, then I will simply fall apart.

Even though the trail may last for weeks, months, or even years; once I am through them, I can always say I have become a better person in the end. 

Have you ever considered a diamond and what it must  go through in order to become a diamond.  It starts off as a lump of coal.  Through time, heat, and tremendous amounts of pressure a once dark, charred, lump of coal; has turned into a beautiful diamond. 

When you think of this parallel, this process can be compared to our life.  Do we not need to be broken first to understand our strength and our beauty?

“ And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.” Romans 5:4

This means that when you go through something and you are able to get through it, then it develops you as a person.  And having confidence in yourself and who you are as a person is what makes you beautiful.

Have you ever met a beautiful superficial women?

You think that she is pretty, but when she opens her mouth she has nothing of value to say and no whit behind her pretty little eyes. 

This may sound like a harsh analogy of someone, but I think that it is sad to see people that rely on being “pretty” just carrying them through life.  They have no idea of the world around them nor do they care.

Now let’s flip it, have you ever met someone who has been through so much and they speak about how God brought them out of it.  Some people may be telling you some of the most heart wrenching stories but when they talk about how God has lifted them out of a place of darkness and into a place of light, I think that is beauty.

I think it is beautiful to admit your past faults.  To admit that you were so much of a train wreck, that it took an act of God (literally) to bring you out.  To me that is beautiful.

When I think about the times that I was so full of myself and what I wanted, I was superficial.  It took God to show me that I was not as fancy as I thought I was.  He began to strip away the things that I felt defined me and showed me who I really needed to rely on, and that was Him. 

Now, I do not care what anyone else thinks about me.  I am going to be the person that God created me to be, not matter what others think. I felt I was beautiful before.  But it was not until God broke me down that I really understood what the true beauty in me was. And that is, I am nothing without Christ. 

I believe that this type of beauty radiates from the inside out.  It is a reminder that whenever I am going through something, like that lump of coal that has been under heat and pressure, I will turn out to be a diamond in the end.