Adequate

My friend Kristen and I are doing a Bible study together. It's Kay Arthur's Lord, Give Me a Heart for You, a study based on 2 Corinthians.
Thanks to it being summertime and the fact that Kristen and I are both moms with kiddos who keep us hopping, we're not racing through the study.
And I'm okay with that. I'm thankful I'm taking it slow because it gives me more time to think about the truths I'm discovering--or rediscovering--and to make them personal.
The most recent truth is now emblazoned on my computer screensaver:

I am adequate because I am a child of God.

Pretty simple statement, that.

There's no additional clause added on, stating some thing I have to do or not do to make me adequate.

And, to be quite honest, that blows my whole Accidental Pharisee way of life right out of the water.

My relationship with God makes me adequate.

Period.

There's alot of things that have happened in my life that have told me I'm inadequate. Things I've done. Things that were done to me--like the abuse. People's less than favorable reaction to me. My own less than favorable reaction to me.

And, as an Accidental Pharisee, I wasted alot of time and effort trying to make myself feel adequate. And then I hoped someone noticed. I hoped God noticed.

Once again, I made my life much more complicated than it needed to be. The truth is, my adequacy comes from God, not from anything I do. Who says? God does in 2 Corinthians 3:5:

"Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves , but our adequacy comes from God . . ."

Just Thinking Out Loud: Am I adequate? As a child of God, the answer is yes. I am adequate because I am God's daughter.

It's a simple--and as amazing as that.