Devotionals

Alterations

by Kristi Bridges
02/25/17
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My word…will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it. Isaiah 55:11b NLT

“Look, Kristi! Let’s take the top from this pattern and add the collar from that one. Won’t that be gorgeous?” When I was growing up, Mom and I spent hours studying Butterick Patterns® and wandering dreamily through fabric stores. A brilliant seamstress, there’s no pattern she can’t alter.

One night awhile back, I began to text a friend, canceling a speaking engagement. I wanted to hide in my house and never leave. Who was I to take the stage? At 45, I feel like an eight-year-old playing dress-up whenever I teach, sing, speak—just a kid pretending. My thumb bounced over the letters and then erased them. It bounced, paused and erased again. My negative phrases were simply not true. After years of letting God shape my understanding, I couldn’t agree with the self-deprecating ugliness on the screen. I looked at the clock. 10:45 at the end of a very long week. I’d worked late and relaxed with my husband instead of pursuing my dreams. I looked up at God, ever-present and quietly waiting for acknowledgement. Tears spilled as I recognized the pattern. When I’m tired, I feel time racing by and my inner critic says I’m no good. That’s a lie. God is good, and I’m His dearly loved child. He will accomplish everything He sets out to do. I hit delete and asked for prayer instead. My friend responded, and I replaced self-criticism with God’s comfort. I took a victory lap and wrote a bit before lying down.

There is no pattern which cannot be altered.

Kristi Bridges is the author of Wisdom – Better than Wishing. She lives with her husband Richard and met her daughter last year.