Attractive or Distracting?

This week I had an interesting situation in which God taught me more about who He has made me to be. I must warn the reader, however, that this is quite out of the box for me, so bear with me.

I was unable to go to my normal hiding place on Wednesday afternoon right after bowling, so while I waiting for that space to be available, I went to an eating establishment to do some studying. As I entered the building, I ordered my food, located the fireplace where I was going to study, and notice a young man studying there as well. I thought "This will be great. I will be able to study knowing someone else is also studying, and that will motivate me to keep on task." Did I mention he was nice to look at? OK, so that would not have been a big problem at all for me, except for his choice of study...

I sat down, and in preparing to pray for my food, I noticed what he had in his lap for study. He was studying his Bible! As a woman of theology, and one with a ministry degree seeking a man who know's God's word, I was floored! When he was done with reading in the Bible, he then took out a systematic theology text, and began pouring over that as well. Oh, my heart was fluttering!

OK, so then I began to think about having sat down there, partially because there was an attractive man there, and partly to study. I realized that I really didn't want to be a distraction, especially to man who was studying God's word. Then as I was having this inner dialogue with God, He reminded me that I wanted to be noticed as attractive. I began to question Him about if that meant that I would be a distraction, which I have never been comfortable with. He reminded me that when my husband is attracted to me, he will be distracted from whatever he is doing, and I will be in the front of his mind. I'm still not fully OK with this, as I don't like drawing attention to myself (though if you know me, that's sometimes hard to avoid), but I think God is teaching me a valuable lesson about beauty.

As a woman, I am created to show forth the beauty of God. This beauty is one that catches the attention of all who witness it, just as my attention was captured in the midst of the Rocky Mountains, the aspens, and the lakes in the valleys. God is making me to be beauty that does draw the attention of those who witness my life, and though I never want to draw someone away from God, I want to be a woman that others see and say "Wow, God is so amazing! He has created such beauty!" I want my life to be all for the glory of my King!

So today, the aplication? Well, first of all, think about the things that distract you. Are they distracting because they are beautiful, or are they just mind-catchers to keep you distracted for the sake of distraction? Secondly, let God use your life to attract the attention of others to His beauty and glory. I'm still not sure how all this will pan out in my life, but I know I am more free to be me and let God shine through.

Well, it's off to the books. Talk to you all again soon.