It's quite beautiful how this sweet soul and I met. The Lord worked in really cool ways to bring her into my life through my TooKnowYou Bible study that we have been having over the past 5 months.
Grace has some serious passion for her beloved Savior. I have very much enjoyed getting to know her and watch her life her life for the Kingdom of God!
Please enjoy this inspiring post that Grace has so beautifully written for us all!
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Howdy! I’m Grace. I’m a young lady who loves her family, brothers, cowboy boots, books, and cooking, amongst many other things. God transferred me from “the domain of darkness…to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13) at a young age, so I have a passion to know, love, and enjoy God as a young person. I am happy to join Kallie in this same passion and am honored to write this post!!
Are you a tough girl? I am. I’m not afraid of a lot of things (just don’t talk about snakes or tornado's). I’m always in the political debates around the Thanksgiving dinner table because conflict doesn’t bother me. I’m very driven to get things done. I like the smell of hard work. I don’t like to take breaks. I tend to produce harsh, blunt statements. I rarely cry. Emotions and I have a lot of wrestling matches.
Perhaps you’re a tough farm girl out there who can conquer the world in her boots. Or are you a tough girl that gets straight A’s on a concrete college campus? Maybe you live in the city and tell people like it is. I ask, are you a tough girl? If you are, I write this article for you. If you aren’t, praise God! Praise God the body of Christ is made up of more personalities then mine.
I may be a tough girl, but there’s nothing that shatters my toughness like a holy God and his word.
Recently, I read Ephesians 4 and came to verse 32: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted…”
“Tenderhearted!” I thought. “What does THAT mean? It sounds repulsive! And sappy!” My tough girl didn’t like this command.
But it is God who has revealed to me my own sinfulness and need of a savior. He has turned me to Christ, my only hope for redemption. He has made me new (1 Corinthians 5:17). The word of God shows me how I ought to live a life transformed by Christ because I still have this old nature with me—a tough-girl mode—that has to be conformed to the image of Jesus. Paul said it right: “I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand” (Romans 7:21). Whenever I want to act for God’s glory I find my own pride blinding me and telling me to act like the tough, perfect, fearless, emotionless girl instead. That’s what I felt when I read Ephesians 4.
Whatever the length of my repulsiveness, I had to take this verse to heart just like any other passage. I couldn’t ignore it. And I don’t want you to either, fellow tough girl.
When looking up the Greek word, I found that this tenderheartedness seems to imply compassion, identifying with the sufferings of others, and bringing another person’s heart into the picture. It might mean crying with someone hurting from cancer. It may mean that you let yourself become deeply moved about an unbelieving heart.
Maybe it means holding the hands of grief or sitting with another’s shame and regret. Maybe it means yelling a “whoo-hoo” at a friend’s exciting news. Compassion has to seep through the tough girl’s stalwart face. Romans 12:15 says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” Above all, this tenderheartedness means that I have to lay down my personality as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). I have to drop my own agenda in order to minister to another’s needs. My priorities have to be broken and my to-do list reversed.
Being a tough girl is reproachable, not simply because Ephesians 4:32 says to be tenderhearted, but because it is not ultimately Christlike.
I say “ultimately” for a reason. Jesus had to be tough sometimes. He yelled at the Pharisees, “You brood of vipers!” (Matthew 12:34) He had to bear the cross, “despising the shame,” and that had to take some guts (Hebrews 12:2). Christians have to take up their crosses, endure sufferings, and do hard things. Toughness isn’t entirely ruled out. It just has to be directed in a Christlike way.
After Ephesians 4:32, the apostle goes on to say, “Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children” (Ephesians 5:1). This is what must motivate the rearing-in of the tough girl. I want to be an imitator of God because I am his child. I want to be Christ-like. Christ wrapped himself in the form of sinful flesh to identify with my weaknesses—yours, too. He bent down from glory to be with the sinful and the hurting. Jesus wept when he came to Lazarus’ tomb. Jesus rejoices whenever those he bought with a price have been freed from bondage to sin. That’s the image I’m being conformed to. That image is more glorious and joy-filled than anything else.
So, tough girls, join me in being tenderhearted and cultivating compassion. Let’s be imitators of God, children washed in the blood of the lamb. And let’s be tough for his sake alone.
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