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Twitter Auto-Biography

Last night Beth Moore tweeted a tweet asking for Siesta’s to send her one tweet telling her about themselves so that she could picture us when doing a video taping.  I pulled up a new tweet and started typing.


“Wife to high school sweetheart. SAHM of 3yo & 1yo.”


But then I didn’t know what to put next.


Friend? But these days I don’t get out of the little bubble of my family much.


Volunteer? Who really wants to be known for volunteering?


Christ lover? It sounds so cliche but it is true. Still, a lot of the time I’m not focused on loving Christ so should I include that?


Methodist with Baptist roots? Late twenties? Type A? Control freak? Germ-a-phobe? Doesn’t exercise? Eats too many sweets? Self-doubter? Proud? Smart? Software developer? Introvert? Planner? Punctual? Hard on self and others? 


I had words describing me flowing through my brain following each other as fast as they could, but none of them were words that (A) I wanted to share Beth or (B) I was very proud of.


Which got me thinking.  How DO I want to be described?  If I could write my personal description in 140 characters or less (which I can, by the way) what would my dream self look like?  Those descriptions don’t come nearly as easy because as each word arrived so did a mound of taunting in my mind of how I didn’t measure up to those words.


Dedicated to Christ. Devoted Wife, Mom, Daughter, Sister, Friend. Compassionate. Giving. Loving. Selfless. Kind. Smart. Truthful. Considerate. Reader. Crafter. Writer. Productive. Generous. Helpful. Hard worker. Reliable. Faithful. Gracious.


But that’s 241 characters.  A good description but not twitter-worthy.  And it frustrated me thinking of them because as a word came to mind there was a voice in my head always telling me that I didn’t measure up to that word and couldn’t use it to describe myself.  So I started looking for verses to remind me that this isn’t true.


“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:21, NIV


“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8, NIV


“God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were.  But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” – Romans 5:20-21, New Living Translation


“All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers.  But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace.  When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down.  All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it.  Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life — a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.” – Romans 5:20-21, The Message (emphasis mine)


How powerful are those verses?  Such a reminder.  A reminder that GRACE WINS.  That God knew every sin that I would ever make before he died on the Cross and he still walked to Golgotha FOR ME.  


But those didn’t address all of my problems with those words.  So I kept searching.


“Keep your mind clear, and be alert.  Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion as he looks for someone to devour.” – 1 Peter 5:8, God’s Word Translation


“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly.” – John 10:10, New American Standard Version


So as I’m thinking about descriptive words for me and a voice is telling me that I don’t measure up, I need to remember that that voice is Satan!  It is not wrong to strive to be a better person, but I need to remember that God loves me regardless and gave his only Son for me even while I was in the depth of my sin.  His love is measureless and has no restrictions on how “good” I have to be or what I have to do to measure up.  Christ is the measure and there is no way for me to measure up to Him, except that He gave his life and took my sin upon his shoulders so that I can stand in righteousness with him forever.


I need to remember that.  And I need to view myself in the way that God views me.  As his beloved child.  As someone who has been justified in Christ.  As a sinner who strives to do better and, when I fail, starts over striving again to do better.


So after all of that, what do I want my 140 character description to be?  What words really matter and what is just fluff?  What would I want someone to say to someone who hasn’t met me yet but is going to?  I think this is what I want my description to be.


Sinner. Saved by Christ. Wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend. Striving to be loving, forgiving, faithful, generous, compassionate, kind.


Here’s praying that I can daily live up to that description.  And that I can remember that when I don’t, that Christ is still there to stand in the gap for me.

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2 Comment

  1. Reply
    Mrs. Jones
    September 1, 2012 at 7:33 pm

    This was exactly what I needed to read today. Thank you for sharing!

  2. Reply
    Lindsey
    September 5, 2012 at 9:01 pm

    Oh, I love this. So much. Thanks for the twitter bio challenge. I’ve been journaling through this all week!

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