When You’ve Never Been the Cool Girl But Are Chosen Anyway

Posted on Aug 28, 2018 Topic : Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Stacey Thacker

I was never cool.

One of the first indications was a hairstyle I was convinced would prove otherwise in middle school. Lured by promise of looking just like one of Charlie’s Angels I asked my mom, my personal hair stylist, to cut my long hair. But this would not just be any haircut. I wanted my hair to “feather” on the sides. It was the definition of cool in the 1980’s. I believed that if my hair feathered, I would somehow transform magically into the cool girl at school. You see, I wanted my hair to look just like my friend Julie’s. I tried everything to look like her. It wasn’t meant to be I suppose. My hair had more of an awkward swoop with unfortunate curls compliments of an at-home permanent I also convinced my mom to give me.

It never did feather.

Lately I’ve been thinking about how my life isn’t so different than those days back in middle school. Maybe you can relate to these feelings as well:

Insecurity:

Today, my insecurity seems to rise as I try to measure up to that same crowd. Only now it isn’t the hallway between classes. It looks more like Instagram and what all the other adorable women are posting online. I hear whispers in my head as I scroll that say, “Why are you even trying? You will never measure up to the 'Cool Kids.'”

Fear:

Insecurity may keep you from trying, but fear of failure will probably cause you to work twice as hard to make sure no one sees you are struggling. What is worse than failing? Failing in front of others.

Undesirable:

This feeling resurfaced again this past year in the middle of my forties. Who wants a weary woman, who looks tired, is busy raising four girls, and can’t quite keep her shopping list down to one trip per week?

Who wants that girl?

The Bible says, long ago, before God laid the foundations of the world, he was thinking about you (and me) and how much he loved us. In fact in the book of Ephesians, chapter three verse fifteen tells us that we were chosen and received our name from the Father, from whom “all families in heaven above and on earth below receive their names” (The Voice). He decided from the beginning of time to adopt us as his children through his only Son, Jesus, and to write his name over our hearts. Do you know how he felt about that? He delighted in doing so. His plan was for us to be part of his special family. Being part of his family brings with it blessings of untold worth, gifts we get to experience now and forever, and more importantly, access to our heavenly Father no one can hinder.

He whispers over my insecurities: blameless

He persists in telling me when I fear failure: free

He shouts over the voice that cries undesirable: chosen

Jesus wants that girl. Then and now.