Report Card

Most of us felt apprehension when the teacher reported our grade for the semester. There are some subjects that we do well while others we struggled until we just gave up trying.

And our grades reflect the amount of effort in studying something that we may not even use in the daily work force. When you first look at the grade, you can feel low and your confidence takes a nose dive. Sometimes it wasn't for the lack of trying but connecting the dots in a meaningful way to the life around you. You fight the voices of those who say you are a failure. You will never amount to anything. Receiving a bad grad is evidence of what you have come to believe as being true.

Many of us may forget the grades we received in our formative years, but we daily we grade ourselves by comparing what others have, so we mark ourselves down.

Several years ago, a doctor worked with me during a season of depression and anxiety when the Lord spoke to my heart, "Whose report are you going to believe?" While the doctor's report was accurate, I found myself discounting any good in my life and settling for a rather dismal, colorless existence. In other words, I didn't believe God is good and He is good to me.

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV)

Beloved, whose report are you going to believe?

When your children drift from home, don't grade your parenting skills (or lack of) but rather believe what God says, "So there is hope for your descendants," declares the LORD. "Your children will return to their own land." (Jeremiah 31:17, NIV).

In the morning, when your eyes look into the mirror, remember you are made in His image. You are lovely and wonderfully made by a God who is faithful and loving.

God is not going to grade you like others have done based on your performance, for what you bring or what you can accomplish but He says, "The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt." (Deuteronomy 7:7-8, NIV).

Will you believe His report? And stop de-grading your self?