Jerri Kelley

My Monday.

This morning early I was on Facebook encouraging folks to be intentional in making the world better, and I’ve spent about 8 hours trying to dig my way out of today just to feel better.

You know those days?

The days when you wake up before 5 to the sound of the dog throwing up in your bedroom floor and you want to jump up to run to the backdoor to let her out but are afraid to put your feet down because…you know…dog vomiting.

And you try to journal, but your mind just wanders over so much…right until you wake up because the phone rings and you realize you’ve dozed off and slept an hour, but at least you didn’t wake up to a dog vomiting again.

Then roll into mowing to keep the HOA gestapo’s emails out of your inbox, so you apologize to the flowers in a blanket apology because YOU recognize the wonder of them even if politics doesn’t.

And somehow despite your upbeat Facebook post between the second and third round of vomiting, you can’t dig yourself out of the malaise, so you opt to let it be what it is and talk to God while you sip your Propel-flavored water and you say something really glorious like, “I’m a writer. It is what I do. it’s my calling. We both know that, and I have no idea what to write.”

Yes, that is what I said right before I received the text, “I burned the cupcakes for (daughter’s) party. What made me think I could do this? I am so stupid.”

And I nearly lost my mind because…no. We DON’T call ourself stupid. We just don’t.

You want to call yourself untrained? Fine. You want to call yourself unpracticed? Okay. You want to call yourself a novice? Groovy. But you do NOT call yourself “stupid”. (Okay, so I’m still working through the losing my mind part.)

So I calmly wrote back, “There are lots of reasons baked things burn. It isn’t a sign of intelligence, otherwise every baker would be deemed stupid, and I would be a moron, but I’m not. I’m a smart woman who burned some cupcakes, just like you are.” Then I told her how to make a box recipe taste like a professional job, even told her how to gauge cooking times, and assured her she can do this. Because she can.

I realized that is what I need to write about because how you see yourself will decide how good your world is.

Y’all, we weren’t made to think we are stupid.
We weren’t made to hate ourselves.
We weren’t made to see all the things we are not.

We are made in God’s image.

We are made in the image of perfection, beauty, joy, wonder, accomplishment, creativity, vast abilities. We are made in the image of all things good.

In Genesis it says that Adam and Eve were in the garden, and they were naked but unashamed.

That isn’t just a physical perfection thing.
That is a vulnerability thing.
That is self-acceptance in its perfect form.

God said, “It isn’t good for man to be alone,” and he made Eve. Notice that Adam did not feel ashamed that he needed a partner. Eve wasn’t all insecure about being created second.
They were good with who they were as they were. “Unashamed” is the beautiful embracing of , “This is who I am, the stuff I do well and the stuff I need help with, and I’m good with all that.”

“Unashamed” means they liked themselves as they were.

That is God’s idea of perfect right there.

We were created to like ourselves and enjoy who we are.

We were not created to hate ourselves.
Not on a Monday that starts way before the alarm with the sound of a dog vomiting and slides in to malaise.
Not when the smoke alarm is screeching loud enough for the neighbors to know you tried baking again.
Not when we forget to get gas and AAA has to come save us.
Not…ever.

You are worth fighting for. So fight for you.
Jerri Kelley