To Be Real

While driving with my daughter to an appointment this week we listened to an audio book from the library called, “Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption” by Katie J. Davis. The author is a young woman in her early twenties who is wise beyond her years. Waaay more wise if you ask me. She has figured out how to find real joy and happiness by losing herself in the service of God.  She is serving “the least of these.”

When she shared the story of the The Velveteen Rabbit and compared it with her life, I knew immediately that it also applies to all mothers (and fathers) who sincerely devote their lives to the rearing of righteous families.


 It is a beautiful, deep and profound analogy. From Katie:

"I was like that velveteen rabbit. When I first went to Uganda, I felt sparkling and beautiful, as a teenage girl from Brentwood ‘should be’. But now I spent my days without makeup, getting my hands dirty and doing hard but meaningful work. I was tattered and worn out. The beautiful, dirty people who populated my life had loved all the polish and propriety right off me.

"I’d been hurt and scarred and banged around a bit… but God was using all those things to help me become real. My stuffing was coming out because I’d been loved to tatters. I was coming to understand that what it means to be real is to love and be loved until there is nothing left. And when there’s nothing left, and we feel we’re all in pieces, God begins to make us whole. He makes us real. His love sets us free and transforms us.”

To BE REAL also means there is nothing phony, shallow or materialistic about us. It means we love the Lord with all our might, mind and strength and will follow Him in spite of losing  perceived comfort and ease in our life.

At times I too feel just like that Velveteen Rabbit--tattered and worn. But I also know I have a loving Savior who is working on transforming me into the REAL person I desire to become. What else really matters? :-)



Just "being real" with our little boys! Spencer was actually there too (next to Michael) but wisely hid from the camera... :-)