How frustrating it is to work for days on a puzzle only to find that several of the pieces are missing!  During Christmas break, we often have a table set up with a jigsaw puzzle for family members to work on as they so fancy.  It is hard not to walk by without trying to insert a few pieces here and there. 

Last year, we had a beautiful Thomas Kinkade scene that we worked on for hours.  However, as we got closer to seeing the completed picture, we were so disappointed by the many holes.  The empty spaces really took away from the beauty of the scene, and left us feeling unsatisfied with the unfinished work of art.

That is sometimes how we can feel in our lives.  We feel unfinished or incomplete at times, and that can keep us from accomplishing some of the great things that God has designed for us to do.  We see the holes in our lives and become discouraged by the emptiness we find.

Unfortunately, we often seek to fill those empty places with various vices, such as busyness, overworking, overeating, substance abuse, shopping, relationships, amusement, accomplishments, hobbies, etc.  We might even try to fill those empty places with our spouses, children, or our social circles, but that puts an unfair burden on them to fill a need they were never intended to fill.  In marriage especially, we can become discouraged when our spouses cannot fill those deep crevices that gnaw at us for fulfillment.  We say to our husbands early in marriage, “You complete me,” and then become disillusioned later on when we realize that another human being can never complete us!  What a strain on a marriage!  With any of these, we are left feeling emptier than ever before because these substitutions can never fill those gaps that are intended only for God to fill.  

 But, there is hope!

Back to the Christmas puzzle, suddenly my son says, “I found them!”  Apparently, a few pieces had fallen under the table and no one had noticed.  Once we inserted the pieces, the finished product was beautiful!  What a feeling of accomplishment!  We could see that only those exact pieces were shaped to fit perfectly into the empty spaces.  And only the pieces designed for this puzzle could complete the picture and make it beautiful.  How silly would it have been to try to fill those spaces with pieces from another puzzle?  But, isn’t that like what we do when we try to fill our lives with anything other than God?

You see, our Creator designed us with missing pieces so that we would seek Him to fill the void.  Only He can fit those God-shaped spaces in our lives.  What is so wonderful is that when He comes in, we are made complete, whole, perfect, and beautiful in His sight!  We are a complete masterpiece!

Please don’t settle for substitutes.  Trust in the only One who can truly fill us and perfect us.  Allow yourself to learn true fulfillment by allowing God to complete you.

When we feel like we are not enough, we can trust in the fact that we are enough in Him because He made us complete.  He fills us and makes us whole, complete, and yes, perfect in the truest meaning of that word (Perfect means complete; lacking nothing; having all essential elements.).  As a wife, mom, and a minster, I can put all my insecurities aside because I know that God has given me everything I need to be a wonderful wife and mom, and influential and effective in ministry through Him alone. 

I am reminded that my competence and completeness come only through Him, and I cannot even neglect seeking Him to fill and equip me for even one day.  I am secure and confident in Him.  He makes this ordinary woman extraordinary through His power. 

Build momentum in the ministry He has called me to and to proceed with confidence.  This includes videos, more consistent writing, marketing to get the word out to more women, and to finally write that book that has been gnawing at me to begin.

Seek Him daily, without fail, and with all my passion, and to lean on Him for all I need to be effective.

Keep the momentum going and to not let it fizzle.

Keep the right attitude and learn from Him without letting pride or self-focus creep in.

Not allow fear or insecurity back in as the ministry begins to grow.

Remain diligent.

“But what if we believed it is Christ who completes us?  Or that we actually are complete because of Christ in us and His work for us?  Could it be that this kind of love is the very thing that makes us balanced, centered, secure, and yes…complete?”

“If we believed we are complete in Christ, we could stop our search for something more and could begin living life.”

“Realizing we are complete in Christ makes all that He is doing in us worth some of the pain – because in the end the maturity and wholeness will be the spiritual gain.”

“There is freedom in embracing the truth that all we are and all we ever will be is now hidden in Christ and constructed by the power of Christ’s work in us.”

“He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else…For in Him we live and move and have our being.”  Acts 17:28

“And in Him you have been made complete.”  Colossians 2:10

“We wear ourselves out trying to perfect ourselves, but the truth is, in Christ we are made perfect and complete.”

“Perfect in a spiritual sense is one who is being complete through maturity, growth, and surrender to God.”

“Wives:  You have all that is necessary to love your husband in a way that will be meaningful to him and pleasing to God…Ask God to love this man through you.”

“You have already been given all you need to be the mother that your child/children need.  Come to Christ daily and be filled.”

“You have all that you need to get along with people, live in integrity, and be a light.”

“God put you right where you are; trust Him to give you success in your line of work and to work thourgh you.  Be diligent.”

“You cannot go another day without calming your competence and completion in Christ!”

“But you are a Jesus follower and a difference maker because of Him. Come daily and be filled with His power, making you complete, whole, and ready for what He calls you to do in service for that day.”

“All of life is ministry, so all of us, regardless of life vocation, season, or position, need to be filled and ready to live a life of completion by Christ’s power each day.”

“Dare to see Christ in yourself and then to turn the light of truth on the way you view others.  Today look at others through the lens of Christ desiring to be their all, to complete them, and to make them extraordinary in Christ.”