Have you ever sat down to a table either at home or at a restaurant that wasn’t clean? You sit down and you see crumbs on the table. What do you do? You do what all of us do, you take the edge of your hand and gently whisk those crumbs off the table onto the floor – to be swept away as trash when the cleaning person comes through.

When people reject you for whatever reason, you may feel like you’ve been swept aside, just like those crumbs on the table, nothing more than something to be swept away with the rest of life’s trash. They’ve enjoyed anything that (in their mind) might be good about you but when they’re done enjoying the goodness that you bring into their life – well, they’re done. People we LOVE can treat us this way. Maybe they don’t know just how deeply it hurts you, but regardless – it hurts you, a lot.

For me Mother’s Day was a particularly hard day. I haven’t seen my mother (nor my father or two brothers) in 25 years. And for some reason this year the hurt just really reached deeper than I expected.

But there is a BIG difference in being set aside and being set apart. Maybe you feel like you’ve been “set aside” by people in your life. I want you to know that even when King David felt low and pushed from every side, that he said in Psalms 4:3 “Know that the Lord has set apart his faithful servant for himself: the Lord hears when I call to him.”

In Hebrew, the word “qodesh” we translate into “holy”. But what it means is being set apart. In Christ we are set-apart, in the eyes of God He sees us as holy, which is the only way He can see those who enter His presence.

So when you struggle with how OTHERS see you, what they think of you, what they say about you. Remember this… our Lord and Savior, the God of all creation sees you as holy. YOU are set apart. People don’t get to set the standard for who is and isn’t set apart. God did it when He allowed His Son Jesus to die on the cross for us. When people find other ways to tell you that you’re somehow NOT a child of God, they are using their own measuring stick, not that of God in Heaven who kept it really simple.

Only God knows your heart – that’s why He sent the Holy Spirit for us. You are a child of the Father, in His eyes you are perfect. His gift of Christ’s sacrifice is what makes us perfect when we acknowledge what He did for us.

Surround yourself with people who are a blessing you to and to whom you can BE a blessing. No matter your own circumstance, you CAN be a blessing to others. That’s why you’re here. It’s easy to forget when we’re all dealing with the difficulties of our own lives, but God has a greater purpose for you than to just survive your current circumstance. It’s possible to be in your struggle and still bless others. LOOK for the opportunities – God will provide them, and the blessings to you when you step into His plan for you.

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