DIAMONDS ✴✴✴✴ I’m sure your first thought of the word, you probably imagined a beautiful diamond that you would see someone wearing or displayed in a jewelry store. It would be sparkly and shiny and beautiful.

BUT…

Let me tell you one thing about diamonds, they don’t start out as the beautiful piece of jewelry you are imagining. They go through a process. They have to be found, dug up, and transformed into that beauty piece of jewelry that first came to your mind as you read that first word to start the blog. That beautiful diamond you see began its journey as a diamond in the rough. To the untrained eye, finding a diamond probably would just look like a dull piece of glass. No beauty, no sparkle! The process to become the beauty you see in the jewelry stores or in your jewelry box is an intense process. It takes months, but the end result is the beautiful piece of diamond jewelry you may be wearing. A jeweler or gemologist shapes the diamond to bring out the beauty of that diamond, much like how the moment you allowed yourself to be found and God dug you up out of where you were and began to transform you. He began to mold and shape you to bring out the shine in you to display HIS GLORY. Isaiah 64:8 – And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand.

A diamond in the rough is basically referring to the original state. The original state in which it was found and had to be dug up. That diamond will have a dirty appearance and the shape would most likely be unappealing to the eye, but it has the potential to become that high quality valued diamond when it withstands the process.

You may not even realize as you read through the blog, that you were once or maybe are that DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH waiting to be discovered. You may not even really know God. Maybe you’re even reading this because you know me and want to support me (by the way: THANK YOU ❤) or a friend or family member asked you to read this blog, but I want to tell you this – IT IS NOT AN ACCIDENT that you are reading this blog because God knows you and however way He did it, He led you here to tell you something. He knew you before you were even born. Jeremiah 1:5 – “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born, I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.” As I sat here writing this out by hand as that is my process, I began to just feel the emotion and realization that there are no words to even describe how I feel knowing that HE – set me apart and appointed me – even as rough around the edges I was and even parts of me still is, He still began the process of removing from me parts that were no longer of any use to me or HIM because they represented the world. He would now bring me through the process the represent HIM to shine for HIS honor and glory. Like I said there are no words to describe the feeling I feel realizing the I am HIS treasure and the value he places on me by calling me HIS and I pray you realize he holds YOU to the same.

You may be in that diamond in the rough state and may not feel any of the words you just read but I tell you from my own experience just as God saw the potential for me to shine for HIS glory. I want you to know you hold that same potential and value in his eyes. Malachi 3:17 – “They will be my people,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “On the day when I act in judgment, they will be my own special treasure. I will spare them as a father spares an obedient child.

Just as the rough diamonds found had to go through a process of heat and pressure to become that beautiful Diamond, you will also go through fire, pressure, trials, struggles, and hurts but one thing I can say is that you will not go through them alone. God will remove every part of you that represents the world as long as you allow Him because he won’t force himself on you, He is a gentleman and through that process you will begin to represent HIM.

Are you willing? Will you surrender your will for HIS?

Let me tell you, I stayed in that “Diamond in the Rough” state for so long because I did not want to change anything in my life or myself, but I still wanted what I heard God had to give me. I still wanted to run my life as I wanted and do whatever pleased myself. During those years in my life, I did feel rough around the edges, unapproachable, angry, alone and never realizing that the moment I would allow God to polish me up and shape me to be like HIM, He would use me for things I would never imagine myself doing. Even if it looked hard or scary, I would do it because I now knew that if he called me to do it or go through it, He would equip me and would go with me through the process.

To the world once I gave God that chance as He asked me that rainy cloudy day, I was not good anymore, but to God I was always that precious beautiful diamond and you are too! The enemy will try everything to get to you to go back to the world that devalued you the moment you chose GOD to be #1 but never forget …. THE devil IS A LIAR! Even the many times I have fallen short, God forgave me when I asked, and he still picked me and shined me up again.

I was told once or twice or more (my pastor) on a bad day I was having about people often times look in the mirror and even though there are dramatic changes in them, they do not see it, they see the old them. To be honest, it is a struggle I still have at times but let me tell you God never saw what I saw. He always saw the potentional, treasure, value and beauty I held in HIS eyes. You shine, you draw attention because no matter how much dirt the enemy tries to throw on you, you still shine like God created you to.

I want to end tell you:

You were worth the find. You were worth the process. As you begin the transformation in Christ from that “diamond in the rough” to that new creation of that beautiful diamond you will see it was worth the process. ❤

God Bless You!