I received an email from Rebekah Hoefnagels last week.  This is what it said…

Hey Jay, I was on your website today and I found it very interesting. I am passionate about the way women treat others and get treated negatively in our culture. I am not a feminist but I think that girls too often get sucked into false things (reality tv shows, clothing, popularity etc).

This is something I wrote a bit ago, that you haven’t touched on (from what I could see) on the website that I think should be addressed. it’s just an idea, pull ideas from it if you like and write something more relevant to the website. and Beware: It’s just a bunch of random thoughts thrown together.

Which is great, because this entire website is just a bunch of random thoughts thrown together!  As you can see, Rebekah is passionate that women learn to live right.  Which makes me very happy.  Check out her thoughts below…

This is Rebekah.

Don’t you love getting told that you are beautiful?

That you made a difference in someone’s life?

That you are funny?

We all know that sometimes a comment can either brighten our day or ruin it. So why is it that we continue to judge people and comment about their lives that we really don’t know anything about?

Yes a girl may have done something mean to you but that doesn’t mean you should go and tell others that she is a terrible person. A girl may not be up on the latest fashion trends but that doesn’t mean that she is out of touch with reality and won’t be hurt when you make fun of her clothes. And even if we don’t cut people down we still don’t go out of our way to encourage them.

For some reason subconsciously we think that if we tell someone they did a good job or look nice or are funny then that means they are better then us. We want to be at the top, the best in hopes of increasing our self-esteem. But all this competition just hurts us. Instead of having a group of close friends you will have a group of girls you are competing against so you don’t tell them your fears, struggles, and weaknesses.

When you truly believe that “you are fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) and that your identity lies in Christ (not in the clothes you own, the friends you have, the sports you play), encouraging others will come easily.

As females we need to come together and lift each other up. Too often in the media we get told to look a certain way, have certain interests, and date a lot to be confident. But our confidence comes from Christ. If we expect guys to treat us with respect we need to start treating each other with respect.

And if we don’t get treated with respect, don’t turn around and talk about it to someone else, forgive. “May we understand that forgiveness doesn’t justify the other person’s actions; instead, it makes us free.” I challenge you go against the flow and encourage those around you.

Rebekah