I am your God, I have molded you with my own hands, and I love what I have made.  I love you with a love that has no limits, because I love you as I am loved.  Do not run away from me.  Come back to me— not once, not twice, but always again.  You are my child.  How can you ever doubt that I will embrace you again, hold you against my breast, kiss you and let my hands run through your hair?  I am your God— the God of mercy and compassion, the God of pardon and love, the God of tenderness and care.  Please do not say that I have given up on you, that I cannot stand you anymore, that there is no way back.  It is not true.  I so much want you to be close to me.  I know all your thoughts.  I hear all your words.  I see all of your actions.  And I love you because you are beautiful, made in my own image, and expression of my most intimate love.  Do not judge yourself.  Do not reject yourself.  Let my love touch the deepest, most hidden corners of your heart and reveal to you your own beauty, a beauty that you have lost sight of, but will become visible to you again in the light of my mercy.  Come, come, let me wipe your tears, and let my mouth come close to your ear and say to you, ‘I love you.  I love you.  I love you.’

Girls, this is a reminder for you today that you have so much value in God’s eyes.

Love,

Michelle

Soooo I’m sitting here watching America’s next top model.. I don’t know why, it’s just one of those shows I need to watch every week. [can you say addict?!]  ANYWAY.. one of the girls is apparently “gaining weight” on the show and Tyra Banks is quite upset.  I look at this girl and laughed. Not because she is overweight, but because she is, guaranteed, still a size 2 and she’s worried!!  (haha kinda funny cause I’m sitting in my ‘chair n’ a half’ with a big bag of chips…to myself!)  but not the point…

The definition of a ‘nice body’ varies for everyone.  Everybody wants to look a certain way because it gives them confidence.  Everyone wants or has wanted to rock a “hot bod”.   But in reality what does a ‘hot bod’ get you?  The sad thing is, that’s the top thing media idolizes: girls who force themselves to fit into a size double 0, who only wear XS and who you can lift with one hand.  It’s hard for us!

1 Corinthians 6:10: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is IN you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;”

Girls, you are already RADIANT!  Did you just read that? The Holy Spirit, - the same one that sent Jesus, who forgives every single day, gives us life - is inside of you!  He is dying to shine through to the outside!  Your body doesn’t even belong to you because it is a temple for Him.  We shouldn’t be worrying about weighing 100 pounds or having the most recent fashion.  We should be worrying about what Jesus sees.  But because of the stuff we see everyday, it’s so hard to turn away from wanting those things.  If we strive to let Jesus shine through, could you imagine how gorgeous our world would be? We would blow those top models away.

We are all still human and all of us have our days when we don’t feel beautiful and do give in to media’s standards.  But, I have a challenge for all you amazing women of God out there:

Every morning before you leave your house, look in the mirror and give yourself a compliment. You owe it to yourself! You’re insulting God if you don’t because God CREATED you! You are His blessing, so give Him credit for what he created.  Tell yourself how beautiful your eyes are, how smooth your lips are, how your smile can brighten up a room, how your legs are muscular and ready to play a sport…whatever!

But most importantly; tell yourself that you are captivating.  Let God tell you that you are captivating

Captivating.  It is my favourite word ever spoken.  Be captivating for yourself; inside and out.  But top priority…be captivating for Jesus.  He is the only one that matters in the end.

Oh, and one more thing…you are:
beautiful
healthy
wonderfully made
created by the One and only
precious
radiant
courageous
strong

C.A.P.T.I.V.A.T.I.N.G

Before anyone else believes it, you must first believe it yourself.

I love you all

-Steph

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

Over the years I’ve had a love hate relationship with a “polished piece of metal”. . . yep, the mirror! It started out as my childhood friend. We were great pals -bosom buddies some might say. Like every little girl, I used it to admire myself when I dressed up as a princess, dreaming of the beautiful woman that I wanted to be one day. But around the time I turned 14, I started struggling with acne and the “loving dreamy” aspect of the mirror left.  Now, looking into it, the object that once helped me to dream, only seemed to criticize me, point out my every flaw, and scream at me with reasons of why I would never be the beautiful woman I dreamed of becoming.

Can you relate at all?!  Maybe your struggle isn’t keeping a clear complexion, maybe it’s your weight, your teeth, your height. Whatever it is, I think it’s safe to say we have all struggled, to some degree, with Self Image. We live in a world that’s obsessed with it!  Every day we are bombarded with images from the media of airbrushed flawless girls.  Magazines tell us the top 10 beauty tips, the fastest way to get “fabulous abs” and a great beach body. In a world where we are encouraged -almost expected- to look perfect, it’s no wonder we often become so consumed with the picture of who we ’should be.’  We end up despising the girl we see in the mirror.

I don’t know about you, but the idea of living up to a standard of flawless perfection overwhelms me!!!  So, I decided to GIVE UP… don’t worry, I still practise personal hygiene and put effort into getting myself ready for the day!  But I no longer let the mirror define who I am. In the middle of my struggle, the Lord showed me His heart. A heart that said “I value your life and what’s inside of you, more then what you see in the mirror.” (1Pet. 3:4)  A heart that told me He created me with precision and purpose (Ps. 139:13). A heart that said I was beautiful in His sight. (Ps. 45:11) This became my focus. It gave me a new standard to live up to. Believe me, I still have days when I’m not completely satisfied with the girl I see in the mirror..as we all will. Despite how we fail to measure up to the standard of beauty the world -and we ourselves- set for us, God still considers us His masterpiece.

Inside every woman is a desire to be beautiful. I think we can all agree on that.  But what really defines beauty?  It’s time for us as daughter’s of God to let go of the lies the world has spoken over us. My prayer is that we will come to a place where we are so saturated with the truth of who God says we are.  That we can look at the mirror and say “You don’t define me” and know what really does.

Love,  Jess

On Saturday night my friend Dan and I went to East Side Marios to watch UFC84. Wait, don’t stop reading! It was fantastic- hot-and-sweaty men hugging each other until one of them either passed out or gave up…you would have loved it!

About an hour into our time there, a young, very attractive girl walked in. She was completely made up, and was dressed to the nines. She was wearing a super low top, leaving almost nothing to the imagination. I immediately bounced my eyes off of her body and onto the hot-and-sweaty heroes fighting on the screen overhead.

But I knew other guys were looking. I leaned over to Dan and said, “dude, look at how many guys are checking her out.” He looked around and laughed. There were LOTS. Well, she accomplished her objective! She got stared at. Was it worth it? Having random drunk strangers look you up and down? Did I mention that it was -18C that night?!

Here’s the thing that made me really sad: I used to work with her at Old Navy about 6 years ago. Literally NOTHING has changed. She still dresses like a Barbie, drinks like a fish, and smokes like a chimney. In the two hours I was there, she drank at least $50 in booze, and went outside at least 4 times to smoke. I don’t want to read too far into the situation, but it seems like she doesn’t really have a direction or a purpose beyond partying. Who knows how many guys she has given herself to; what does she think she must do to receive love? Despite the smile, you could sense the emptiness. What she doesn’t realize is that life will eventually catch up with her- in the form of wrinkles, sags, health problems, and a broken heart. It’s rather sad. There is more to life than this.

I wish I were a braver man. If I were, I would have asked her

“Why girl?! Don’t you understand that God loves you SO MUCH? Don’t you realize that He hand-created you?! He made you beautiful. He made you worthy of respect, and honour, and praise. He created you for reason. He wants your eyes to see the world as He sees it. He wants your mind to think His thoughts. He wants your smile to bring joy to others. He wants your hands to help the world. He wants to hold that hand, walk with you, and heal your heart.”

Today girls, God says this to each of you.

Love from your brother,

Jay

Do you know any girls like this? What’s going through their mind? Is there a part of you like this? Why do you do it? Do you know that you are beautiful? Do you know that you are LOVED?