Proverbs 31 Kind of Beautiful.

My dear sister in Christ, Oh how I pray that The Lord touches your heart with what you are about to read. 

We are going to get real deep, and really real right now.

I suppose I'll warm you up. 

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‹If you didn't know I am an Ukrainian/American young gal who lives in California› 

Here... I'll give you a inside look...

Its a late sunday evening after church and the average Slavic woman and her average Slavic friends head to Olga's home for tea. They laugh and they joke as the hot water boils- chattering about life and it predicaments. Each girl steeps her fragrant tea and grabs a plate. The evening progresses and as per usual they discuss the latest diets trends and Amway vitamins while munching on a thick slice of tiramisu. Natasha gives a compliment to Maria about her beautiful naturally straight hair, and speaks of how she hates her dreadful curly locks. Dasha goes on about how she wished she was a bit taller. And Anna who is 5'9 tells her of how torturous it is to be as tall as she. The girls enjoy each others company but much too soon the time comes when the friends must say goodbye. The girls call it a night, blow air kisses to one another and head towards their cars. 

Was it then? Perhaps it was years earlier?
 Was it societies fault, or our own? 

⎨When was the seed of discontentment planted?⎬

When did I start seeing someone ugly every time I looked in the mirror.

When did I decide I couldn't go out of the house without makeup? 

Since when could I point out my flaws like I could recite the alphabet? 

When did I start measuring my worth in the number or boys flirting... or not flirting with me. 

Why did I vainly think that if I was a size 2 I would finally be beautiful?

I starved my self to be thin, but found my self even more unhappy after losing 30 pounds? 

All the while professing to be a Christian. 

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The more women I speak to the more I realize I was not a minority. I in fact was with the majority of young ladies who feel the same way about their bodies. 

I was "loving" God... yet hating my body.

I did not know my worth.

Thinking "God, why did you not make me as pretty as this girl on the magazine?" 

Which is why I am writing today. 

Im going to be blunt.

If you think the same way,

You are calling the creator of all things a Liar. 

Unfortunately you are not the only one... 

I was calling God a liar for a very very long time. Blindly disgracing His majesty every time I looked in the mirror.

Give ear, and listen to The Holy Word of God. 

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

                                 

God created YOU in HIS image. If you agree that God is absolutely beautiful, yet view your body and soul as ugly or undesirable... You are saying that the image of God is ugly and undesirable. 

My dear sister in Christ...

In the first chapter Genesis it says- That God saw what he created (man) and declared it good.

Do you see? 

YOU where declared good. 

Only after the fall did Adam and Eve look at their bodies with a sense of shame.
SIN made adam and eve ashamed and insecure.
...

David (a man after God's own heart) declares in Psalms that he is fearfully and wonderfully made.

Psalms 139:14   I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Dose your soul know it? 

I know mine didn't. 

Our God declares you a beautiful creation, there is no way around it. 

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Satan's lies come in many shapes and forms but one of the most undetected is the lie he has been feeding to generations of God fearing women.

"You are not beautiful"

Our eyes have gone blind to it. 

We believe we are not good enough...not pretty, thin, or tall enough. Each develops their own ideal of beauty - when the Lord says that there is nothing to create. 

He already created beauty.

 He made you! 

For years I had been creating sky high cheekbones with contouring makeup. Large eyes with shadow. And perfect skin with foundation.

Thinking that without these things I was not nearly as pretty.

...

I Pray that as you finish reading, God will reveal to you the beauty which He Himself breathed into you. 

Ephesians chapter 2:10 says - For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

You my lovely, are Gods workmanship. 

You are to honor God in your body for as long as you have it.

These insecurities you have are hindering you from carrying out the good work God has prepared for you.

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  Never do we stop to think that we grieve our God

with the way we think about our selves.   

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 Inner and outer beauty are given to you as a gift from the creator.
You have worth.
And that worth is not measured by ethnicity, dress size, or accomplishments.

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you where bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. -1st Corinthians 6:19-20

Take care of your body. Do not starve it. Eat well and exercise because you are a temple for God. Honor God in your body. You where bought with a price my dear sister. 

I encourage you to dig deep into the word of God. See what God thinks of you.
What is beautiful in His eyes?
 You might be surprised.

Do not make my mistakes. 
DO NOT listen to the disguised lies of the devil. 

My dear sister:
Throw this hatred far, far away! 

Be a woman who knows by whom she was made.
A woman who knows her purpose.

A woman who values her outer being and and just as importantly shines forth with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. 

 Know your worth, sister!!! 

You are beautiful.

1 Peter 3:4-6 "but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.  For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands,  as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening."

Instead of passing down insecurities to our daughters lets pass down the lesson of true beauty.

Plant the seed of the Gospel everywhere we go...

and encourage one another in the Truth.

Lets pray to be a generation of women who fear The Lord, and listen to what He tells us in His Scripture.
Instead of listening to satan's lies.

Lets come to our Father together.

"Father, forgive me. Keep opening my eyes. Keep molding my heart.Show me what it is that I have become blind to. Help me to become a woman who brings You honor. Give me wisdom to understand your Scripture. I thank You that You made me in Your image. I am thankful that I can come before Your throne right now because of Jesus. Help me shine forth the inner and outer beauty You have granted me. Develop in me the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. Thank you Father for my life. Wash these insecurities away, and renew my mind."