Heal my heart and make it clean.

What a fun day it has been : ). School was amazing and goodness , all the fun new things we are learning. Today we learned about Wella Magma color. AMAZING and the results are so much fun. The color is a lightener ( bleach ) all in one. In one step you can get , let me say it again, AMAZING results : )..My good friend Sam is now sporting a new do : ). What an exciting day it was and how happy it is to see God blessing my prayers for motivation and dedication to what I am doing. Cant wait to see whats next : )


and on a more serious note :

In my devotional tonight ( The Power of a Praying Woman ) , Stormie Omartian talks about the importance of making ones heart pure and right before God. How much this touched my heart and challenged me in doing so. She states that " its not about being somebody you are not. Its about becoming who you really are. But in order to see these things happen, you have to be completely honest with yourself and with God about who you are at the moment "

She talks about the importance of getting completely right before our Heavenly Father , so He can bring all of the blessings He has for you into your life. " See it as God preparing you for the important work He has ahead for you to do ".

What a joy this is.... To know that He just wants us , as we are , sitting and resting at His feet. That He loves us, and is waiting to catch us right where we are. That he wants us to poor out our hearts and brokenness before Him. That He wants to be our first step in restoration , and His plans for our life...


Stormie says best when she says, " In order to accomplish this, you have to examine your life closely. You have to be brave enough to say ...


Lord , Show me what is in my heart, soul, mind, spirit, and life that shouldn't be there . Teach me what I am not understanding. Convict me where I am missing the mark. Tear down my arrogance, pride, fear, and insecurities, and help me to see the truth about myself, my life and my circumstances. Expose me to myself. I can take it. Enable me to correct the error of my ways. Help me to replace lies with truth and make changes that last "

I pray this stirs your heart as it did mine, and that this helps push you on towards Him and the plans He has for you. : ) What an amazing God we serve . and oh how He loves us : )

Faith.

" Do not doubt or hesitate, for I the Lord your God go before you. You already have My promise that the work I begin I am able to carry through completion. Yes , there is already laid up an exceeding weight of glory for those who go through with Me and determine to seize the prize. For I have wealth beyond your fondest dreams to bestow upon those who have left all to follow Me. All the glittering enticements of this transient life are as chaff in comparison, for God's gifts are calling never waver, and My giving is restricted only by the will and choice of the recipient "
- God.

I cant tell you what a blessing reading this was. I am now going back and forth between a couple books and devotionals. Come Away My Beloved is absolutely amazing and stirs my heart every time I open it . Its full of Gods word and truth.

How beautiful it is to know that He is ALWAYS in the midst of doing something, that He is always working things out according to His will and purpose.

I think we all fall short of having the faith in this very specific truth ( at least I do ) His word says in Jeremiah 1 :5...


⁵"Before I shaped you in the womb,
I knew all about you.
Before you saw the light of day,
I had holy plans for you:
A prophet to the nations—
that's what I had in mind for you."

also in Romans...

^26-28Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.



He has us. All of us. He will work all out for His good.
What a faithful God we serve. It amazing to me just how faith is tested, and how He uses these times to remind us where we are and where we need to be. Ive been so convicted lately in thinking that I have had my " having faith" moments. I packed up everything I owned, drove thousands of miles to a place of the " unknown " .... It was all about faith then . Leaving everything I knew, grasping change, being alone, and isolated from all I was used to . I had faith. It excites my heart to see God working so faithfully. Its good to not know, but trust Him. Over the past month, I have been thinking over the times when I had " faith ". What does that even mean ?

I am continually seeing God remind me , that its always about faith in Him alone. Having faith is apart of every circumstance, for instance, moving, jobs, finances, chances, relationships, stepping out into ANY unknown, But more so .... Just having faith that HE IS GOD, that HE HAS ALL OF OUR BEST INTEREST AT HEART, that HE HAS A PLAN , that that plan, IS BETTER THAN OUR OWN. Believing that simply allows the other worries and anxieties to fall at His feet.


Know that He is God. He loves you. He is constant.

I pray today is an amazing day for all of you.

A Beautiful Prize Called Dignity.

As I am coming up on chapter 9 of So Long Insecurity , I can see just how much God wants to help me restore this area of bondage and brokenness in my heart and so many others. So many things have popped right out at me and I have decided that my face should have been the cover of this book. :).

Beth talks about how insecurity will make a fool of you, and how it has made one of all of us several times. She posted the question...

" Has insecurity ever made a fool of you ?"

The responses were heart wrenching because I saw myself in so many of those responses. I see how badly this burden has taken a toll on so many of us.

The responses varied and are pretty much summed up in...

Insecurity can:

make you act a fool in female friendships ( jeously,doubts, control)

cause a mom to be overcontrolling

can turn a gifted person into the competition

can turn a priceless daughter of God into a bootlicker

( doing things just to be accepted)

can blind us of how blessed we really are

can confine us

can talk us into doing things we dont want to do

can make us give entirely the wrong impression

can make us overcompensate

can keep us from accepting compliments

explodes with rejection and can twist our perceptions

can make a fool out of you by making a liar out of you

can turn you into a public fool

can keep you from expressing yourself

can be a relentless robber of many wonderful things

a quote:

" insecurity can make us settle. Insecurity makes us distracted. Insecurity robs our confidence in out rich inheritance from God. Insecurity makes us put our gifts on a shelf to gather demonic dust. Insecurity disturbs our sleep.Insecurity derails our life."

Its time to say ENOUGH. and boy do I mean that. Ive been fighting this battle too long and I know many of you have been too. The sad reality is that , in Beths words, "unchecked and unhealed, it makes an idiot of us over and over ."

It IS time to get our dignity back. We were created by an all knowing , unfailing God. He created us in His image, and loved EVERY part of us. Im putting my boxing gloves on and ready to take any thought, or idea in my mind that has made me believe differntly down." Insecurity does not have the right to be my excepion, even if it has been with me since toddlerhood".

"She is clothed with strength and dignity"....

" A woman of valor, who can find? Her value is beyond rubies"..

Ladies, He has said this about us. This is what we are to Him. This is what we are created to be.

This whole battling and defeating insecurity is about getting back our dignity with our Heavenly Father. He wants to restore our souls.

Beth makes an amazing point in this:

" Absorb this: you are worthy of respect. So am I. No matter how foolish insecurity has tried to make us feel , we have the right to dignity because God himself gave it to us. If we really believed this truth, we wouldnt have to mask our insecurity with pride. If we knew who we were and what God has conferred upon us, what everybody else thought of us would grow less and less significant. Notice that God did not put this honor/dignity in our hands. He put it in our heads. He wrapped it as a crown right around our minds, just where we need it most. Our possession of dignity is not always something we feel. Its got to be something we know. Something we emphatically claim... All insecurity is a cover up of unbelief...SHE IS CLOTHED WITH STRENGTH AND DIGNITY, believe it sister : ) "

I believe that God is restoring my heart and mind in this process. I believe and know that He does want this area broken and these walls shattered in all of our hearts and minds. Im handing Him over the my heart and I believe that He will get all the glory in this. The same for you my friends. Love you all, and praying BIG things.

Still standing.

Beautiful you.

Beauty is what exactly ? The way we see ourselves ? They way others see us ? In the previous chapter I read in So Long Insecurity, Beth talks about how we as woman, also your girls can easily be warped into thinking that the air brushed models on the covers of magazines, the Victoria Secret models walking the runway , define beauty. I cant tell you or begin to think of how this has been a personal struggle for me. To pick apart every part of who I am , what I look like, what I want to look like and so much more. In all honesty, It saddens my heart to think of all the ways I have allowed the media to effect my confidence and even more so to know how many of you are along with me. All the lies I told myself about my value and my worth for so long. It breaks my heart thinking about how easily media and society can corrupt the minds of teenage girls and enable their confidence in themselves to dwindle. .......I want to get past this. I do know that the God I love and serve loves me.

I'm a child of God. He created me in His image, and he believes everything is good!

Can we all just grasp that for a second ?

YOU are a child of God. He created you in His image, and he believes EVERYTHING is good.

Ladies ,

We can do this. We can fight this battle. We are BEAUTIFUL.... just the way we are.

There could never be a more beautiful you.

Beautiful, Beautiful

There is something about the lyrics...
I have come undone

But I have just begun
Changing by Your grace

Can we say an AMAZING reality ? That when we have come undone, when we have made a mess of ourselves, when things arent the way we have planned them to be, when we have become something we arent proud of, He can chage us. His love, grace, gentleness,and mercy can change us.


Today God has shown me that reality, that He can change where I am. That he does have the authority over my life, that he is my source of strength and comfort. and more than ever that HE IS FAITHFUL! He will provide a way.


Beyond grateful for an amazing day with some amazing girls, amazing encouragement.


" Because you are precious in My sight and honored , and I love you "


Isaiah 43:4


Thank You Aubrey for some great girl time and dinner, and Tara I can't thank you enough for your sweet and loving encouragement and scripture yesterday .

Love you all, See ya manana.

So Long Insecutity

Can you say "Amen " to that one ?.. I know I sure can .


Let me break it down even further as good ol' Beth did ...

" Insecurity refers to a profound sense of self-doubt, a deep feeling of uncertainty about our basic worth and our place in the world. Insecurity is associated with chronic self-consciouness, along with chronic lack of confidence in ourselves and the anxiety about our relationships. The insecure man or woman lives in constant fear of rejection and a deep uncertainty about whether his or her feelings and desires are legitimate.

" The insecure person also harbors unrealistic expectations about love and relationships. These expectations , for themselves and for others, are often unconscious. The insecure person creates a situation in which being disappointed and hurt in relationships is almost inevitable. Ironically, although insecure people are easily and frequently hurt, they are usually unaware of how they are unwitting accomplices in creating their own misery."







Over the past week or so , I have dove deep into this book and into scripture and I can confidently say that Momma knew what she was doing when she sent it . Gods timing is perfect and I am seeing now how this ongoing battle in my life, if not beat, cant be the end of me. As I go through this , I will be posting and updating anything I am learning and anything that stirs this heart of mine. I am hopeful in all that God has to show me through this and I know He will.

How many of us woman fight the battle of insecurity ? I am fighting this battle with you :)

It's time I say too.... " So long insecurity, you've been a bad friend to me ".

I pray deeply that as I share with you my journey through this , that God blesses your very heart and leads you to a place of understanding just how SECURE you can be.







"A woman of beauty knows in her quiet center, where God dwells that he finds her beautiful, has deemed her worthy,and in Him she is enough"


Many Many Blessings,
Whit