Hey Everyone!
So excited to hear your thoughts on this chapter! I will be out for most of the day so I won’t be able to respond to your comments until this evening. BUT!!! Feel free to talk amongst yourselves and encourage each other!

Hugs to you all!

Sarah so true … I ‘ve been comparing myself with others too much lately… Great subject!:=)

Journal # 1- What does the dialogue in your head sound like when you think about your self-image and how others view you? I feel self-conscious sometimes with certain people. I may not be outgoing enough is one of my biggest issues; I am somewhat introverted and keep to myself. I make friends easily but I like being by myself most of the time. When I am in a big group of people I tend to be quiet. Then people will say, but not in a mean way you talk too much even though I am not saying anything at all. Or there have been people you have said that I have no personality and that hurts to hear so this is a big issue for me. Another issue is, I seem to compare myself to my exboyfriends wife, don’t worry at the time we broke up they were not married lol. She is pretty, outgoing and has a very strong personality. I thought I wasn’t good enough for him after we broke up because I was comparing myself to her. But know I realize he wasn’t good enough for me because he wasn’t meant for me but it did take me a while to realize that. I have started to feel much better about my own self-image over the last few years. Being almost 30 years old your priorities start to change at least that is how I feel. My looks and style and personality make me who I am, because God is so great he is going to use my strengths to guide me on my own path. I need not worry about what others have because what I have already is a please.
If that dialogue is negative, let’s work through that in this chapter. Do you see the value in bring this stress point, self-image, to the throne of your king? How do you need Him to speak to you today about your stress point? Yes I see great value in bring this stress point of self-image to the throne of the Lord, I have put things down on paper today that I have been struggling with for a while know but not really dealing with it. I need him to guide me on this path with a pure heart. I need not stress over what others have that I don’t or how they look or act. With his help I will focus only on what is pleasing to him, I pray he takes this envoy out of my heart and to look at the good that has happen in my life.

The comparison trap is probably one of my bigger strongholds, especially this year when it feels like all my friends decided to get married or engaged. I’ve been to 4 weddings already this month. I love the quote in our video how God always has our best interests at heart. Deep down, I know my current situation and future situation are awesome and that finding a man won’t fix all my problems and make me magically happy and complete. I need to cling on to that. And thankfully God has given me really awesome single girl friends. Thanking God daily for what I have is usually how i get over falling to deep into envy.

In the interest of this weeks study, I put on this shirt today not really tihnking about it, but once i started to look at the shirt I started to think about everyone on here. It has two hearts on it one is a solid red and then the other is just an outline and inside the outline heart it has the lyrics to this little light of mine. Not only should we let our lights shine for God, but we shouldn’t be afraid to let our own unique little light such as how we act or look shine. I love to wear bright colors and normally don’t buy name branded clothes I just buy what I like. I normally have bright pink or yellow colors on that is just who I am. I may not have a very outgoing personality but my style is fun and outgoing. It just made me smile one I saw my shirt and I wanted to share with all of you Thank you

~In Chapter 2 I talk alot about “getting comfortable in your own skin.” This is really something that takes time as we navigate through our 20s and beyond. The more we engage with God and let Him pour His love and ultimate approval over us, we are more comfortable with who He made us to be. Flip to page 50 and read what my friends Kristen Lila and Brittany had to say about “getting comfortable in your own skin.” What do you think?

I agree with both of them as I have trouble with crowds as well as my self image I need to be comfortable walkin in and not worrying about anything cause they are not supposed to judge. ( I have hard time with fellowship dinner s at my church) I don’t like eating in front of anyone but need to remember that no one is staring at me ad they all are eating too!!

I also agree with Kristin when I was hanging aroun with my friend a lot I was becoming ” like her” swearing all the time and talking like her. I don’t swear so that was not normal for me and after a few days I stopped swearing . Whew!!

What girlfriend case study do you identify with most and why?

I identified with both 2 and 3. I have a fantastic boyfriend who loves me for me. But I still struggle with not being “pretty enough or skinny enough”. I have gained some weight in the last year or so that has not helped my self image at all. I have tried multiple times to lose some weight and I have not succeeded. I get frustrated with trying and give up. I see pictures of girls I knew in high school on facebook all the time and wish I could look like them. But I have come to realize three things: Number one is that no matter how much weight I lose I will never look like those girls. I am just not built that way. And number two is that no matter how much weight I lose, it will still not make me happy or fill that void I have. And number three is that no matter how much weight I lose, if I do not learn to love myself for who I am on the inside and how God sees me, weight loss will not matter. I want to learn how to be more like Betty from case #1. I want to be confident in who I am. And I know the only way to do that would be to grow in my relationship with Christ and learn to see myself the way He sees me!

Ladies

I’m sure you have heard of the wildfires going on in Colorado springs. I have an idea. I know we can’t physically get together but I thought we could pick a timeand pray for the firefighters etc. I know some of you are in different time zones too

What does everyone think?

During my sophmore year in college I was having a hard time finding myself and I was doing what every one else did to fit in. I wanted attention. I soon realized this wasn’t who I was and I was not living my life as I should. It came to me that I needed to accept myself for who I was before I could let anyone else into my life, like a boyfriend. I prayed over this for months and I dropped the act I had been putting on. It was amazing, as soon as I started believing in myself and living the way God would want me to I not only felt better, but an amazing man walked into my life. He didn’t care how I looked, he said it was my personality that attracted him. Who knew!? Looks aren’t all that mattered, but that was all I cared about previously. I learn more every day that I need not to compare myself to other girls who I think are prettier or more fun. I am who I am, and that is all I need.

Do you see the benefit in turning your self-focus into a God-focus toward your Majestic King?

Yes I do it becomes positive.

A lot of times when I am going through a hard time I like to minister to other people and pray for them cause it gets the focus off of me I also do this whe. I am having pity parties and just down in te dumps.

What hit me this week was the facebook challenge. Trying to be yourself, not worrying about what others think but to CONSISTENTLY be yourself, true to yourself, and to be authentic to the woman God is molding us to be, me to be. I found myself trying to be a voice of reason this week to my sweet younger cousin (she’s 24 married, I’m 28 single). Her A/C went out in her house. She was upset, and I just felt so inclined and encouraged to try to point her to Truth to our Majestic King. It was an eye-opener to me that people can see our responses and they will know we are BELIEVERS by our actions. The two of us have different life experiences, but what bonds us together is our love for Christ, our sister hood. I tired to point out the positive in the situation, that there is still shelter, food, company, and her God. But it wasn’t just my sweet cousin that affected me with the facebook challenge. It was remember how good God is and has been with my posts. I love to share scripture or something that relates to my walk with Christ. I had a friend who didn’t like my sharing of scripture. But to the one negative I had MANY positives, and many that voiced how much they appreciated to the encouragement. Sometimes there are little fires in our life that make us questions if what we are doing is right, should I stop just because one person said so? Or should I listen to the others that said how much the Lord had encouraged them that day becuase I felt the Lord leading me to share? And as I’m writing this about to move onto the text topic, I flipped to pg. 43 where Sarah says, “Be real. Be raw. Do ministry and make connections by simply sharing your heart. Set a foundation among your community of friends, family, and coworkers in which everyone is authentic and willing to share their struggles.” Oh Majestic King, how I strive to be that foundation where people feel so incredibly comfortable with me that they share and open up and know there is no judgement but prayer, love, and an example of Your grace!

We read the scripture in Mark (chapter 4, verses 1-9) about the soil. I love to garden and have been pondering this all week as I water my plants. I noticed that some seeds fell upon the rocks on the side and are growing and some are flowering, but I wonder what is their root system like? Are these little guys (yes I talk to my plants and pray over them too) capable of surviving in such a shallow system? And then I turn and see the rest of my flowers. They are growing and abundant. There might be a few weeds here and there but they are not over run. Their roots are set. They have a solid foundation to which they can grow. I tend to their needs- water, till their soil, fertilize, weed, and prune. The same can be said of our Majestic King and us. John 15:1-17, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit —fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.” Because of His love for us, our Father takes the time to prune and shape us. He nurtures us, provides for us. He cuts off the dead branches so our energy and nourishment aren’t spent there but can be re-routed to the rest so we bloom and flourish! Because He loves us, he wants us to be beautiful! He wants us to blossom. I know that the tough pruning times aren’t easy, but think about what we will grow into! We will be that rose of Sharon, a lily of the valley. We will stand out amongst those who don’t know Christ so that others will see there is something different about us. Song of Songs 2:1-2, “I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens.”

** Sorry ladies I’m a little late in posting this week. Praying you all have had a wonderful week!**