You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you. (Sol. 4:7)

There were many many years I did not recognize my personal worth and I actually believed I had none.  I was not loved well, therefore I did not know how to love.  Myself or others.  Insecure and guarded and like most humans, I was always looking for acceptance and validation.

I had a “head knowledge” of God which was more cultural and not personal and I thought God must have made a mistake when He created me. I struggled accepting that God even existed and that if He did, why would He love me and why would I matter?

I believed the biggest lie perpetrated on humanity; that we come from nothing, are going to nothing and thus, our value is nothing.

When I was 14 a friend invited me to a summer camp with her. Camp WaMava.  I didn’t even realize it was a Christian camp.  I just wanted to get out of town.  While there, a camp counselor must of seen in me what I did not.  He pushed me.  He challenged me.  There was a moment there when I really did want to “believe” that God loved me and that I was not a proverbial train wreck.  Could I really be beautiful in His eyes?  That was just what they told me.  Naw, couldn’t be true….

And so through the years, I prayed the perfunctory fitful prayers of a young person when I was sick of myself, my choices, felt like a loser or just found myself in trouble.  I never “heard” an answer to my problems (I know now I wasn’t listening) so I eventually quit trying, quit hoping and just moved through life building bigger and bigger walls between my heart and others. Sound familiar?

But my “Daddy”.

Somewhere in my mid 30s God, my heavenly Father, finally broke through my hard psyche and got my attention…and it took me becoming a mother to do it.  The change in me reverberated so that not only would I begin to reflect His love in me, (and in my precious boys), but that I would have a heart for others. I finally found validation in God’s love and stopped seeking it in others – and as I came to understand that He chose me – He created me, for a purpose and for a specific time in earth’s history my life changed and so did I.

I have often wondered why God gave me sons not daughters – and though that is what I am most thankful for, I think that is part of His plan.  As I am a mother of sons, I can be a mentor to “daughters” – young ladies who can safely talk through their own dentritis of life and work through it.

Thus for many years I mentored teenage girls and now some young women, as I pray my difficulties growing up could perhaps be a guidepost for others today.

As here is the thing.  Human beings crave validation.  And it is that craving that drives us to make the worst of personal decisions. In fact, just a quick Google search on the subject and you will get hundreds of psychology articles which validate that this issue is the beginning and end of most of the head and heart problems most people suffer from today…. Unfortunately the implementation of social media has made it worse. For the record, I don’t even like “likes.”  I just want to make an impact on your heart – for God – only.

I could go on and on about the pitfalls of social media, (and have already written a few times on it), but I prefer to use the rest of this blog to remind you what your Daddy says about you.  Below is just a smattering of His truths.

So try this – whenever you read a personal pronoun, please – insert YOUR name in it and re-read that sentence.  Then, start believing it. You are beautiful and God has a plan for your life.

You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you. (Sol. 4:7)

She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. (Prov. 31:25)

You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. Is. 62:3

My beloved spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. (Song 2:10)

She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. (Prov. 31:26)

Those who look to him (God) are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. (Ps. 34:5)

You (God) made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit metogether in my mother’s womb.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! (Ps. 139:13-16)

Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it. (Psalm 139:13 – 14)

For we are God’s masterpiece… (Eph. 2:10)

God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. (Ps. 46:5)

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; (1 Peter 2:9)

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 Cor. 12:27)

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. (1 Cor. 6:20)

I am Created as Beloved and Christ Lives in me:

She is worth far more than rubies. (Prov. 31:10)

But by the grace of God I am what I am. (1 Cor. 15:10)

(and God says,) See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands… (Is. 49:16) 

And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Cor. 6:18)

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons (and daughters) of God, through faith. (Gal. 3:26)

I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. (Jo. 15:15)

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you.  (1 Cor. 15:58)

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. (Jo. 1:12)

And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph. 4:24)

So God created mankind in his own image… (Gen. 1:27)

And these are just a whisper of what God has to say about you. This truth I know –  When I spend time  reading what my Daddy has to say about me,  it silences any arguement.  I am beautiful…and so are you. Never forget it.

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. (Emphasis mine) (1 Sam 16:7)

Amen and Amen.