Hello my name is...

Hello my name is Alycia and 

I have Churg-Strauss Syndrome. 

That is honestly how I have defined myself for the past

6 months. 

Although it is true, I do have CSS, I know my identity is not rooted in it and I am still on a journey to figure out how to live with a life-threatening disease

while not letting it define who I am. 

I have been many things in my 27 years on this earth.

A child, a daughter, a sinner, a student, a friend, an enemy, an alcoholic, a blood-bought born-again daughter of the King, a wife and a mother. 

Unfortunately, lately I just feel like the girl with that

crazy disease that has no medical cure. 

I struggled about what to say when I was asked to write

this blog post. On one hand I was honoured on the other...unworthy? I wasn't sure how

uplifting my words would be, because 

I honestly haven't felt very uplifted myself. 

The last 2 years have been an intense and terribly frustrating roller coaster! In the second trimester of my pregnancy in 2012 I developed severe asthma and joint pain. I was told this was a temporary condition brought on by my pregnancy and it would most likely subside,

 After I gave birth. 

Well it didn't. In fact it got much worse.

After many emergency room visits, doctors and specialist appointments I was finally hospitalized in November 2013 due to the severity of my condition and the fact that nobody could figure out what was wrong with me. I had giant painful purple lesions all over my body that were originally misdiagnosed as ringworm. 

I was coughing up blood, I couldn't taste couldn't smell, couldn't breathe, the list goes on. After 3 weeks in ICU and one week on life support with heart and kidney failure I was finally diagnosed with this extremely

rare autoimmune disease. 

Now this all sounds pretty awful, but you should know that the timing of this was impeccable. You see, not a single nurse or doctor in that hospital knew what was wrong with me and all the tests were inconclusive. But there was one doctor who had only been working at that hospital for 3 weeks in fact he had just moved here from Connecticut and he had seen my

2 in a million condition once before. 

I truly believe God orchestrated all of that and many more little details most of which I am probably unaware of.

I'm sure He is doing that on my behalf everyday,

 but I don't even realize it. 

It is easy for me to get frustrated that all if this had to happen and that I am stuck on these terribly potent steroids with very unpleasant side effects. Some days It doesn't take more than a glance in the mirror to literally make me hate myself for being covered in big permanent scars and gaining 50 disgusting pounds beyond my control. 

It's being thankful that takes discipline.

Thankful that I am alive, to watch my daughter grow up. 

On days when I have zero energy to run around,

 after a 1 year old, I try to remember that I am actually

one of the lucky ones because I can. 

The goodness of God never ceases to amaze me

so long as I remember to see it. 

It's always there. 

Even though sometimes it feels like the only thing that's relevant I know that I am not

 just that girl with Churg-Strauss.

I am a wife, and a mother and I've got the best

Dad in the whole world. 

"God sees the little sparrow fall,

It meets His tender view;

If God so loves the little birds,

I know He loves me, too."

Warning to all you, who are beautiful!!

 

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

 (Romans 12:2)

I drove past this house countless times but for some reason that day, memories from a long time ago rushed in my consciousness; like something caged finally, set free. I recalled that day clearly and heard all over again the hurtful things said and done.  I realized in that quick drive past that home that I hadaccepted those painful offenses and tucked them away into recesses of my being.  

I believed and so I became….

I remember going to this house, tagging along with my bff (well, that’s not what we called each other way back then; that term wasn’t yet invented!) and visiting some others.  I really wasn’twanted there.  The others really just invited my friend to visit, but since we went most places together I went along.  I wished I hadn’t.  This mixed company told me how they felt. I don’t remember the words exactly but I do remember feeling andbelieving I was ugly…, fat…. and not wanted.  It was a long andhorrible visit.  

I recall similar situations throughout my growing up years…feeling unwanted and somehow unworthy to most.  Whether it was my childhood and living through the tragedy of a parent gripped in alcoholism or being raised in a single parent home; whether it was just what kids/people say/do to one another; orwhether it was my own perceptions observed by my tainted vision.  I allowed harmful thoughts to build one on top of the other, setting a firm foundation in self-defeat.

It is no surprise that what followed my growing up years was laced with self-inflicted turmoil and sin, only meant to further take me away from who I was truly created to become.

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

 (2 Corinthians 12:5)

If I could go back; do a ‘do over’, this scripture would be impressed upon my heart as it is today and I would take every thought captive; every single one,

is this what my heavenly Father thinks of me?  Is this the truth?  Is this who I was created to be?

You see my biggest problem wasn’t the situations or circumstances or happenings in my growing up years, the biggest problem was that I did not truly know who I was and am in Christ!!

Your self-worth; beautiful ones cannot be found in a new pair of jeans, a hair style, the friends you keep or the boyfriend you have, what others say about you or what they do to you.  You are already beautiful, you see,—protect all that God has created you to be! Do not accept the harmful lies, instead turn them over to your loving and heavenly Father and He will help you and take care of you. You are unique; hand crafted and set-apart for His glorious and divine purposes!  

I have just turned 45 years old and I was so taken aback by my memories. It was like the Lord opened that door and let all those lies and memories fly away; not to be kept anymore.  I am so thankful for His love for me; He has redeemed me and my value and my worth are solely in Him!  The Lord didn’t leave me there in the pit of destruction and today I am certain of who I am in Christ!!

Bless you beautiful ones!  

About Cindy:

 

 

 

Cindy, a daughter of the great I Am, lives with her passionate husband and beautiful, twin daughters in a small town.   Recently Cindy has found herself officially a stay at home, homeschooling Mom.  When not planning for schooling or doing housework, she and her family can be found on their front porch swing, conversing the afternoon away.  Besides family time, Cindy loves to read and has the honour to write for a blog called, “We are His daughters.”  She is dedicated to the youth ministry at her home church and is so thankful for the opportunity to share her heart with Kerrington’s readers.  

 

Guest Post~Being Real in your Reality!

When Kerrington approached me about writing a blog for her ministry I was eager to accept the offer. As time continued on, spring appeared and my son kept me from sitting I decided to look through my old blogs for inspiration. If you have seen my blog lately there has not been anything new in recent times but this blog received some attention and, funny enough, I had a deep conversation with a dear friend about this very topic just this week! It is a necessary discussion we need to have in the church and therefore I am editing it a bit and want to share it with all of Kerrington’s readers!

—-

“Ben and I were driving up to Kitchener this weekend and dove into an incredible conversation. It has been on my mind ever since and I keep referring back to it in every day situations, as I am desperately trying to apply it. The point of the chat was on being real and I will try to compose my muddled thoughts to form some coherent paragraphs for you.

The definition of real is “actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact; not imagined or supposed”. There is no other way of saying this really then that I am sick of being fake, of living an ‘imagined’ personality and not the true one I have been created to exhibit.. I do not understand this weakness we have as human beings, and even more directly, as Christians, where we cannot express who we truly are. It definitely comes from being cowardly, as it takes strength and bravery to acknowledge your screw ups and your honest dreams. 

But why as a society have we made it so difficult to be real? These fake personas and false identities we use as Christians only take away the power we have as individuals and it also steals power from the cross. 

To truly own up to your sins and be forth right with daily short comings we are exalting the Lord and acknowledging the fact that His grace is sufficient for us. When we pretend we have no hidden sins, or at least act towards others as though we are not wrestling with temptations, we make the faith of Christianity look unattainable or at least a big fake-fest that someone looking in from the outside would not want to participate in. 

Ben and I were sharing the truth that we have met more ‘real’ people who are not Christians then those we have come across daily in our churches, Christian schools, or faith based events (and yes we included ourselves in this group). It really is no wonder non-Christians cannot stand our faith…we are not admitting our true reality.

Take for example Eminem. In no way do I condone or agree with his music lyrics or lifestyle but take a look at his reality. He grew up in a racially tense Detroit, was abused by his mother, faced death at least twice from being beat up and lived a life of hatred and assault that I cannot imagine surviving. When asked why he sings such hateful, emotionally devastating lyrics he replies that those were true emotions he felt growing up. He had to battle with those thoughts of hating his mom to the point of desiring harm to come to her (which, according to the Bible we have all done if we have hated in our hearts). He was open, real, not living an imagined life trying to cover up his messed up mind. He spoke about his floundering and his upsets and did not hesitate to include the darkest parts of his heart we all try to hide, even from the Lord. He knows nothing but this and does not pretend to. This is why I feel many people were attracted to his music, they are attracted to people who are real and relatable. And this is where I find Christians fall short. We accept Christ and then become unrelatable to the world, usually too fearful or PROUD to accept and reveal we STILL need help.

Many Christian testimonies focus on the sin and darkness before finding Christ’s love, but not many people are willing to admit the inward tug of war and the selfish motivations that often still guide our actions. We seem to admit that being a Christian does not give you a hall pass for a great sin-free life, but we still do not fully commit to live a life of transparent honesty. I do not mean airing your dirty laundry on facebook for all to ooh and ahh over, but can you admit to someone that you tried to manipulate them due to selfish motives? Can you admit that we throw the term out “I’ll pray for you” like it will give us a gold star on the other person’s board even though you forget about it 5 minutes later?

For me it is selfishness, being worried I will get left behind or forgotten about. So, I feel the need to selfishly control situations so I end up in the position I want. That sentence itself was hard to type without using the past tense, as if it is no longer an issue…but why? I know that you know you aren’t perfect, so why do I expect you to think I am? It is a horrible cycle of dishonesty that discredits Christ and makes Him look as phoney as we are. Yes, my eyes have really been opened to my controlling nature but yes it will probably always be an underlying struggle. Just because I love Christ does not mean my default setting is to give him full control in every situation because I believe He knows best and has the big picture before him. No way. I continually seem to think I know my life better and therefore I have to make myself LEARN to surrender daily.

Obviously that is only one of my many real character traits that I still have to resist. And like we have always heard, we cannot change others, but we can change ourselves. I think that if we all started to be more open about our dark hearts then others would not feel the need to try to cover them up. Sin needs to be brought to light to be overcome, but if we hide it for the sake of other’s opinions we are hurting not only ourselves but others, who now feel the need to cover their sins in front of a ‘perfect’ you.

In the end we hide our reality, which keeps others from feeling free to expose theirs and then when we see others supposedly doing fine we continue to keep our sin hidden and like I said before, the vicious cycle continues.

Break it. Be the first to share your difficulties, your struggles and your real feelings.

Because, like mentioned above, YOU know that YOU are not perfect and OTHERS know THEY are not perfect either, so quit holding unattainable expectations for EACH OTHER and be REAL. “

—–

After my most recent conversation about this topic I came away feeling free and determined to move forward with passion. I left her presence knowing I was not alone in my battles in life, motherhood and marriage. I was uplifted in my despair and frustration, knowing we walk together through life; that even though we try our best to walk with Christ we are still humans, in relationships of many kinds with other humans. And you know what that can mean…conflict, misunderstanding, selfish motivations and just hardship in general. 

So as an encouragement, know you are not alone in those challenges. Speak up and speak out when you have the chance to share as the world needs real people to relate to.

We are still real people with real issues, we just have the gift of real grace.

About Beth: 

Beth Clark is a wife and mother passionate about 'normal' life. She works from home so she can raise their son, Honour, who is almost 2. Between , racing cars with her son, trying to potty train said son and making their house a home, Beth supports women and their families during pregnancy and birth through, 'Your Natural Support'. Beth is a woman in love with the Lord. She is constantly seeking truth and ways to share this love with her family and the people she comes in contact with in daily life.

Guest Post~Learning to be Grateful!

 

When Kerrington approached me about submitting a guest-post for her blog, I was SO excited to be a part of,
something so very great! 

Then I thought...
What the heck am I going to write about?! 

I really didn’t feel like I had any profound wisdom to share...

Then one morning, while I was getting ready, I felt the Lord put something on my heart to share with you, something that I have personally struggled with and am still learning about on my “journey” so far… that something is learning to be grateful…sounds like a simple concept, right??? WRONG! 

Maybe it is for some of you, but it wasn’t for me. Apparently, I didn’t quite understand the meaning of being grateful, so here’s a definition to help us out.

Grateful- adjective. Warmly or deeply appreciative of kindness or benefits received; thankful: I am grateful to you for your help.

(Thanks dictionary.com) 

Now for a little history- I grew up with three beautiful sisters and two lovely parents who put every effort forth into raising us girls to be respectful women of God, who were kind and loving towards others, and of course GRATEFUL for all of our blessings. (obviously, I didn’t get that memo) 

Being the loving parents they are, they wanted us to be happy and pretty much tried to give us whatever we needed or wanted, and they did everything they could to make sure we had a “cushy” life…

Well, they succeeded. In doing so, 

I personally became a bit of an ungrateful person. I didn’t realize how ungrateful I was until my life changed drastically! (I’ll get to that shortly.) 

I didn’t really have to work for the things I was given, so I didn’t have an appreciation for them. Sure, I loved the things I had, all the typical teenage -girly things- clothes, shoes, makeup, cell phone, car etc. but, wasn’t really grateful for them.

 I pretty much never wanted for anything and everything was just given to me so I developed this notion that things should be handed to me on a silver platter.…

how obnoxious of me, right?!?!? 

By now, you’re probably thinking, “What a spoiled brat!”  Well, you’re right, I was…Don’t worry, there is a light at the end of this tunnel.

Now, I’ll get into how my life changed drastically, and by drastic I mean giving up and saying goodbye to my family, friends, job, car, my beloved dog, and even my country.

 I started dating my now husband, Nathan, in 2009. God blessed me with opening up the door to having a long-distance relationship with this wonderful man! There was only one small issue……my husband just happened to be American, who lives in America, far away from my home in Canada. 

 

Saying that the decision to move to America was tough is an understatement… it took lots of time and lots of seeking the Lord to try to get used to the idea. I didn’t like it, but we both knew God wanted us to live here, in Lafayette, IN USA. 

We moved here against all odds, 

I couldn’t work until I was a permanent resident here, and Nathan did not have a great job at the time. 

We lived on one very small income.

 I had no job, no car, no fancy cell phone, no money to go on shopping sprees to buy clothes, makeup, jewelry etc., no getting chai tea at starbucks, no going tanning 

or getting pedicures, no getting massages, no getting my hair done, I could go on and on. 

We just couldn’t afford all the “extras.” All the things I was used to doing on a regular basis back home.  This hit me like a brick wall, I was sooooo depressed that I wasn’t able to have/do all these spoiled-girl things.  I was also confused as to why God would want me to leave my “cushy” life back home to this. 

God works in mysterious ways, and if you follow His direction for your life, His way is always the better plan! Believe it or not, I survived not doing all the extras! Haha, who knew?! After I worked through my “sadness,” God started slowly revealing to me how ungrateful 

I really was, that was not something I was excited about realizing or admitting. 

Being grateful for not only material things, but more importantly for my family and friends, and to not take them for granted. God showed me that I needed to be grateful and content with all the amazing things 

I already had. A roof over my head, food on the table, a warm place to sleep…these simple things are more than what some people had. I slowly started to become thankful for all the little  things, and through this God blessed us abundantly. 

He is so faithful to His promise to take care of His children. One of my favourite verses is from Matthew 6:26 where it talks about the birds of the air, and how they don’t plant seeds in the field and harvest their food, yet God still takes care of them and makes sure they are fed. 

How much more does He care about His own children?!?!?  Amazing love. Through this little journey of learning to be grateful, God continually blessed Nathan and I. It actually blows my mind how much he has blessed us and continues to bless us. I can’t stop smiling when I think about it. My perspective on life has completely changed for the better by changing my mindset to be grateful for everything!

I challenge you today, to sit down and list every possible blessing you can think of, whether it be something a person has done for you, or about the amazing new purse you got from the mall….You will be amazed and overwhelmed with how many you can come up with. 

It’s a good reminder to stay grateful and thankful. If it is a person or multiple people, make sure to let them know how much of a blessing they are. Again, I don’t have profound wisdom, but I hope all of you reading this are encouraged by how much the Lord truly loves us and how much He wants to

bless us! 

 

Sincerely,

~Jennie

 

About Jennie: 

 

Jennie is 24 years old and loves the Lord and loves her family so very much. She enjoys shopping, doing hair and makeup, drinking coffee, working with children, loves animals and has been married to her wonderful husband for 2 years and 2 months now. She lives in Indiana and officially loves it there! She works at a daycare and has an incredible love for children. Her and her husband can’t wait to start a family one day soon! They both love the Lord with all their hearts and want to continue to follow His direction for their lives! 

Guest Post~The Long Awaited Promise!

 Written by: Karen 

If there is one couple I can identify more with than any other it would be Abraham and Sarah.

 

Infertility is a dark, lonely place and to date, the most difficult and heart wrenching trial I’ve encountered.  To be honest, it is difficult to even put into words and no matter how well I am able to, unless you’ve walked the road of infertility, you will never know the
level of pain and heartache.

 

You battle so many things when faced with infertility.
Things like jealousy, anger, shame, loss, disappointment
and hopelessness.

 

For the first 10 years Glen and I battled infertility we never discussed with anyone. Not with my best friend or even my twin sister. It was too personal and too painful, like a raw open wound.

 

Glen and I approached this area in faith and believed that what God did for Abraham and Sarah, He could do for us.

 

We found bible verses to declare like;

Psalm 113:9 

"He makes the barren woman to be a homemaker
and a joyful mother of children."

 

 We had baby names written down in an envelope we kept beside our bed. We spent hours dreaming of what our children would be like and the kind of parents we would be.

 

For years that all it was; dreaming, believing and seeing nothing.

 

I mean you battle like nothing else with infertility. There are babies and pregnant women everywhere and every one of them is screaming “I have something that you don’t”.

 

I believe more than anything, infertility causes you to ride a rollercoaster of highs and lows like nothing else. It’s a ride I took every month as I anticipated being pregnant only to be let down again and again, month after month and year after year.

 

There came a day when our infertility became very public. 

 It was a Sunday evening service in our church.

 

There was a guest speaker who moved in the prophetic. He had a track record of giving accurate prophetic words. 

He called me out in front of my entire church and said; "In nine months you are going to have a baby.”  

I was overwhelmed by the presence of the Holy Spirit and this word went so deep into my soul, I hardly slept for two nights. 

God had heard the cry of our hearts!!

 

Two weeks after this wonderful and amazing prophetic word, Glen and I left for our first vacation alone in years. 

We spent our drive to the Muskokas talking about having kids, and dreaming and wondering about what God was up to. We were excited and full of faith. 

We even stopped and purchased a baby outfit as a way of exercising our faith.

I hung that little outfit up in our cottage and started my period....

Imagine the heartache and confusion, the shame and disappointment. 

I cried like I’d never cried before.

 

I questioned God and the accuracy of that prophetic word. 

I admit in that moment I would have liked to find that man and take his head off!! 

How dare he make he hope like that!! It's funny how the first thing we do in our pain is look for someone to blame it on.

 

Pointing our pain at a person isn’t going to fix it. Even if someone is responsible for the pain we are experiencing, blaming does nothing except make it worse. Blaming will take you deeper into discouragement, disappointment and powerlessness.

 

We were solid enough Christians to know that ultimately, the one to blame was the devil. He was the real enemy. 

John 10:10 calls him a thief who’s come to kill, steal and destroy. The enemy had been robbing us for years…in health and finances, in our physical intimacy and barrenness. God was not the source of all this heartache and pain!

 

 

Glen soon reminded me that the message this man preached in that evening service, before he ever gave me the prophetic word, was out of 

Romans 4:17.

His entire message was about the importance of

“calling those things that be not, as though they were”.

 

So we had a choice to make. 

Be angry and blame the man or receive the prophetic word and apply the message he taught to it And so we began to say, “In 9 months we are going to have a baby.” We said that again and again for years, believing that word to come to pass in our lives.

 

One thing that happened during this time was that I began working for an infertility specialist. The medical practice covered gynaecology and obstetrics, but primarily infertility and the major of the pregnant women we cared for were infertility patients that successfully became pregnant.

You would think that working in that environment would have been extremely difficult, but it wasn’t. 

I absolutely loved my work!!  

The grace of God was on me and I had many opportunities daily sow seeds of hope and encouragement into the lives of hurting women. I cannot count how many times someone said “It’s just so hard and I want a baby so bad.”  

I was always able to share how much I could, indeed, identify with them, as I myself was barren also for many years.

 I was often asked how I could work in such a place without children myself and every time my answer was the same…
 

 I am trusting God for a miracle.

 

Now the question, you are dying to know by now is, did I do infertility treatment? The answer is no. We thought about it, sometimes a lot and I was tempted to try it on occasion, but in the end we never did.  Let me be clear, I have no problem with infertility treatments. 

The medical field has made it possible for thousands of women to have babies that otherwise would not have.  

To do or not do infertility treatment, is a personal decision each couple has to make and for us, our decision was not to undergo any treatments.

 I could have done just about anything at no cost if I wanted it, but I always wondered if I did move out in the medical realm, how would I ever know for sure it was God and not us. 

It was too easy for those lines to be blurred and in my heart I so wanted our child to be a testimony of the greatness of our miracle working God.

 

So after working full time for 4 years I became pregnant. 

To be honest, at this point, being pregnant was the farthest thing from my mind. Yes we still wanted children, but we had made a decision to love our life and enjoy our days resting in the knowledge that God knew the desire of our hearts. I actually thought I had a bladder infection and was preparing the lab slip to send with my urine sample, when my co-workers teased me about checking off a pregnancy test too. 

I went along jokingly with them, and was amazed when I called the lab later that evening and was told I did not have a bladder infection, 

but was indeed pregnant!!

On October 27, 2007 

I gave birth to a 5 lb baby boy. 

We held the long awaited promise 

in our arms!!

 

Our God is always Faithful! 

~Karen 

Guest Post~Little Girl Dreams!

Written by: Breanne
 

It started with a paper towel role taped vertically onto a young girl’s bedroom desk labelled “Penny Drop”.  

I put as much change as I could into that thing, and anyone who came for a visit to my room could feel free to drop some in, as well (bills were always welcome, too, of course ;) ).  

The change was not being saved for candy or new toys, though, as you might expect.  It was being collected because this little girl had a dream in her heart.  A dream, but also a calling that she did not yet know was there.

 I’m sure many of you have heard of George Muller; an incredible man of faith who followed God’s call to start orphan houses and do many other great things for Him.  He always completely trusted God to meet his needs and the needs of the children and workers at the orphanages.  I would encourage you to read his autobiography: The Autobiography of George Mueller.  It’s an amazing testimony of faith.

 Well, I had heard his story a few times as a child and it really impacted me.  I decided that I wanted to start an orphanage when I grew up.  Hence, the “Penny Drop” 

I began saving money for this orphanage, praying that God would keep this dream in my heart.  I was very young, probably around 9, more or less.

 I can’t say I realized that this dream was growing and transforming in my heart, creating other desires and passions in my heart, but it did. It has. A few years ago I felt that God was calling me to go to other countries and tell
them of His love. 

 Last summer I went to Central America on a six week mission’s trip.  (The Penny Drop Fund was used in support of this new dream given by the Father) As I look back and see what God has done in my life, I’m amazed. He took this little girl’s dream of starting an orphanage and began to form it into a calling to bring His love to the nations.  

My friend Kerrington (you might have heard of her?) and

I were chatting on the phone the other day about this very thing.  We were talking about how when I was little God placed those dreams in my heart.  How He didn’t speak to me in a big booming voice, but through a dream dropped into a young heart that grew and formed into the calling He has for me. It came in a still, small way. 

 He may speak to you in that ‘big booming voice’,

but not likely. 

 More likely it will be that still, small voice; that dream in your heart that has grown into a passion and a purpose; that deepest desire to serve Him with everything you’ve got, wherever He wants you to be, doing whatever He wants you to do.  Don’t become so busy listening for a big voice or a big sign that you miss the small one
He’s trying to speak to you with.

 I don’t know if it’s God’s plan for me to one day start an orphanage, but I do know that He’s called me to go and share His love to the nations; as we’re all called to share His love right where we are.  

Maybe that comes in the form of caring for orphans, or maybe it’s having tea with your elderly neighbour, prison ministry, or being a witness to your co-workers and friends.  Neither is more important than the other. Whoever you are, wherever you are, YOU are called.

 

About Breanne:

I am a 17 year old, every day, ordinary girl who loves the Lord with all her heart.  I believe that I am called by God to bring His love to other countries.  I’m very excited to return to Central America this summer.  I am blessed to have grown up in a Christian home with amazing parents who support the calling God has given me.  Having been home-schooled since grade 6, I have the opportunity to go to college in the fall, which I believe is the next step in the Lord’s plan for my life.  

Thank you for taking the time to read my Guest-post, I hope you are encouraged!! Dios le bendiga! 

 

 

Guest-Post~ A letter to the young girls.

 

Written By: Mandy 

For women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do.

(1 Timothy 2:10)

Dear beautiful {young} daughter of God,

I remember the lonely nights. I remember falling asleep feeling like the only teenage girl alive that didn't have a boyfriend. I remember how the absence of a boyfriend brought the presence of the identity that I was not worthy; that I somehow did not measure up to all the other girls in my circle.

I gave my heart to Jesus just a few months after I turned thirteen. I fell completely in love my Saviour and devoted the remainder my life's journey to being sold out for Him. 

My blossoming relationship with God was a beautiful thing.....until I got caught up in the fact that while the majority of my friends were in relationships; I remained single. It's an easy web to get tangled up in; seeking your identity in that of a relationship. But it did not produce any fruit, in fact, it distracted me from my relationship with God and changed my focus to seeking out what would make me attractive to that special someone. 

You see, the world desperately beckoned me to believe that because i was not in a relationship...I was 'less than.' 

My God, however, taught me in my season of singleness, to stand firm in my position as His daughter. He gently told me that "A good woman is hard to find; and she is worth far more than diamonds." (Proverbs 31:10), and He challenged me to work on becoming that 'good woman' before I stirred up and excited love. (Song of Songs 8:4)

I read some books on dating and came up with a list of boundaries for myself. No, I would not 'date' just to say I was dating; I in fact was worth far more than that. I would however, pray for the man I one day would call my husband. I would build my character and solidify my relationship with my Saviour before I opened my heart to loving another man; after all I am first, His. 

Young women, if you give your love life over to God and trust Him to pen your love story, I guarantee you will never be disappointed. It may never look like you've dreamed it would, but from my experience; it will look better. Don't compromise who you are in Jesus for anything or anyone. I challenge you to really pray and ask God what it means to be a 'good woman' and allow God to direct your steps as you journey your way into becoming one. 

Remember who your first love is, and honor Him with every decision you make.

Bless you, young daughters,

Mandy Hill

P.S. Heavenly Father, I pray for the young girls who's eyes will fall on this letter- I pray for their hearts. I pray, Jesus, that you will become completely irresistible to them, drawing them to Your side. Please bless them and be for them everything their heart's desire. Protect them from the battle the enemy will desperately try to ensue on them, and lead them to victory. We bless you, God. We exalt You. In Jesus name, Amen!

About Mandy: 

 

Mandy is an imperfect work in progress! She loves the Lord with her whole heart and counts it her biggest privilege to serve Him in ministry however He leads. Born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she now resides in south-western Ontario with her family. She has been married to her handsome husband Nathan for 9 years and together they have served in ministry for the entirety of their marriage. Nathan & Mandy have three beautiful children; Benjamin, Sophia & Spencer (all ages 5 and under!). Mandy is passionate about singing, worship leading and music. She loves reading, writing, decorating cakes, painting and anything artistic. She strives to be tidier, more organized (yes, she is a little compulsive!), a little more Martha Stewart-esque, and a little less 'unglued'. Most of all she seeks to be Christ-like and to love God through serving her family and her community.

To read more check out Mandy's blog:

http://www.weareHisdaughters.com