Extraordinary

You are a wonderful person. You are beautiful. You are secure in who you are in God. You are sexy. You are desirable. You are breathtaking.

Life. How often do we speak life into ourselves? Give ourselves a little pep talk.

The other day I caught myself mid-sentence speaking a terrible thing about myself.

I am sure that every girl has this issue but I like to say things when I am mad... Especially if you hurt my friends. I like to make up ways that I am going to injure them, or ways to get back at them. Stuff like let's go tp his house, or she is so rude, I hope she falls on her face today. Yeah...awful right? I am working on it I promise!! But after I say those nasty things I always follow it up with, "Just kidding, man I am a terrible person!!"

Which is a lie that I have said so much that I believe it after a while... I am a terrible person because I think those thoughts. Actually, those thoughts are what are terrible, not me. Yes, I should not say things like that but, they do not define me.

What do you say about yourself?

"You are so ugly. Wow, you really got fat. Why can't you stop being a failure? You are stupid. No one wants you. There is nothing good about you."

I want you to watch this video and see what these women see in themselves and how warped our reality is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk

This was brought to my attention the other day by a wonderful friend of mine. I was crying in the car that night, having a total breakdown. I was crying because I felt like I would never amount to anything, felt like I would never find love, I have messed up so much that it must be something about me that is wrong. She reminded me of this video and told me that I saw myself as one thing when I was really a totally different thing. I was beautiful and that is what people saw in me. Not every imperfection and flaw.

I took this picture the other day while I was in the mountains...and I found that I was so critical of everything about it.

My nose looks huge.
I have a zit.
My hair looks like a little girl did it.
I have one eye that is bigger than the other.
I have a black dot on my face from something.
It looks like I am a drug addict cause of the bag under my eyes.
I look like I am 9 not 19.
My arm looks fat.








I want us to stop thinking like this. I want us to see ourselves as God sees us.

He looks down on us and tells us how beautiful we are everyday, every time that we look in the mirror, every little thing that we do, He thinks is wonderful.

God gave me two different size eyes, He gave me my nose. And He made me look younger than I am.

So next time that you catch yourself being critical, give yourself a pep talk instead. You are FAR more extraordinary than you give yourself credit for! So....

Go ahead, look in the mirror... Tell yourself wonderful, beautiful, true things...

Hey Maddy, you are gorgeous and mature and strong beyond your years. Taylor, you are confident and a great dancer, worthy of love and adoration. Andria, I think you look pretty hot today, you are always smiling and that smile just lights up some one's day. Dee, you are hilarious, everyone loves you, you have such a bright future.

Chiarra, you are captivating and noticed. You are beautiful.

 

You are what God says you are. Not what you think that you are. God thinks that you are extraordinary.

 

#ProjectYouAreExtraordinary

 

 

Priceless Princess

Having value beyond all price.

Inestimable worth.

Inability to calculate amount.

Am I worth something? What is my value? How much would someone do for me? How far would someone fight for me?

 

A few weeks ago I was asked the question if I loved someone. When I said I love a lot of people, the question was posed to me, "Would you be willing to suffer for someone? Would you die for them?"

 

Now this did not come from an American... This came from a Haitian. Not that really changes a lot of things, but it does put suffering in perspective... You see, our form of "suffering" is forgetting our phone at home or the electricity going out. If we skip one meal we are DYING!!! But that is the normal life for some people... So when a Haitian asks you, would you be willing to suffer for someone, that suffering is far more than what we think.

 

And I have to say that there are a few people I would suffer for, and even fewer that I would die for.

 

"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." John 15:13

 

Just being honest here, I really must not truly love everyone. I like life. I like living. I don't like being uncomfortable, or in pain, or suffering, and I especially don't like dying.

 

Thankfully there is someone who died for me.

Thankfully there is someone who thought I had enough worth to lay His life down for me.

 

I don't think that I have enough worth for that. I don't think I am worthy of that. And quite honestly, the thought of Christ suffering, bleeding, dying, for me makes me want to throw up. I know who I am and what I have done. I am no where near worth that much.

 

But to Jesus, the King of everything, the Maker of the universe, the God who owns everything and doesn't even need me to exist, I have worth beyond compare. I am priceless. He didn't put a limit on His love for me. He just died. Laid down His life and His worth for me...

 

He calls you princess. And He calls you priceless.

 

And He gave up everything, the entire world for you. Even when He knew how much you would mess up, how much you were going to fall away from Him.

 

God looked at what you think is unworthy and called it priceless.

 

 

 

#ProjectYouArePriceless

 

 

Bad Hair Days...

 

 

Ever have somedays that you just look in the mirror wonder what in the world happened?

 

It is like when you woke up Adam's Family met the Jetson's and got confused and turned into some form of alien meets humanity which then exploded onto your face and hair? Oh yeah and this always seems to happen on the days that you are running super late... Add on top of that, the fact that your face decided that it wanted to look like a stupid pizza that exploded in the oven, and you just ran out of cover up and can't find your foundation... And none of your pants fit because you are having a fat day and the entire closet gets dumped on your bed to find a single outfit that could make you feel at least a little bit better about yourself...

Yeah if you haven't guessed by now, welcome to my life this morning! Plus I feel like laying in bed all day cause these stupid cramps are making me want to DIE!

I hate being a girl sometimes.

I am 99.9% positive that all girls can sympathize with my crazy morning...

I guess you could say that it is humbling... Whenever I can't make myself look just right I tend to want to just hide. When that quick glance in the mirror tells me that today is just a failure, I really have to question where my beauty comes from.

 

I have self-esteem issues. I think everyone at some point does! Sometimes I want to crawl in a hole and pretend that the world doesn't exist. And I don't want anyone thinking that I have it all figured out. Cause I don't.

 

Last Thursday, I did something on Twitter. I said what I wish I could be like about every girl I know. I wish I could sing as well as             ... I wish I could be as beautiful as                  ... I wish I could be as              as             .

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that I wish I could be someone else or that I am not okay with who God made me to be. But my point in doing that was, we forget that people look up to us for something... We get so caught up in what we don't like about who we think we are... "Oh I look like a pizza today, my hair looks insane, I can never sing like that, I am not happy all the time like so and so....etc."

 

We forget that we are beautiful. We forget that there is something that people wish that they could have that we have. Whether it be a talent such as singing, or the smile that lights up the room, or being really good at comforting people, someone wishes they could be you for at least something.

 

And most of the time it is what those people are making fun of you for, or what they NEVER compliment you about that they wish they could have of yours.

So next time that you are having a bad day and you feel that everyone is better than you, remember this simple fact:

We are all insecure about something. We all have something that everyday we have to take to God and ask for His help to look beyond.

Instead of being hard on yourself, try to encourage someone else on those terrible hair days. Tell another girl how beautiful, or dedicated, or good at singing, or how loving they are... Bless another girl and I can almost guarantee that her smile will come around and bless you just as much as it blesses her...

Love is contagious.

Spread the germ.

 

#ProjectYouAreSecure