Britani

 

 

 

Let me introduce you to Britani.

Crazy.

Solider.

Passionate.

Writer.

Blogger.

Reader.

Beautiful.

Imperfect.

Small.

Believer.

Friend.

Impact.

Fighter.

Lover.

#Dreamer 

 

#ProjectYouAre

Unequaled

I hate how women feel the need to compare themselves with models and magazine images. The Photoshop version of perfection and beauty is a lie. A lie that we have been fed over and over..... A lie that we believe.

Why would we want to believe a lie? Why would we want to believe that we are not good enough? It is definitely difficult to stand up against the images that are thrown at us every time that we shop, every time we go online. They are shoving down our throats, "Be skinny to be beautiful, loved, and successful."

What would happen if we realized that our weight, our faces, our bodies, our outside beauty, are nothing in comparison with the amazing beauty that is inside of us. You can make yourself up, you can try to cover up what you think is ugly, you can try to lose all your "fat" but you will never feel good enough.

We will never measure up with computer made images of what is defined and advertised as beauty.

Watch this video and see before and after of what celebrities look like with Photoshop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbBmX2Qnv3Y


Crazy, huh? No wonder that we are never okay with how we look!! You never see extra fat, or wrinkles, or anything that isn't perfect on celebrities. So automatically we look for that same perfection in ourselves.

Ha! How funny is that? Because their beauty is completely computer made. They are not as skinny as they look, they do not have perfect skin, they are not what they appear. I wonder how they feel knowing that they aren't good enough without being Photoshopped?

What should we take away from this?

That our beauty is unequaled. Nothing can take away from our beauty, nothing can add to it. Our beauty is from the inside out. Our heart shines through our smile and our eyes. Our worth is defined by a beauty that cannot be compared. Your beauty is unrivaled, matchless, and exquisite.

So this is my plea to you. Throw away any image that makes you feel not good enough. Throw away anything that makes you feel like you aren't beautiful, or fat, or ugly. Get rid of them.

Do not let the world lie to you anymore. Know that your beauty is unequaled. Unable to be found in anyone else. Unable to be taken away. Unable to be changed or made any better than it already is. You are perfect just the way that you are. No matter how much you weigh, how much you think you need to lose, or how much makeup you cake on.

Fight the lies. Know that you are beautiful! God sees your unequaled beauty and He is overwhelmed by you!

Much love, Chiarra <3

Beautiful Strength

 

 

 

 

Did you know that beauty comes from vulnerability?

Most of the time we think about being vulnerable and we get scared. I know that I am scared. I think of pain. I think of getting my heart broken. I think of making mistakes. I think of  being broken by people who don't realize how fragile that humans are.

 

I think of being stupid and trusting the wrong people. I think about my past when I opened my heart and had it stepped upon.

 

But you see, beauty comes from within. But if we hide what is within us, we are covering up our beauty.

 

You see we think that strength comes from being strong, not showing when we were hurt, not being open. That can be classified as strength but I think that we have strength a little backwards.

 

How are people supposed to know that we are strong if they never know what we are going through to begin with? How are we supposed to be strong if we aren't showing that we have a reason to be weak?

 

Strength is knowing that we are messed up people and being okay with that. The most beautiful people are those who are willing to discuss their mistakes and willing to admit them. They are the ones that show when they are struggling.

 

Now I am not talking about those people that complain 24/7. I am not telling you to tell everyone your life story, or open your heart to everyone that you meet. There must be wisdom in everything that you do. But I think that you can be strong by your weakness and that is what you are supposed to share with the world.

 

Strength in weakness looks like someone asking how you are and you saying how you are truly, but with hope. Strength is letting people see that you are a flawed human, yet not letting them think any less of you because of it. Strength is being a wreck and knowing that it is okay.

 

It is having confidence in the fact that you are going to make it through the hard times, confident that you are going to get up even when you are laying, knocked out on the floor, confident that you don't have to have it all together.

 

Beauty is a heart at rest. Not a heart that is striving constantly to be perfect and have it all together, but a heart that knows it is okay to be flawed.

 

Beauty knows that she doesn't have it all together, and that she doesn't need to have it all together to be beautiful and loved.

 

Beauty relies on a strength that is not her own.

 

I am not saying that we need to be weaker than everyone as women, by no means do I think that at all. I am completely for the fact that women have a strength that no one can possess. I believe that women can be beaten down and bruised, broken over and over and still get up and fight.

 

But I do think that strength is not hiding your pain, your heart, your vulnerability, who you are. I do not think that strength is putting on a mask that says to the world that we are completely okay.

 

I think that we need to take a new look at what we define strength by. Maybe we should try to define strength seeing it as you are perfect by your imperfections. That the days that you are having a terrible day, you don't have to put up a front that you have it all together. Express your sorrow/frustration/etc. and then proceed to get through it. Show people when you get knocked down so that they can be amazed when you stand back up and throw another punch.

 

 

 

#ProjectYouAreStrong

 

 

 

Awake

Did you know that you have an expiration date?

Now to be all gloom and doom but, you are dying everyday. You are always more step closer to your death every moment that you are awake.

Last night I spent hours crying over that fact. Crying over the fact that I wasted so much of my life doing dumb stuff. I wasted time that I could have spent getting closer to God. I took that precious time and spent it on whatever I wanted to do at the time. I wasted my talent and gifts that God had blessed me with. I cannot tell you how much that bothered me.

What I would give right now to go back and redo the 5 months of my life that I forgot about God and ignored Him. What I would give to have my innocent, lovely self back. The girl who knew that she didn't need a man, the girl who did not let her heart be played with, the girl that believed in true love. I wish I could be the girl without baggage again.

I wonder what would happen if my life was over tonight. Like what if this was the last day that I ever had to live? What could people say about my last day? What would my funeral be like? Would people say, "Well she had great plans," or "She talked about doing amazing things"? I pray that my life has left more of a legacy than that.

I am expiring.

Every breath that I have taken is one less that I have to take. Everyday I wake up older than I was yesterday and the youngest I will ever be again.

I do not want to get to Heaven and God look at me and say, "What did you do with what I gave you?" I do not want to have to hand Him back the gifts that He blessed me with, the ones that I asked Him for. I want to reach Heaven and have nothing left, I want to have served with everything I had. I want to be empty of anything that God gave me. A vessel filled with God, yet poured out for all mankind.

I never want my life to be meaningless.

 

Part of knowing who you are in Christ is realizing that He has called you to higher things. He has called you to live a life that you can look back on and be proud of. He promises to walk every step with you, but He also asks that you lay down your cross daily and follow Him. "...Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,  I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Phillippians 3:13b-14

It is time that we start living our lives. My darling, it is time for you to stand up and leave a legacy. Let us not be a generation that simply lives for themselves and then dies. I do not want to be a forgotten generation.

I want us to be the generation that knows who they are and knows who their God is. I want this to be the generation that stands up and leaves this world a better place for those who come after us.

I want to be a generation that is awake and alive. I want to be a generation that doesn't take one second for granted. And it starts right here, this second, this day. It starts with you.

Ephesians 5:14 - “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

#ProjectYouAreAwake

Untamed

Have you ever felt like you are stuck? Like no matter how much you run you never get anywhere at all. As if you are chained to the floor, bound by invisible barriers you can't shake?

 

Do you never wish that you could be untamed? That you could run with no fence around you to keep you locked up...

 

Wild and free, ready to take on the world.

 

What stops you?

 

 

 

Are you:
Untamed?
Uncontrollable?
Unrestrained?
Unquenchable?
Unstoppable?

 

 

 

 

Why not?

 

Why do we not take on the world? Do we not believe that we are strong enough? Good enough? Pretty enough? Talented enough?

 

What causes doubt in your mind? When did you stop believing that you were wild and free and start seeing invisible things that hold you back?

 

Was it when you were five and you wanted to sing and your dad told you to shut up cause you were awful to listen to?

Was it when you tried out for the play and did not get the part that you wanted?

Was it when you were rejected by the boy in kindergarten who said you were ugly?

Was it the first time someone called you fat?

 

No matter the reason why, we let what people think put a fence around our freedom.

 

It is time to jump the fence, my dear. It is time to break free of those thoughts and restrictions. You never know what you can become once you are untamed. Once you run free in the freedom that Christ died to give you, there is no limit to the height you can reach.

 

All you have to do is lay down everything that defined you in the past. All your failures, all your mistakes, every nasty and untrue thing that anyone ever said to you, lay it down. Take it off. Shake free from it.

 

You are far from ugly, or fat, or untalented, or unworthy... You are a princess who was created to be untamed. She is able to conquer the world, able to do whatever she she puts her mind to. Your beauty is unable to be harnessed... You are far more than you could ever imagine yourself being if you start to lay off what has tamed your wild, adventurous heart.

 

Everything that has tamed you, that has held you down, that put a lock and key on your dreams and abilities, write it down. Write every reason that you do not do what your heart desires and is called to do. Fill that paper with all that you feel puts a fence around you.

 

Take that list.

 

And burn it.

 

Rip it up.

 

Get rid of it.

 

Let yourself go.

 

Be untamed.

 

 

 

#ProjectYouAreUntamed 

 

 

Amanda

Going to do great things.

Real.

Funny.

Believed in.

Faithful.

Cooler than you think.

Affectinoate.

Nice.

Working on it.

Organized.

Caring.

Hard worker.

Beautiful.

#RoleModel

 

This is Amanda. And she is incredible.

 

#ProjectYouAre

 

 

Lena

#ProjectYouAre

 

Meet Lena.

 

She is a lover.

Alexandria

This is Alexandria.

Loving and fun.

Achiever.

Perfectly Imperfect.

#Iamyours

Dedicated.

Passionate.

 

#ProjectYouAre

Perfection

 

Have you ever looked in your own eyes? Have you ever sat in front of a mirror and looked at yourself?

I don't mean just when you are putting on your makeup or getting ready. I mean have you sat down and taken the time to look into your eyes to your own soul?

About  4 months ago I did. And I could not stand what I saw. I saw so much hatred and bitterness, so much pain and regret. I saw something that I could not stand looking at... I did not see who I wanted to be, I did not see what I had hoped for. I saw broken ugliness, shattered pieces of the beauty that once was there.

While I was sitting there telling myself how much I hated who I had become, when I realized that God still loved me.

You see God does not love us more or less based on how we feel about ourselves. He loves us.

For God so loved you that He sent His one and only Son.

It doesn't say for God so loved us when we were doing things right, or God only loved us when we were on the straight and narrow. It said that God so loved us and sent His Son to face a gruesome terrible death on our behalf. He sent His Son to die, because He loved us.

His love is constant. Like a heartbeat that never stops. Ever pulsing, ever beating, ever constant, ever comforting.

I always felt that God's love was based on my performance. That if I was being the best Christian, witnessing, reading my Bible, going to church, loving everyone, seeking Him everyday, then God would love me and be proud.

Well that is not how God works. You see God loves you on the worst days when you curse His name, when you run away from His love, when you are doing what you know is wrong, God still loves you. The EXACT SAME amount as if you were in church worshipping. We can never be holy compared to God. Never. We always fall short. We are humans, simple as that.

When you look in the mirror though, no matter what you did the night before or the minute before, God sees perfection.

Christ's blood has covered over all that we have done wrong, it has covered all our "ugliness." So all God sees is beauty and perfection. God thinks you are perfect.

So next time you look in the mirror, look in your eyes and tell yourself, "I am perfect."

You no longer have to strive on your own to be perfect. Simply accept Jesus' gift of perfection and lay all that you have done wrong on Him. He can take it. Every time, without question, no matter if it is the first time or the 1,000,000th time.

#ProjectYouArePerfection

Ravishing

Today is a day that you can either hate or you can love.

Valentine's Day.

Most of the time we don't like Valentine's day because of the fact that it reminds us that we are alone. All of the couples come out of hiding and display their love for their significant other on those days and it makes us who are single feel kind of poopy about ourselves. I don't know about you but being single on Valentine's Day only makes me feel like there must be something wrong with me.

"Why does no one love me?"
"Am I not pretty enough?"
"How come Susie with the big nose has a boyfriend and I don't?"

Come on, be honest you think those things! We all have and still do!!

Now for those of us who have that special someone, Valentine's Day is a day to be loved and made feel special! The flowers, the chocolate, the kisses, and romance.... You are made to remember the love that is there for you, you are showered with affection and made to feel like you are the sun, moon, earth, and stars.

Now I am sure you are like, what in the world does this have to do with #ProjectYouAre? I am glad you asked! (Well, I think you are asking at least!)

You see whether you have a Valentine or not, you are still loved.

Cliche right?

But I don't mean loved like oh I love my dog, or my mom loves me, or I love pizza! I mean that someone is crazy in love with you. Head over heels, madly, completely, and wondrously in love with you.

When He sees you, He can't breathe. When He looks into your eyes, He is overwhelmed with your beauty...

"...You have ravished My heart...."

Ravished. Now that's a word that you don't hear often...

Ravished: Enthralled, enchanted, to take delight in, captivated.

My dear, today is a day to focus on the fact that you are ravishing to God. He cannot believe how beautiful that you are. He stands in wonder at how you are made, how your heart beats, how many hairs you have on your head. He thinks you are the most beautiful thing He has ever laid eyes on.

So on Valentine's Day, whether you have a significant other or not, you have a Valentine. You is passionately and madly in love with you.

You have ravished your Valentine.

#ProjectYouAreRavishing

Who are you?

 

Who are you?

 

Hi, my name is _________.

 

But who are you really?

 

What defines you? What makes up your inner soul? Who are you when you are comfortable? Who are you when no one is around? Who are you when you are mad? Who are you when you are afraid?

 

Who you are is important. It is the key to everything. When you know who you are, you know how you fit into this world.

 

That is what #ProjectYouAre is all about.

 

Finding out who you are and being the best one you can be.

 

A little bit of my story to get us started off here....

 

I was the good girl growing up, never in trouble, A's and B's, had a lot of friends, loved Jesus.

 

Well one thing led to another and pretty soon I was dating this guy and was in love. I mean la la land cloud 9 in love with him. So when things fell apart I was devastated.

 

Angry, bitter, untrusting, scared....

 

I thought I would never love again.

 

Well then I turned 18 and my bitterness drove me to look for love anywhere I could find it.

 

Met another guy, who kinda-ish believed in God, went to church a few times here and there; yet he would party and get smashed on the weekends and sleep with whoever he wanted.

 

We hit it off great but, I was really broken and bruised from the last relationship and I really couldn't handle a relationship. I was everywhere with how I felt and what I wanted. Eventually we hit that awkward stage where we didn't know if we were dating or not. I knew I should run away from him, he wasn't a healthy person to have in my life but I didn't care.

 

I had lost God. I had lost hope in love. I had lost hope in hoping for a better man.

 

One thing led to another and he pushed my limits a little too far and I broke it off. That was the last straw that broke me.

 

He was beyond mad, cussed me out, told everyone I was a terrible person....everything was terrible.

 

So there went all hope I had left that anything could be great about love.

 

I hated men even touching me or looking at me, I freaked if you told me you liked me, I wanted nothing to do with any man who got too close. I would pull away right away if things got too personal or close. Well a few guys came along and after them I completely gave up on love. Every man I thought I could trust only wanted in my pants, only wanted to play around and would always leave me.

 

I felt like trash. I felt nasty. I felt like hiding. I felt ugly.

 

Yet I thank God for His mercies that are new every morning!!

 

He turned me around and set my feet back on His foundation. He made me new. Showed me that I did not have to let the past be apart of how I felt about myself.

 

Most importantly He showed me that my identity does not come from what I have done or what has been done to me. It comes from Him and what He thinks of me.

 

And guess what? God is passionately in love with you... When He looks at you He sees such a ravishing heart, full of hope and a future. He sees to our soul, past our mistakes, past our sins, He sees the raw and undone you. And He takes delight in you.

 

The you without makeup, the you without baggage, the you without sin.

 

That is what He sees when He looks at you.

 

#ProjectYouAre

 

God wants to define who you are to Him. He wants to mold your perception of yourself into the vision that He sees when He looks at you.

 

This is what God sees when He looks at me now:

 

 

Now it is your turn...

 

I am challenging all of you to sit down and ask God to define who you are to Him.

 

Then when you are done, take a picture and post it on Instagram, Facebook, and/or Twitter. Let's show the world who we are!

 

Email me your picture and I will post it on the blog:

sunshine.caffeine@gmail.com

 

Much love in Christ,

Chiarra