You Are Beautiful

It only takes a moment to listen to this song that could help you.
It is family-friendly, and a lovely Christian song.



Blessings,
Meggie and Taleisha

How to boost your self-esteem?

 Hello to all readers!!

For the last 2 weeks Meggie and I have discussed and expanded on what self-esteem is and how to use God's love as a weapon against it. So to complete our topic of Self Esteem, we are going to give you some tips on how to conquer and rid yourself of low self-esteem, using quotes, experiences and the Bible.


Tip Number One:
Pray. Pray that God will be with you in this. That He will help you overcome your feeling of low self worth. Really pray on it. It's important to take this as your first step. You don't want to be on the way to a healthy self esteem and half-way through the process discover you haven't even included God on your journey.

"So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer." - Ezra 8:23

We don't literally have to fast but we should petition God. Fasting is a great way to get closer to God and learn how to hear Him better and develop a relationship on a new level. While we don't have to, it is good to show God that you trust Him completely. It's mainly done in very serious times of trouble and waiting on God, and other times as well. We should constantly be praying to Him. If you want God to do something for you, you need to not just ask for it once but to come repeatedly before Him. It is bad to have the wrong motives behind your prayers, like greed. God ALWAYS answers our prayers. Sometime He says yes, other times no, and at other times He's just saying wait.

Other verses regarding prayer:
"The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous." - Proverbs 15:29

^"Jesus replied, 'Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, "Go, throw yourself into the sea," and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.' " - Matthew 21:21-23


Tip Number Two:
Commit. Don't let that little voice inside your head get the best of you. On your new journey of becoming a bold, courageous young woman of God, you will be faced with temptations. But only you can overcome them, and with the help of God you will, but you have to be committed. You have to commit to not letting any discouraging thoughts convince you that you aren't as beautiful as someone else is.

Verses regarding being bold and courageous:
"David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the LORD is finished." - 1 Chronicles 28:20

"The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” - Deuteronomy 31:8


Tip Number Three:
Block out negative comments and thoughts. Don't listen to what magazines, radios, televisions, and anything else tell you. You can get through this. To help you, it's important to not listen to what the world today thinks. Because it's not what the bible teaches. Part of step 2 is being bold and courageous, and it's very true. If bad comments come your way, discrediting what people say won't be easy. That's where God comes in. Remember He is on this journey with you and He's by your side every step of the way. Be confident and believe that you can do it.

Verses about self confidence:
"Such confidence we have through Christ before God." - 2 Corinthians 3:4

"I am glad I can have complete confidence in you." - 2 Corinthians 7:16

Tip Number Four:
Surround yourself with friends that will support and encourage you, as well as have the same morals and goals as you. You will be surprised at how much this will influence you. You will feel better and your confidence in yourself will be strengthened. Hanging around with a crowd that you have to go out of your way to please, isn't a worth it one. Try to lather yourself in the Holy Spirit and with friends, or family that will uphold you, respect you and encourage you.

Related Verses:
"The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray." - Proverbs 12:26


Remember girls that every single one of you reading this article, are beautiful, inside and out, and you are most definitely worth it. Don't let people convince you otherwise. I hope that these tips will be encouraging and helpful for people trying or wanting to conquer a low self-esteem. Every girl struggles with it at some stage, and now we are here to help you.

God bless you all,

~ Taleisha & Meggie

Using Gods Love as a Weapon

Hi Girls!

Well, I’ll be talking about how we can get rid of low self-esteem with Gods love.

Low self-esteem comes out of us looking for a real love, and finding we cannot attain it because we are not beautiful. But when we realise that Christ in Heaven loves us, and that we need to give up all thoughts of our own beauty, all thoughts of ourselves up to Him, and present ourselves as living sacrifices- that is when low self-esteem gets driven back, and the defeat of it begins. With Christs love we can all battle against it.

First of all, I think the best thing we can do to rid ourselves of low self-esteem is to fall in love with God, and follow after His service. Does it make sense that if we lose sight of ourselves, and keep our eyes focused on God (and His love!) that we won’t hear the worlds cry, ‘You're not beautiful’?

Think about it. A woman who has truly denied herself, taken up her cross, and become entirely consumed with Jesus Christ is not going to be an insecure young woman, starving herself and obsessed with making herself look more attractive. Rather, she is so enraptured with Jesus Christ that she’s completely lost sight of herself. As Bishop Bardsley put it, “They care not at all what the world thinks of them, because they are entirely taken up with the tremendous realities of their King.” – The Lost Art of True Beauty, Leslie Ludy.

If you don’t give up your whole life and lay everything at Christs feet, then you are not going get rid of your low self-esteem.

So here are some ways we can all break the hold low self esteem has on us. If you think there is anything else we can do to fall in love with God more, please let us know in the comments below!

Read the Bible. (I don’t mean flick open your bible and just read. Grab a concordance, there are heaps online, look up ‘love’ and read all the verses on love- just make sure that you read in context!) Here are a few Bible verses to start you off: James 2:10, Matthew 27:11-31, Luke 23:32-34; 40-43, Mark 15:33-39, 1 John 3:1, 4:10, Proverbs 10:12, 1 John 4:8, Ephesians 5:2. To do this myself I have started a journal where I write out these love verses so that if I ever forget God's love for such a wretch as I, then I can read and remember.

So how do we learn to yield to the Spirit instead of fulfilling the lusts of the flesh? It starts with simple, everyday decisions.
Often, it starts with your morning alarm clock. Do you yield to the beckoning whisper of Christ's Spirit asking you to get up and spend time with Him, or do you listen to your own selfish desire to stay in bed? – The Lost Art of True Beauty, Leslie Ludy

Go on a date with God – http://jenniferandkathryn.blogspot.com/2011/08/dating-jesus.html
Service. By service I mean getting out there and being God's hands and feet. Being the first to wash the dishes for Mum, taking cups of tea with grans, finding the homeless in your community and making meals for them, reaching out to the hurting- I think you would be surprised how helping others can help us.

She [a former prostitute] went to hospitals and washed the wounds of the injured. She went to homes for the elderly and brushed the matted hair of the residents. “It was serving others that healed her,” Jackie [Pullinger] said. This woman who had been so battered, bruised, and wounded chose to deny herself and pour out her life for the cause of Christ. – The Lost Art of True Beauty, Leslie Ludy (brackets are mine).

Read! – Have a look at the books I suggested reading in last week’s article. Here are some more reading material you can look into: What’s So Amazing about Grace? By Philip Yancey, Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris, Anything written by Charles Spurgeon or A. W. Tozer.
Poem - And He Walked
Article -  Dating Jesus.

I know this sounds easier than we all expected, but it isn’t as easy as it sounds. I hope this helps you all with trying to get low self-esteem under control. Taleisha will be posting with her hints and tips next week. If you have any hints and tips on getting rid of low self-esteem please share it with us in the comments!

"Only fear the LORD, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you." – 1 Samuel 12:24

~ Taleisha & Meggie

What is low self-esteem?

Hi everyone. I hope you enjoy our first article together.


What is low self-esteem? Why does it seem to ruin our lives? The question most girls ask and I find myself asking most of all is ‘how can we just get rid of it!?’ But (yep- there’s the but) perhaps if we all understood better what low self-esteem is, maybe we would know how to battle against it? You don’t go into battle blindly, without any idea of what you are fighting.

Because that is what low self-esteem is. It’s a battle, a battle that most girls lose.

Note: From my own personal experience, I have found this is the root of the problem of low self-esteem. There are so many angles you can take on it, and if you feel this post doesn’t answer every question you have- why not look into it? See the bottom of this post for further reading on this subject that will give you greater a understanding of all of the different angles.

Imagine this. Your walking through a shopping centre, and you see a group of absolutely stunning girls, photos pop up at every store of super-slim girls in the latest fashions that makes you wriggle inside. You look down out your own ratty hair, protruding stomach and your average t-shirt hanging about you, and you feel the instinct to run and lock yourself up - or go buy everything in sight hoping that it will make you look like them.

As your life goes on, you find more cosmetic solutions, different foundations, more boyfriends- all of which makes you feel so much better about yourself, you finally feel beautiful, cherished, loved and (dare I say it?) …accepted.

Wait a moment. Stop the tape. Have you ever felt content after painting your face up to look like the next top model? Have you ever felt pure, happy joy with a boyfriend who is going to ditch you next month for someone 'better'? Have you honestly ever felt perfectly happy with who you are?
Are you happy with your body?

When we sinned (think Adam and Eve), man no longer held the close, intimate relationship with God. What used to be a walk in the park with Him (literally) - was ruined because we were selfish. When man took the forbidden fruit we broke that intimacy that God offered. The more generations that passed, the further people parted from Him, but they felt incomplete, like they needed something more. They tried to fill that emptiness with something else. Unfortunately that is still the case today. Now we look for love from other people, we fight for acceptance by trying being the best, the most beautiful, the smartest, or the sportiest. It's a constant battle with ourselves, others and God. And it gets exhausting.

What we are all searching for in these things, our looks and possessions, became our priority and our idols. But we're never satisfied so we move on to the next thing. We should be looking for God, and trying to earn His love. We are looking for an earthly love in other everyday, sinful people. But the only thing that can fully complete us is the heavenly love of the Father.

Maybe this quote will help make these thoughts be a little more clearer:

“Even as a little girl, love and beauty, in my mind, were always braided together. I always wanted to be beautiful because I thought that would eventually bring me love. Yet as time passed, the more I compared myself to the beauty of others, the less I found myself measuring up. There are so many drop-dead gorgeous girls in the world, I knew I didn’t stand a chance.” – Uncompromising by Hannah Farver (pg. 51).

This is what makes me feel like I am not beautiful, because I am not loved in the way that fills me. This is what personally makes me feel low self-esteem. I want people to love me. That place in my heart throbs so bad to be loved and fulfilled, and I look at my body and see I have no chance. I want to hide under a thick layer of cosmetics, hoping that someone will notice me and love me, accept me. That’s what low self-esteem is. It's what we feel like when we think we're not beautiful enough… and we automatically come to the conclusion that we're not loved unless we are the prettiest and have the latest accessories. And we feel like we don't matter, like we are the girl in the gutter. But we are looking for love in the wrong place.

We search for a love that says:

"No matter what you look like, or what you have done I love you." (Proverbs 10:12)
"I will always love you." ( 1 Corinthians 13:8)
"Love means I would give my own life for you." (John 15:13)

Now lets get this straight. Sinners were the ones who put Christ on the cross. Who are we? We are all sinners, nobody's perfect. We were the ones who made a mockery of Him, who brought Him to His death. Our sins are what brought Him to the earth. We are so unworthy of His love, but He offers it to us anyway - it's ours if we choose to accept it. God chose to love us because He wants to love us. Do you want to love Him? The God who "...sent His one and only begotten that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life..."? (John 3:16)

“If we think Christ died just to say, “I love you,” we miss the big picture. There was a greater reason. He died , not because He couldn’t decide between giving chocolate, roses, or crucifixion to His beloved ones- but because we needed Him to die.” – Uncompromising, Hannah Farver, pg. 46.

I want to end on this quote below:

"Love yourself. Be true to yourself. Live to yourself. Some of these messages even go as far as to say that by living this way you will bring glory to God."

But what is the pattern of scripture? Christ said, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me”. (Mark 8:34) The word deny literally tanslates: to forget one’s self, lose sight of one’s self and one’s own interests. We are meant to let all thoughts of self become swallowed up in Him. – The Lost Art of True Beauty, Leslie Ludy.

More Reading: Books - The Lost Art of True Beauty by Leslie Ludy (Chapter 2: Selfless Beauty), Uncompromising by Hannah Farver (Chapters 1-3), How to Ruin your Life by Forty by Steve Farrar (Chapter 5: Quite a Piece of Work).
Articles – Johnny Lingo’s Eight Cow Wife, and Distorted Beauty.
Other - Song: Beautiful by Bethany Dillon


Next weeks article: Low self-esteem comes out of us looking for a real love, and finding we cannot attain it because we feel we aren't beautiful. But when we realise that Christ in Heaven loves us, that we need to give up all thoughts of our own beauty, all thoughts of ourselves up to Him, and present ourselves as living sacrifices - that is when low self-esteem gets driven back, and the defeat of it begins. With Christs love we can battle against low self-esteem. 

If you have any questions, or don’t completely understand, please ask in the comments!


~Taleisha & Meggie