Selfie Sunday.

This one is for the ladies...I wrote it for the 6th grade girls I teach, but felt called to share it here, too. 

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What is this desire to take endless selfies?

Selfies- Urban Dictionary Definition: taking photos of ones self while posing

Selfie Sunday. Selfie Saturday. Outfit of the Day. What I Wore Wednesday. Duckface. These are all hashtags many of you know and use frequently.

Women, even at the youngest of ages, have within them an innate longing to be special...beautiful...and loved. I totally get it. I do.

But you will not find any of those things in the places you are looking for them in. The number of likes you get on Instagram because you filtered a picture of your face will not fill the hole in your heart. Oh sure, you’ll feel special for a minute- the glow of peer acceptance is a great high. But when night falls, and the likes have stopped, and it’s just you, you’re still gonna feel empty.

The world is fickle. It will love you one day and hate you the next. There is no true value in placing your level of acceptance in the world. When you do so, you hurt the One who loves and accepts you no matter what. If you are constantly looking for your self-worth in the world you will never find yourself in Him.

What are you spending more time doing- updating Facebook or Twitter, filtering a photo for Instagram, liking pins on pinterest; or are you getting in the Word, tilling with the Lord, making your inner self of more value than your outer?

Ya know, girls....

you are not just the things you do, the clothes you wear, the job you have, the school you attend, the friends you have or don’t have.

you are worth much more.

ALL of who you are.

And He loves every part of you.....the good, the bad, the ugly.

Girls, I am not defined or made valuable by things I do or things I have. NEITHER ARE YOU.

My worth lies in one thing and one thing alone: I am extravagantly loved by God. And so are YOU.

You are His dream wrapped in skin. You are His reward. You are His pride and joy. 

Ask Him to show you how beautiful you are, how loved you are, how accepted you are. He will. But you have to be willing to see it- he could be showing it you daily but you aren’t willing to see it. Look for it. Seek Him in it. And that encounter will blow you OUT OF THE WATER. 

Remember, you are beautiful without a tan or makeup or the latest jeans or the acceptance of your peers or a boy’s opinion or anything else. 

"For You created my inmost being;

You knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made." 

Psalm 139:13-14  

One last thought... 

(with thoughts from Erin @ Sweetness Itself & Rachel @ From the Heart) 

~Bethany