What if this week, every time we look in the mirror and think … “Uggh, I need to ______ {lose weight, do something about these wrinkles, get rid of those dark circles under my eyes, etc.} you say this out loud:
“He calls me Beautiful.”
Because it’s true. He does!
What if we surrounded our hearts with truth seekers and truth-speakers, who told us these truths again and again? Friends who point us back to the One who calls us Beloved, Known and Valuable.
This week I’m honored to be joining a community of women that do just that, everyday. Speaking courage, truth and Hope into the hearts of women around the world through their words, blog posts, community groups and more. Oh how I’d love for you to join (me) there as I join the contributing writers team of:
Perhaps (in)courage is a place you already know? Or maybe it’s a community waiting for you? I’ll be sharing more in the weeks to come. But I hope you’ll hop on over this week, and find out more about (in)courage, see me with bed-head (in my favorite place on earth), and meet the other new writers here. BUT BEFORE YOU GO be sure to ENTER TO WIN (Sorry, the giveaway is over, but would still love to hear from you)!
To celebrate the (in)courage-ment, and the fact that this week will be different because we’re going to tell ourselves the truth every time we look in the mirror… I’m giving away Love Idol: Letting Go of Your Need for Approval and Seeing Yourself through God’s Eyes, by my friend Jennifer Dukes Lee. Jennifer is also a newbie (in)courage writer along with several others and me who joined the (in)courage team today!
Jennifer wrote “Love Idol” for women like us—who’ve had “enough of the not-enoughs.” This book is her journey toward freedom from the approval-seeking-cycle where she invites us to a place where we can lay down every mirror, every tally sheet, every report card — everything that tells us we aren’t (____) enough.
ENTER TO WIN by leaving a comment sharing one area of your life where you would love to see yourself as God sees you: loved and pre approved. (Sorry, the giveaway is over, but would still love to hear from you)
Discover more from Renee Swope
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
This books sounds great. I heard Jennifer being interviewed on the God Centered Mom podcast. I would love to learn that I am pre approved as a Mom. I am the Mom God chose for my kiddos.
Just not being “good enough” falling short in most any area of my life.
I’ve been thinking about this. It’s funny, I was asked what I thought my best trait was earlier on another site. I said that I strive for excellence in most every thing I do. It’s true. I’m highly competitive, put 125% into most any task and yet I feel that I never quite do as well as I should. I’m caught in a loop, striving for something I don’t really believe I can attain. Would like to just find rest in Him but not sure how together off this treadmill!
This book sounds amazing! I am so bad at trying to avoid people when I am grocery shopping , etc., because I think I don’t look as good as they do. They have aged so much better. People actually tell me that I look younger than my age but I don’t see that. I guess we all see ourselves differently than others see us.
The main area I have issues with is reminding myself to love myself where I am & I don’t have to “be” any stronger, smaller or better at anything else to be loved by Him! I always have room to grow but I don’t need to get to that certain place to love myself! I can love myself exactly where I am right now!
I worry too much about what other people think about me when it should only matter how God sees me. I finf myself seeking approval from others, even family, only to be left disappointed and hurt. This is a constant struggle for me. This is a bondage that I need God to rescue me from.
I would love to remember in my soul that Im enough just being me, no strings!
I know that God sees me as a work of art. Created in his image and beautiful in every way. I dream of being able to look at myself in the mirror and zee myself as God does. Not shy away and tell myself I’m fat or out of shape.
Ready to break the approval seeking cycle–no way I can have enough “done” to keep the aging process from happening–its okay to be my age and enjoy this season in my life. I want to be an asset and valuable to the Kingdom, seeing myself as God sees me.
I love this thought and like so many others here have daily struggles with my self worth and if only’s….
One area I would like is knowing that I matter and my opinions matter. I don ‘t want to over analyze everything I say anymore. That it’s okay to be me.
I would like to see myself as He does…I’d like to know what that is….who am I in Him?
As a working wife I feel very inadequate at home.
Motherhood! I never feel good enough, but I know God thinks I AM good enough.
As I daily inch closer to 60, I look at myself and wonder who that is in the mirror. I don’t recognize that person looking back at me. I don’t feel almost 60! How has this happened?! I see my Mom looking back at me and find it rather disturbing. We did not have a good relationship. I was the 5th child of 7. I was the child she didn’t want. I was the child that took away her freedom from all that having a baby in the house again entails. I was in my early 30’s when she told me how much she didn’t want me and how much she cried because she was pregnant again. That was when I understood why I felt unloved, unwanted and in the way growing up. My poor younger brother and sister had it even worse. It took me quite a few years before I realized that God wanted me here!!! It didn’t matter that she didn’t! He loves me, cherishes me and died for me! It is very hard some days to not go back to feeling unloved, unwanted, unappreciated but with His help and knowing that I was “pre-approved” I don’t stay there long. Thanks for the chance to own this book.
On mornings when I’m not loving anything about myself…it could be my look, my job, my thoughts. Anything. Life has been rough and I’d like to think more like Christ in the midst of everything.
I need to see myself how God sees me in so many areas; the biggest ones would be weight, not being able to do as much as I used to due to pain and chronic illness and the accompanying fatigue, but most of all I “have the guilts” as the mom of 2 great young men, 21 and 25. No matter how well they do and are turning out, I still blame myself for long-forgotten failings as a mom when they were younger, and esp. when I couldn’t take good enough care of them due to my illnesses. I would love to see myself as God sees me.
I am SOooo ready to break the approval-seeking cycle. You name it, I’ve probably felt inadequate at it. My latest “not-enough” is my Christian walk. I find myself spending lots of time wondering just what God’s purpose is for me. So much that I end up not doing anything for fear that it’s not the right thing. I’ve truely had enough.
I never feel I’m good enough
One situation where I struggle with remembering that I am loved and pre-approved by God is when I am around mothers of children whom do not like and are unkind to my children. I do not know why I feel uncomfortable, but I want to end those struggles so that I can be fully present for my children to be able to help and guide them.
Popping my head through your cyber-door here, Renee, to thank you — from the bottom of my preapproved heart — for sharing about Love Idol on your blog this week. You are so generous to share your beautiful space with my book.
And to all of you sisters sharing here in the comments … I wrote this book for you … for any of you who needs to know that you are ALREADY loved and approved. You have nothing to prove to anyone. You are preapproved. That’s the love language of God.
God bless you, each and every one.
~ Jennifer Dukes Lee