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)
I want to see myself as ‘forgiven’ the way God sees me. Forgiving ourselves is a tall order, and sometimes I have to do it daily!
I have been so down on myself lately for not being able to lose the rest of my post pregnancy weight. I wish I could see that God sees me as beautiful when I’m looking in the mirror at stretch marks, extra skin, and too much belly. I’ve never been able to see myself as beautiful even though I try to remind myself that I’m chosen and perfectly made in God’s eyes. Would love to read this book to boost my confidence in His opinion instead of my own.
Thank you for the reminder that God calls me beautiful even when I don’t feel like it and always feel like I need to have a better body. Looking forward to this ..
Well, every day, I think we all see areas of our lives where we feel we are lacking. We see others who are thinner, prettier, more put together (in our eyes) and we let the “not good enough” attitude creep in. I have posted around my mirror many thoughts to encourage me and remind me on a daily basis that I am who He says I am..I am an adopted, loved daughter of the one true King. I am not who I see, I am who He sees. Thanks for the continued reminders and encouragement that you all provide us!
The biggest area I need to give full control is in my marriage and with my self esteem. Both of these areas have been a struggle lately and it’s hard to release it all to God but I am trying. Please pray for me.
I am a little overweight and I have been told many times that I am not as pretty as I used to be and don’t look like I used to. I like myself on the inside but not on the outside, you hear things for so long that you tend to see what others see.
The biggest area of my life that I need to give full control to God is the need to be accepted by others. I worry so much about what people think of me and always feel that I will never measure up to the other ladies in my church or on my job. I am constainly worried about what people are saying about me when I leave the room and If they think that what I just said was the dumbest thing they have ever heard. I try so hard to please people, but need to learn the God is the only person that matter. It is hard to release this becasue I have spent my whole life this way trying it my way. I am ready to let god have control of this.
I am bigger than most women, in height and I think sometimes because of that I intimidate people. I feel I am judged before people get to know me . So I get very self-conscious about it. So I would love to see me as God sees me and be free.
I would love to see myself as God sees me in my own body. I’ve kept on 46 pounds since having my second child. I feel slow, I feel fat, I feel like a failure for not losing it and for not having more motivation. My husband tells me I am beautiful every day, and for a moment I believe him. I think peace with my own body is only going to come from a peace that is not of this world.
I would love to see myself as God sees me in the area of my existence. Am I doing that which He has called me to do in this season of my life or do I need redirection? Am I really making an impact on those around me or am I missing the mark? Am I pleasing Him in the way i’m living my life and in the daily choices I make or do I get so caught up in “doing life” that I fail to live the life He desires of me? To see myself as God sees me in this area or many others would surely be life changing.
Wow, I agree with so many. You really want me to pick one. I seek approval from my “step-father” and even a few weeks ago my grown children said “Mom, you are never going to get that….give it up.. it’s ok.” I have always wanted men’s approval in general …..and now wisdom tells me it’s from my REAL biological father leaving all five of us when we were tiny. This this type of insecurity created around this is life changing and a downhill spiral without God.
You want me to pick just one area? That is impossible. But probably my biggest area of trying to gain approval is from my Mother. When your Mother tells you something you tend to believe it, it’s your Mother right? Seeking that approval leads to me trying to gain approval from others. Since gaining it from others is much easier that getting it from her. I desperately needed to hear that I am Pre-Approved today! And I will need it again tomorrow and days after that!
Thanks for the reminder
This sounds like just the book for me. Suffering from the “not enough” syndrome as well as the comparison game and coming up short every time…God is doing a new work in me and showing me that I am his valued and treasured daughter. So sad to be 51 and still not know how valuable I am…but God is leading me to His truth and I am so grateful for the opportunity to win this book. I loved your book Confident Heart…it has helped me so much. God Bless you Renee for being transparent and showing us we all struggle with the warfare that the enemy lies to us about. He was all about beauty and power and that caused his fall…when we face these battles of not measuring up or lack of Hollywood beauty…we can know our enemy is behind them.
I would love to see myself as God sees me. I know he loves me & I am His daughter. But life still gets me down sometimes, just like every other woman. I have been struggling with my weight & my career. I am a newlywed so like most I have gained some weight. I have been back and forth trying to eat healthy and work out. Its really hard but I’ve got to do it for myself. I have been contemplating going back to school. I know it will be hard because I work full time too. But I want a career for myself. Not just a job. I want to feel like I have accomplished something. I know God will help me do these things if I just trust Him and look too Him for guidance.
I would like to feel pre-approved for being created a woman. I struggle with self-doubt. There are a lot of things that just don’t come natural for me as a woman, wife, mother, and homemaker.
This is a hard thought, but one area I would like to see myself as God does loved and pre-approved is with my work
I need God to show me he loves me and approves of me and is my Father. My family-dad, mom, and sister have disowned me because of a divorce. I have struggled with feelings of unworthiness and insecurity. Afraid of being left because I don’t measure up.
Thanks for the wonderful inspiring statement. I am pre-approved. I love God and knows he loves me buy I look at myself and say Uggh, I need to lose weight. I have gain more than an extra pounds since I got sick with a chronice illness and have to have IV steriod treatments. Its tough. It affects everything your weight and moods. I like looking in the mirror thinking & saying I am beautiful because I am redeemed by Jesus precious blood. I would love to win this book to pass along to others I know who stuggle in this area that needs to be reminded that they too are pre-approved. God bless you. In His Hands
I don’t have a lot of self confidence… your book sounds wonderful.
There are several areas that I feel less than…. but the one I struggle with the most is being “mom”. So many times I fail…. Praise the Lord He pours grace on my children…..
I am famous for saying I am not good enough at doing anything right for my family. I have confidence in my job, but not in family. I feel like I need to be a better mom and need to be a WAY better wife. I feel like I am cranky at them or dont push them enough to go outside of their comfort zone. I feel I am not good enough cook, good enough with homework, dont spend enough time, dont have enough patience. I just period dont have enough confidence. There is only one spot in my life where I feel like I am good at something and that is my job, but only the work. Not confident with the people. I would love to read this book, whether I win it or not. To make me feel human again and to push me to be better and feel like I am good enough. This sounds like a great read!! I do always lean on God and I believe that is the reason I am still above water!!! I do feel I am a good person, but misread and misunderstood!!
I would love to see how God sees my inter -beauty. How do other people see me? Can they see the loving heart? or the broken heart? The strong woman or the scared woman? I wonder how God sees my heart. Thank you so much for this subject, pre-approved.
I have never been quite *good enough* for anyone that has been in my life. I don’t seem to have measured up to everyone else. I really struggle in self esteem because of this as well as seeing myself as ever being beautiful to anyone. I am having difficulty seeing myself a certain way in God’s eyes because of how the people in my life have viewed me, especially to be *Pre-Approved and Loved*. 🙁
I would love to see myself as more confident; able to get up in front of people without feeling like I could faint. I am getting better as I become closer to God but still feel as if I could stop breathing.
My biggest struggle is me weight but I’m learning that God loves me right where I am! There are no stipulation to His love ~ he loves me as a big girl and he will love me as a not so big girl! I need to remember that I’m pre-approved and His love is all I need. Thanks for this reminder!
The fact that I never approve of myself, I am constantly cutting myself down. I know that He loves me, but I still don’t accept and love myself. It is like a bipolar cycle with me I am on top of the world for a while and then wham! the bottom falls out!
What an amazing phrase…”Pre-approved”! God never judges us and we as women feel so much pressure to always be flawless because we do not want to be seen as weary and worn. God still loves us unconditionally and calls us Beautiful even when we do not always agree. I want God to see me in a loving and positive light. I have placed too much pressure in my life over the fact that I have never been married or never had any children and started to believe something was wrong in my life. I know God is my ROCK and RESCUE ! I have learned to focus on what he has given me such us plenty of neices and nephews and little cousins to have been privileged to assist in raising. I know GOD has something in store for me and I believe ! I am Pre-Approved for this Destiny. Thank you so much for this opportunity.
Blessings and in His care,
Mary Ann Leonard
It is so easy to loose sight of the fact that God calls us Beautiful and Pre-Approved. We forget that He created us! He chose us from the beginning of time! How easy it is to take our eyes off of our creator and His promises for our life, look around at the world and compare ourselves to others. God sees us, He knows our beginning to end, He is not surprised by our choices, our actions, or our hearts…. He loves us and placed His Son in our place as an investment… Yes! We are His investment! Amen! When God spoke these truths into my heart I found myself in Awe of a God who truly loves and cherishes each and every one of His dear Children, and YES! that includes ME!!!!
I needed that reminder that I am per approved by God and only need to seek is approval of me. I am having a rough time this week, feeling inadequate and unworthy. I am so thankful that I AM a child of the one true God.
The area in which I would love to see myself as God sees me is in my self confidence. I have always had low self confidence and just have always portrayed myself in the opposite so that people don’t know. It affects every area of my life. Bad relationships, job loss, inability to do the things I have desired to do, like start a non-profit business, write a book, move forward with and inventive idea because I have always been told things I talk about don’t make sense and the people I look up to seem to know better than me so I put those things away. If I could see what God sees in me maybe I would be able to do better but even I can’t figure why he has me here.
i need to think of myself as per-approved as i move on after a divorce.
I think my biggest areas of need for approval are in my physical body. I have always felt I don’t measure up and still working on making God’s truth imprinted so deeply in my mind that I know I am completely who He says I am that way. Also my husband and I are Deacons at church and I really need to work on not worrying about people people approved in this area of ministry.
I need to feel this in every area if my life. A lifetime of perfectionism has taken its toll as there is not a possibility of perfection on this earth. Would love to read this book!
I often let doubt or negative thoughts creep in and take over my thinking. I need to remember that I am preapproved and look for the truth in God’s word rather than in what others may think.
Thank you for sharing about this book ….The area’s that popped-up instantly are …as a mum and wife…….!
Praise The Lord! My life has been changed because I find my truth in God’s word instead of what others say or what my negative feelings might tell me. What if the norm was for women to be confident and secure in their worth? I started a blog in November to share the beauty in my life that comes from finding security in Christ.
Wow, let me count the ways that I need this book. I used to weigh about 370 lbs and was married to a preacher whom I had 3 children with. He degraded me continuously about everything. Asking once why I couldn’t be skinny like our deacons wife. I built up all these hurts and defenses and finally I left him. There was horrible verbal abuse but there were other issues that I won’t post but left me feeling I was pathetic. I lost a lot of weight with diet and exercise and I felt beautiful. I met a wonderful man and we fell in love and married. We’ve been together for a yr now and I’ve gained about 60 lbs back and out of nowhere, here come these past feelings, you’re getting chubby again, he doesn’t want a chubby wife and he can’t possibly love u now. I cry a lot and he tells me, where in the world do these crazy thoughts come from and I say IDK. I so need this book.
There is nithing I need to do to win God’s approval. He loved me when I was unlovely. Christ did it all for me. I just need to accept His free gift and rest in Him
So thankful for another reminder that we are beautiful in His eyes in a world where beauty is a treatment.
Thanks for the encouragement. In a world that paints pictures of “perfect” women (the ones who seem to have been blessed which some superhuman abilities that the rest of us missed out on), it’s very hard to see ourselves as God sees us. It’s a daily struggle for me and I know I’m not the only one. I crave the day I’m able to feel worthy just as I am, to be able to let my guard down, to stop feeling like I need to overachieve and overcompensate for the areas that I feel flawed (physical and otherwise).
Can hardly believe I’m posting this but all these brave women who are sharing have inspired me to share.
May God bless you and your ministry and to all the ladies who have posted, may we be able to see ourselves as God sees us.
This book sounds amazing. I could use a boost in that department for sure.
I would love to be able to be comfortable in my own skin with my health. However, I am very self conscience about it. I am on oxygen and in a wheelchair and to me it’s embarrassing and frustrating because I caused it (smoking, overweight) and while I don’t smoke anymore, I cannot exercise in a great plan, because of my lungs/heart, therefore, don’t loose weight. It’s a vicious cycle, and I know that God will one day heal me.
But now, for now, in the present, I am very overwhelmed with it!
I need this because I still struggle to really see myself as God sees.
I am so desperate to know that I am enough in every area of my life.
I love the way that sounds… just the word preapproved makes me excited. I guess that is what God’s grace is; it’s preapproval. He loves and approves of me, not for anything I’ve done or will do, but before I have even attempted to earn His love.
We have been looking at real estate during this chapter in our lives and a preapproval letter is a part of that process to having an offer accepted on a house. How wonderful to know that I have God’s preapproval written through the story of Jesus’ death on the cross and life that He gave for me. He did that so long ago, before I was even born, but He did that for ME!
I would love to take this message of preapproval to heart and share it with the girls I meet with at our youth ministry. Each week they come and talk about how they aren’t good enough, smart enough, funny enough, skinny enough, etc. I see how amazing they are, but like them, I often fail to see how amazing God thinks I am and really how amazing His love is for me. I would love to read this book and gain more insight on this. Thanks for the info!
The one area in my life where I would like to be reminded that I’m pre -approved is in how I view myself, as a whole, that I don’t have to BE anything, or DO more, or HELP more, or even REACH out and care/take more. I’m loved and pre approved already, so just relax, and rest assured that I AM enough, follow where He leads me and relax in the loving arms of our savior who ALREADY loves ME! Thanks for this opportunity and for the reminder, now if I could just hold on to that……! God bless, Lori T.
I would love to see myself as a wonderful mother and role model to my kids. I feel like I fail them constantly when I know deep down that is not true.
To summarize, I don’t feel I’m good enough of a woman – spiritually, physically, intellectually, mentally…the list doesn’t end! But God is enough & His Love is more than enough! Can’t wait to read thing book!
I am a 45 year old womanI have 4 beautiful boysage is 22, 12, 8 and 5. I am married to a wonderful man. I’m completely bald due to alopecia and recently made the tough decision to have all my upper teeth extracted after years of dental work & thousands of dollars. My hope is to one day rely soley on my true identity in Christ & not the worlds view. Being bald as a woman has been one of the toughest challenges. I pray my story can help someone. I would love to gain Godly insight into dealing with this on a daily basis. I want to see me & love me as Christ does. I whole heartedly believe this can help me. This is my third attempt at writing this. Praying it works this time. I thank you for this opportunity.
Blessings.