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Renee Swope

Encouraging and equipping moms to parent with God's grace and confidence.

You’re Beautiful

I know you sometimes feel ordinary but you’re not.

You are one of a kind ~ a unique and beautiful blend of all God wants you to be.

You are God’s prized possession, a valued treasure of great worth.

You may feel invisible…like you are just one of millions of others.

But God sees you.

And when God sees you, He sees someone He loves.

In Isaiah 43:4, God says, “You are precious and honored in my sight …. and I love you.”

He sees someone He knows.

David said in Psalm 139:1, “You have searched me, LORD, and you know me.” God knows you, too.

Since God knows you, has a purpose for you and loves you just the way He made you, I have no doubt He wants you to feel the same way.

He’ll do whatever it takes to help you get to a place of accepting and embracing your His heart for you so you can become the woman HE created you to be!

Here is the song I feel like God chose for you this week. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to watch, listen and let Him tell you just how beautiful you are! {If you are reading this via email, click here to watch it since it’s not viewable thru email.}

You really are…

Beautiful

Loved

Cherished

Chosen

Treasured

Sacred

You are His!

May God’s sweet affirmations replace all those comparisons. As you identify, understand and embrace who HE created you to be, I’m praying that, like the psalmist, you’re learning to say with confidence, “Lord, You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb, I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Ps. 139:13-14)

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To celebrate God’s heart for you —  my friends at DaySpring have graciously given me 5 sets of  “God’s Heart For You” giveaways to share with 5 of you!! {{so excited!!}}

To enter the “God’s Heart for You” GiveAway share your answer to one or more of the questions at the end of the chapter 8. OR if you haven’t read that far yet, share your thoughts about today’s music video or blog post. Can’t want to hear from your heart :-).

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Comments

  1. Renee- You’re blog and video really hit home for me today. I’m doing this bible study for the 2nd time, The first time was with Melissa. The truth of this bible study is starting to penetrate the thick walls I’ve put up around me for security and protection. This is such an emotional journey, and it has taken me to uncomfortable places, but it’s much needed. I need God’s truth every single day penetrating my mind and heart, and I’m starting to believe that “I’m His” and that He truly does love me and has created me for a unique purpose. Thank you for opening your heart to me and to woman across the country with your book. I’m forever thankful.

  2. This song has always been a favorite of mine. No matter what happens in my life, God is always there and loves me no matter what. I am beautiful to him, even when I don’t feel beautiful! Thank you for the reminder Renee.

  3. Everytime I hear this song it reminds me of how God thinks of me regardless of what I think or what others think….I AM BEAUTIFUL to my heavenly Father. With my hands raised in praise to the only one that matters when it comes to my life, I give Him all the glory, honor, and praise for who I am in Him. God thank you for letting me know each and everyday how much you love me and desire for me to be all I can be for you, thru YOU. THANK YOU Renee for sharing this music video with us and God bless you for writing this book and leading us in this online study together. God never ceases to amaze me.

  4. WOW! every word this week is your beautiful. My thoughts this week are will anyone love me like that. HE Already did and does. that is what is so neat about my Jesus… he loves me past present and future and I am so glad He is in my life. Its all because of HIM i am alive. He wants me around to Know and talk to? Lil ol me that tries to hide behind her job, her kids, her smile? He wants to be my everything and I look in the world and try to fill my Heart with ALL the distractions than CANNOT ever compare to his LOVE that fills my heart with HIM! JESUS LOVER OF MY SOUL!

  5. I love this song. I hear it on the radio sometimes on my way to work. It is a great reminder of what God thinks of me. Thanks so much!
    Becky

  6. I absolutely love that song! I just had to buy it and downloaded it on my phone and computer. For the past several months I have really been struggling with my self worth and believing that I’m ugly. I am slowly realizing that its nothing more than a lie. Its so easy for me to pick out the flaws and imperfections in myself and beating myself up for them. I love it when I hear from God telling me that He doesn’t expect perfectionism from me b/c its impossible from me. To be loved unconditionally is a truly amazing gift!

    Renee, you have been like a BFF to me although we have never meet and I hope that I may get the chance! You have lifted me up in ways you could have never imagined. THANK YOU!!

  7. Dear Renee,

    Thank you so much for yet another deeply insightful and sometimes difficult step on this journey that you are walking us all through, and thank you for doing so in such a tender reassuring fashion. “I surrender my personality, heart’s desires, abilities, spiritual gifts to Your purposes. I delight myself in You, Lord, trusting You to shape the desires of my heart to match Yours.” This is my prayer so that I can serve Jesus in all I do.

  8. So much to sift through and so many events during the day to question how what we are learning through this study fits with different events. Yesterday I had a run in with a colleague that I don’t really have a great relationship with and in this particular situation (definitely not all situations) have more training/knowledge but did my confidence sink in the aftermath! So it was very helpful to practice leaning on God (and I say practice because as usual I tend to give Him my problems/conflicts and then take them back) and just rest in his peace……once I truly let go which was actually hours later. But ultimately I had a good nights rest and woke up reassured that I did move in the best interest of another who was the source of the conflict. It is so nice to remember how much we are loved and treasured by God when it seems that there is no one else that feels remotely the same. Thank-you Renee for this study. Its really nice to read how others are also growing from this study. Thanks to all for sharing and blessings to all.

  9. God was trying to get the words from that video thru to me today as I heard it on the way to work, it was a cool down during my first Zumba class and now here. My husband and I are empty nesters and I have been telling friends here of late, I just don’t do anything for myself. That is what drove me to start this bible study.
    My dad was pretty verbally abusive and always called me dummy, and I grew up thinking I was dumb and fat – so this has been a great way to learn that my Heavenly Father – the big Daddy of them all – loves me as I am and has gifts bestowed upon me that I should be using to help others rather than wallering in my past.
    God put our eyes in the front of our head for a reason – to look forward, not backward!!
    Thank you all for blessing me with you!!

  10. “You matter. You hear me? You matter and you are loved.” Those two babies are so precious…and it makes me think of my dear friend, who encouraged me to do this study. We’re doing it together….but we live far, far apart. She’s been ministering to me today through emails…and these two babies made me think of her. I’m struggling with chapter 8. I don’t know my gifts. I don’t see them. I don’t feel like a masterpiece of God’s.

    I’ve known her for about 13 years. We met online through a tiny “support” group. That’s how long we’ve been talking to each other. But we’ve never met, in person. Oh….the things we’ve laughed and cried through…together.

    So I’m struggling to find my worth…..but I’m blessed with an amazing friend. 🙂

    • Wow, you really are blessed to have such a sweet and special friendship!!! Praying those kinds of friendships might also form here in our little community online. I see the prayers and words of encouragement shared and know it’s such a gift even if some never meet. Thank you for sharing about your sweet friendship!

      Praying you will see the little things you do as valuable gifts you can offer to the King and to those all around you each day. Sometimes we wait for the bigger gifts, the “better” things we see others doing and wonder why we don’t have those gifts. Even me? I’m an author now but my writing started with a thank you note that someone commented on. What if I had never just written notes and been faithful with that? I may never had gotten the courage to write a devotion or an article which all led to a blog and then 10 years later a book. I pray that my small offerings will encourage each of you to offer yours. He is so worthy and so willing to use what ever we will offer HIM!!! Praying we won’t listen to Defeat or the lies of comparison and let them diminish the value of our gifts any more.

  11. I am beautiful and wonderfully made. I am one of a kind. I am finally beginning to believe all this and I am so thankful for your book and your study. This is probably the 1st time in a long time that I have followed through and kept up with something. I am so looking forward to meeting you this month. I have signed up for your conference in Fulton, MD @ Grace Community Church.
    Blessings, Elaine

  12. I NEEDED to hear these words of encouragement today. Just had the joy of having our sweet baby but am feeling particularly frumpy and un-pretty. Thank you!

  13. Answers to chapter 7 questions

    1. 2
    2. At times.
    3. Comforted, reassured, hopeful
    4. Yes. Restvin god’s promised and trust HIm to lead me in the paths of righeteous. I will reach for god’s hand and rise again.
    5. Condemnation-generalized statement: usually judgmental, criticial. Conviction-reveal’s a specific attitude and how instructs you on how to change it.
    6. I felt condemned by a ex boyfriend who wasvjudgemental, abusive, and controlling. I would have gotten out of the relationship sooner instead of staying in and getting hurt.

    I love these statements in chapter 7. When I trust in His power and rely on His promises, I am a woman who is growing to become more like Jesus each day. Becoming a woman who is not perfect, but who is surrendering to God’s perfect power and love at work in her.

    A confident woman trusts this truth. Even when she falls, she doesn’t stay down. Instead she reaches for God’s hand and rises again.

    God reminds me that I am a work in progress, and as I rely on Christ in me, I am moving forward even when I have a setback.

    Failure produces wisdom when we ask for it and maturity when we learn from it, failure can be hurtful, but it can also be beneficial.

  14. Last year I took my then 9 year old daughter to see Mercy Me in concert and the lead singer explained the inspiration for the song. I was so overcome with wanting to give my daughter the reassurance that she is BEAUTIFUL in God’s eyes all of the time. You see my daughter’s father died in 2008. She has a lot of life events to deal with. A lot of things in life telling her she doesn’t measure up…she’s broken. She sang along with the song during the concert…got a necklace that said “Beatutiful” and wore it every day until it turned her neck green. To know we are beautiful to our Heavenly Father is sooooo important. I don’t want my daughter to have to be 47 years old and read a book to come back to knowing this fact in her mind and in her heart.

    • And I showed it to my 10 year old grandson with very similar circumstances tonight. I think it’s powerful! May your daughter ALWAYS know she IS beautiful by the power of the holy spirit!

  15. Our worship series through Lent is Journey to Hope and our message last Sunday was a perfect fit with Chapter 8 and with this discussion we are having about who we are vs. who we let others, the world, the enemy tell us that we are. Comparison really is an ugly word and does so much to damage us. Listening to anything but who God says we are can be so damaging. We are all the things you share in this post…we are daughters of the King!
    We were purposefully created…the creation of the Almighty and that gives us power and authority, strength and the beautiful Godfidence that we are learning to embrace!

  17. There is no doubt HE is working HIS good in our lives and in the lives of those around us as we continue traveling this unemployment journey. Just when we think we cannot take another step, HIS faithfulness shines through. I am not the same as I was when this all began over a year ago, and I’m confident I will grow even more before this journey ends. HE is already using us in powerful ways to encourage those who are walking this same path. HE has a purpose in this that is far from ordinary. And as Reepicheep said to Eustace in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, “Extraordinary things happen to extraordinary people.”

    Another powerful chapter, Renee, that has spoken to my heart. This week’s verse is taped to my bathroom mirror and has been exactly what I’ve needed to read over and over and over. HIS truths are seeping down deep into my heart through this study : )

  18. Who won the other giveaways? I wanted some of your books to give away at my up-coming brunch.
    oh, it is really awesome how God uses ordinary people to do extra-ordinary things sometimes. I think
    one reason I like Jeremiah so much is He never gave up and He was a success in God’s eyes because
    He obeyed Him.
    Thank you for all you do in the Lord. One day I hope we will meet, you are so special.
    I love all the Proverbs 31 women.

  20. I loved the song Beatiful. I think all of us women struggle with not feeling pretty…but with God’s word we can be filled and renewed. Thank you for sharing!!