Woman

"She is the crescendo, the final astonishing work of God. Woman. In one least flourish creation comes to a finish not with Adam, but with Eve. She is the Master’s finishing touch… His piece de resistance. She fills a place in the world nothing and no one else can fill.

God has set within you a femininity that is powerful and tender, fierce and alluring. No doubt it has been misunderstood. Surely it has been assaulted. But it is there, your true heart, and it is worth recovering. You are captivating."

----- John and Stacey Eldredge

Woman, when you read this, how do you respond?

Does your heart reverberate in concurrence?

Shyly echo in accord?

Shiver with excitement?

Flood with hope?

Dance with reckless abandon?

or

Shudder with unworthiness?

Laugh in bitterness?

Reject in wounded defeat?

Sigh in listless stagnancy?

Whatever your response, know this:

Woman, you are beautiful.

Woman, you are strong.

Woman, you are feminine.

Yes, feminine.

Not a femininity that allows man to abuse his power over the delicate demeanor of her wilting self nor one that simply remains a tattered doormat well-worn by the stomping, forceful, dirty, unwanted tread of man after man after man after....

Not a femininity that drenches herself in sexuality in order to captivate any and all men simply because she can: whose idea of love was violently ravished from her dreams as the only terms of endearments she received were those that cut.

"Slut."

"Whore."

NO.

Femininity that is not weak.

Femininity that carries great strength.

That is beautiful. That is pure. That is holy. That is validated. That is right.

That is of God.

For you are God's portion. Woman, you are made in His image.

Man and Woman.

Both.

Femininity that walks in beauty and grace for she was created to do so.

Natural.

"A woman, by her very nature, ushers a man into a world that, to him, is marked by beauty".

----- Paula Rinehart

Woman, your creation was marked by beauty and you emanate beauty daily.

And the enemy of your soul despises you for it.

"Satan fell because of his beauty. Now his heart for revenge is to assault beauty… he hates Eve.

Because she is captivating, uniquely glorious, and he cannot be."

----- John and Stacey Eldredge

The evil one's bitter heart cannot bear you and your portion of the Father's beauty.

Therefore he attacks.

Mercilessly attacks.

His goal is to viciously rip your royal identity from you in an attempt to lead you as far from the truth of your beauty as you could possibly go. A place that twists and mutilates beauty, femininity, and equality leaving it marred, blinded, and deceived. A world where young girls are left shaking uncontrollably on their bathroom floors because they physically can't bear how detestable their bodies are. Where the only answer is extremes: food only is allowed in because it will be coming back up, food is the only comfort therefore it is a constant flow, food is the enemy and the body is a prisoner of war. A world where literally cutting one open and altering your appearance can be the only answer to being beautiful. Where a competition constantly rages as contestants relentlessly judge the prettiest, thinnest, curviest, sexiest, most in shape, most desirable, most, most, most... Insecurity is the shackle and comparison is the chain. A world where beauty has become a list of attributes on a check list and perfection is the end result.

But... how can one be "perfect" when "imperfection" makes one unique.

Woman, there is striving.

Constant striving.

Striving, straining, ripping, wrenching, constraining, constricting

all for an unattainable allusion of perfection that imperfect minds have enthroned in feverish and fearful worship.

There is no... hope.... of gratification...

or even the slightest approval.

Woman, do not be deceived.

DO NOT BE DECEIVED.

For you are "fearfully and wonderfully made... [Your] frame was not hidden from [Him] when [you] were made in the secret place. When [you] where woven together in the depths of the earth, [His] eyes saw [your] unformed body."

----- Psalm 19:13a, 14-15

Your are "a temple of God and God's Spirit dwells in you. If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple."

----- 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

"You are altogether beautiful my darling, beautiful in every way."

----- Song of Songs 4:7

Woman, THAT is your truth. THAT is your identity restored.

And there is so much more, so much more that the Father of Love will drench you with regarding your worth, your value, your beauty and, more importantly, HIS beauty, HIS character, HIS heart, HIS love.

For that's just it, isn't it?

The more you dwell with your Father...

The more you listen to Him...

The more you know His character and feel His love...

The more consumed you become...

The more you become who you were created to be....

The more beautiful you become....

For you were created in His BEAUTY and to reflect His LOVE.

A beautiful soul cherished and in love.

And there is nothing more captivatingly beautiful than a woman who is caught up in the gaze of her Father's eyes and enveloped in the Love He so deeply lavishes upon us.

Let Him sing His song over you, for He is faithful and He will do it.

Oh How He Loves

I wish I better understood love.

The love that the Father has lavished on us.

Both the violent love who's glorious power can sweep across nations and bring them to their knees by the sheer majesty of it and the quiet love that moves so tenderly upon a fragile heart.

The love that understands all heartache and misery because it has felt it over and over again.

The love that makes one vulnerable, the love that puts it all on the line, holding nothing back.

Unselfish.

The love that is not only emanated from the one true God, but that is one with Him. The love that has to be expressed through His every move, breath, and step for the entirety of its purest form is found in the fullness of His eyes.

God is Love is God is Love is God is Love is God is Love is GOD.

1 John 4:8.

Love that wrenches fear from its self-imposed throne and casts it down to its miserable companions to cower in the presence of true Beauty and Holiness, effacing any remnants of its life-leaching qualities by simply pouring forth in a glorious, unbridled flood.

The Love that defies all of man's feeble attempts to capture, analyze and misconstrue the magnitude of its influence; that cannot be dissected, pinned down, tamed, isolated, or trained.

It is NOT tame.

But it is good.

The perfect Love that sees me in my own blood, filth, and tears and deems me beautiful.

When I cry, "I am so wretched", He responds, "But you are so loved."

Wretched but SO loved.

Maybe, I actually don't want to better understand Love: not the mechanics, the explanation, or any possible root cause that we in our finite, flawed minds have deemed authoritative in a self-righteous flourish of resources, references, and reconstituted truth.

Maybe, I just want to experience His Love: letting it wrench me, bend me, kiss and caress me. A Love that no words could ever possibly hope to describe and yet one who is constantly drenched in it has no need for words: his or her eyes speak volumes.

The Love that is worth risking every trial, test, tribulation, and torture if only to experience more.

Whatever it takes, to know Love more.

"Love like a hurricane, I am tree"

Souls and Bodies

Why is it that one's soul and one's body are viewed as completely different entities?  Where, instead of responding to each other in beautiful harmony, a cacophonous power struggle rages in the innermost parts of our being.

Very rarely have I experienced someone who embodies their soul, whose every action and expression and voice inflection captures the essence of the wild, uninhibited, undiluted entity that is so often compressed, reasoned with, compromised, and manipulated to fit into the narrow confines of limited hope that we constrain ourselves to.

And yet, in my very short experience, there I have seen the most peace.

I have a beautiful friend.  Usually when we hear the word 'beautiful', aesthetics are the first thought to cross our mind.  Believe me, my friend is aesthetically beautiful in every way, but her true beauty shines from her soul.  Is it too cliche to say she glows?  For though we use such words to describe those who appropriately meet our standards for such a compliment, when compared to someone who emanates such brilliance the others simply pale in comparison.  

My friend was diagnosed with breast cancer approximately a year ago.  With this news, every part of her busy life was stripped away to the point where she had to come face to face with the product of her soul.  

No numbness.

No distractions.

Only her broken body and the rawness of her soul.

And there, when she painfully gave God both her body and her soul and He composed them into her personal, predesigned melody, she began to glow.  

Her actions embody her soul.

Her soul guides her actions.

And the peace that she has on her face every day is enrapturing.  

"And the cry of my heart is to bring You praise

From the inside out, Lord my soul cries out"

"My soul sings, my soul sings, my soul sings:

how I love You"

When we surrender our body and our soul into His hands, we can cry out to Him with every aspect of our being.  No longer is there a limitation, a wall separating our internal from our external.  No interruptions in the beautiful melody He has composed for each one of His children.  No walls incarcerating our soul or silencing its longing.

And our soul's constant desire is to cry out to its Maker.

"From the inside out"