"I liked hearing from someone who had actually been through it"
Year 8 Pupil, St Georges School
Photograph: tamsin, greg, tim

Life bites

Something to chew on/ Life and God and stuff

Beauty is a major part of our society with billions being spent each year on the diet industry, cosmetic industry and cosmetic surgery.

Why do we care so much about how we look? Why do we so crave to be told we are beautiful? Why do so many women spend money on changing the way they look with things like makeovers and plastic surgery? What is it that we are really looking for and what does God say?

...Tell them I love them...

There is something in each of us that just longs to be loved. As women, we crave for a handsome prince to come and sweep us off our feet. We love watching films like pride and prejudice, Grease, Dirty Dancing; the list of romantic comedies goes on because we love the romance of it all. We all crave for that one person to tell us we are the most amazing, beautiful girl in the world. We all want that special place in some mans heart. This longing in our hearts is exactly how God intended us to be as we reflect Gods own image in this way. This desire we have to be loved is exactly the same desire that God has for us to love Him and that we need to have for God. You may be thinking, "hang on a second, what does God have to do with it?" But these are all desires of our hearts.

“The desires you had as a little girl and the longings you still feel as a woman- they are telling you of the life God created you to live. He offers to come now as the hero of your story, to rescue your heart and release you to live as a fully alive and feminine woman. A woman who is truly captivating.”(Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge)

Very often God gives me a picture of myself as a little girl in a pink tutu in a dance studio, whirling and dancing around the room, totally free and smiling. In this picture, my Father God is watching me and smiling and laughing with me; it is evident how much He loves me and is captivated by my beauty and totally in love with me. That may sound odd but it is the truth, a picture of how much God loves you.

God loves you. What does that make you think? Do you think ‘yeah I know’ or ‘What is she on about?’ or ‘God doesn’t even exist?’ What ever your reaction just take a few minutes as you read this to actually consider this fact… the creator of the universe is in love with you! That’s right, God who created the whole earth, the sea, the skies, flowers, birds, trees, turtles, nettles, mice… everything… loves you.

 ‘I love you’ has become this well-worn phrase that people say without even thinking about it or it becomes something that you can’t believe because you have never known anyone really love you? Maybe you think 'well what does that mean?' Maybe you think 'my dad said he loved me but then he left me' or 'that guy I slept with said he loved me but then he treated me badly…' So what is love anyway, and how can you tell me that a God who I don’t even know loves me?

In my bible I keep a picture of myself as a baby in the page where Psalm 139 is I find it so amazing to read these words...

“Oh yes you shaped me first inside then out, you formed me in my mothers womb… you know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; you     know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from something into nothing. Like an open book you’ve watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were set out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.”
Psalm 139 v13-16

...And look at myself as a tiny little baby – and just to think that God shaped me, knows me, watched me and has set out each day for me, even when I was this tiny, He knew all He had in store for me. It blows my mind! And that’s not just about me, it's about you too… Do it get a baby photo of yourself and read those words while looking at it and allow yourself to believe it. It will blow your mind!!! God loves you!!!

You know, I don’t find it that hard to believe that God loves me because I have had two fantastic parents who have modelled God’s unconditional love for me all my life, but some of you have not had that experience and for you knowing God’s love is hard and painful. My prayer for you as you read this is that God would reveal to you how much he loves you. How big, huge, radical beyond what you can imagine his love for you is. Whether you know God or not, believe in Him or not, I long that you would know that. I know that when God sees us he says, "that’s my daughter! isn’t she beautiful. I love her so much, I’m so proud of her" and He just can’t contain Himself, He has so much love for us. The bible says:

“The Lord your God is with you; the mighty one will save you. He will rejoice over you. You will rest in his love; he will sing and be joyful about you.”
Zeph 3V17

"God told them… I’ll never quit loving you and never will. Expect love, love, and more love!"
Jeremiah 31v 3

God’s love is unconditional, that means it doesn’t change or stop depending on how good or bad you are. Nothing you can do will change the way God feels about you. However much you mess up, no matter who on this earth lets you down, God never will. God will never stop loving you. That’s why we can be secure in who we are as his daughters, because his father's love for us is constant and that will never change.