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How do you do something that’s never been done before?

Jackie Joyner-Kersey won three gold, one silver & two bronze medals over four consecutive Olympic games.

Sally Ride was the first American female in space.

Karla Susana Wheelock Aguayo was the first Mexican woman to successfully traverse the rugged terrain of Mt. Everest and reach its daunting summit.

Karnam Malleswari became India’s first woman to earn an Olympic medal. Her event? Weightlifting!!!

These women guide us in accomplishing what had never been done — before they came along. What do they all have in common?

They did not see their “weaknesses” as limiting. They did not see their female bodies as hindrances.

Being born in a female body did not deter them from dreaming they were capable of doing what had never been done before.

Today, I hope you’ll take a few seconds to catch a glimpse of your beautiful reflection. Speak to that girl looking back at you from your bathroom mirror and remind her she was created for such a time as this.

Tell her, “Today, my body is a vessel for accomplishing what has never done before.”

And then go do that thing. Give your brother an extra hug when he is ridiculously hard to love. Ask your mom how you can pray for her when her spirit is flailing from exhaustion. Encourage your friend with a few uplifting, life-giving words.

And don’t underestimate the goodness your body is capable of. Your beautiful God-gifted body bears the light of Jesus, in both the big achievements & the small, everyday accomplishments.

Join me as I pray and ask the LORD : Father, help us “seek Your face” as we love like the world has never seen before.

Behind me sits my very favorite Shakespearen Sonnet — #94. This poem admonishes us to use our power & influence for good. With our physical strength, we can choose to be “they that have power to hurt and will do none.”

My first Shakespeare read was almost a disaster; it was Romeo & Juliet. I still recall my disbelief at the play’s final scene. I couldn’t believe the star-crossed lovers died; they both literally used their strength, their power, to kill themselves.

Why in the heck is this guy famous?!?! — I thought. He’s writing about teenagers falling in love and dying. By their own hands, they hurt their bodies to the point of death because of miscommunication and love-deranged reasoning.

But reading Shakespeare is actually bringing me comfort right now.

He has me thinking about how our lives need to look like the opposite of Romeo & Juliet. We need to be using our power to help, not hurt!

All kinds of things can cloud our reasoning and make us feel “off” as we navigate hot summer months, five months in from when the at-home orders started. Many of us our reaching our boiling points.

Especially during these months when physical and social illness pervade our conversations, it’s NECESSARY we say the good words that need to be said. To our own selves. To our family and friends. To the people in our social and “real” communities.

Today, I hope you get to use your voice, your influence, & your power to advocate for kindness. For compassion.

For love that helps the world see every•body as made in His likeness.

Nikki Giovanni’s poem asks the most important question we face today.

What will we do, girls? What new thing is God asking you to think about as you see people with renewed compassion and empathy?

Whatever path God paves for you to walk down so you can see ALL of God’s people with love, be brave as you move forward in your journey.

While you grow in courage, expect Satan to try to wedge his way into your heart. He wants you to feel fear about moving forward. He wants you to fear being uncomfortable.

Satan wants us to see our physical differences as threatening. He wants us to see skin pigment, gender differences, and even the contrast between youthful, supple faces and aging, wrinkling faces as dividers.

We all look so different on the outside, but on the inside, we all need one thing. We all need the one thing that propelled every step Jesus took as he drug the cross over his shoulder, against the resistance of the gravelly road that connected Golgotha to the Crucifixion.

We all need LOVE. We need His unifying love.

Join us this month in an exercise to practice seeing all people with love, especially when they look different than you. Psalm 27 will guide us.

Look at her holding the sign, “Sorry for the inconvenience. We are trying… to change the world.”

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A black woman holds her oversized posterboard as motorists gather to stand behind Black Preston Hollow teens recently threatened at Sonic. She graces the front page of my Preston Hollow People that arrived last Tuesday. I’ve kept the newspaper on my dining room table to remind myself that I don’t want to go back to the way things were, before March.

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The conversations we’re having about how to see people with loving eyes…those are conversations our ancestors should have had four hundred years ago. But since they didn’t, we get to have those conversations now.

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We have an significant role to play in changing how people see.

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Mommas, daughters, sisters, future grandmothers, godmothers and aunts, we are the truthspeakers and storytellers for multiple generations to come. Together, we get to cultivate language that empowers a new #bodytruth.

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Helping people see with love is our privilege. Let’s embrace it, together.

“When I was younger, I was always a little self-conscious about my body, never really knowing what it was capable of. I think that when you’re younger, you’re so focused on appearances and imperfections that it’s hard to see the God given abilities you have. I had corrective surgery for scoliosis when I was 14, and I was always so concerned with what other people thought of how I looked.

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When I started painting the tiny portrait series of women who inspire me, the first thing I noticed about all of them is what they had been able to accomplish and the character they displayed through adversity, not so much their beautiful appearances.

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Most of them faced struggle and oppression. While the rest of the world shook their head, they rose up and changed narratives. They moved mountains and started movements when nobody else would speak up.

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When I think about the woman I am becoming, I hope that my body is merely a vessel for the things that I can do to bring a light to the gospel. Trusting that God is faithful, I know He created me to do something good.

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Because ultimately, value is not found in my appearance, but in how I am able to share the love of Christ through the creative gifts that are uniquely mine.”

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Girls, Taylor is bringing truth to our IG front door!!!!And I’m so thankful for her boldness to share her gifts. I hope it invites you to explore how God is working through your creative gifting.

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Enjoy your first weekend of summer, Lovely!

“God is teaching me to see my body as a gift by first reminding me, as I dive into the scripture, that I am not of this world. My true home is in heaven, but while I am here on earth, I am on mission.

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He equipped me with my body, created in His own image, to do His work. Therefore, knowing that the creator of the universe CHOSE me, DESIGNED me, and LOVES me unconditionally JUST AS I AM allows me to find rest and to truly love myself.

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The enemy is constantly going to tell me that I’m not pretty enough, skinny enough, or strong enough. However, what God constantly reminds me about the enemy is that he is the father of lies- NOTHING he says is true!!

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Satan does not want me to glorify God so he uses deceitful tools such as comparison and worldly views of a “perfect body” to weaken my mind, spirit, and feelings of self worth when trying to shine my light for Jesus.

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Think about it, when I spend time worried about body image, I am giving the enemy just what he wants!! He wants to steal the power I have been given to enhance the kingdom through my body.

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Therefore, when I recognize that a thought isn’t true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, or admirable, The Lord reminds me that ONLY in Him do I find my worth, and everything He creates is good!!

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My beautiful body allows me to run and dance and stretch and eat and spread His love to others!! The creator of the universe made the moon and the stars and mountains and the oceans and me!!

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Lovelies, it’s so important to be in the Word of God because it is nothing but truth. In it, we see the wonder and beauty of who God is and how we are seen as precious in His eyes.”