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She is Compassionate

August 29, 2019 By Juleeta Leave a Comment

I love this picture of friendship taken by @priscilladupreez.

“Tend and befriend.”

I heard these three words earlier in the week as I was preparing for our conversations about compassion. And I can’t get them out of my head.

“Tend and befriend” is a statement that researcher Shelley Taylor used to describe the nature of women. There’s something innate in us, young women and old-er women alike, that desires to 1) Tend or care for others and 2) Befriend or make meaningful friendships.

We were made for tending and befriending. Which is to say we were made for relationships that desperately need kindness and compassion.

Research scientist Emma Seppala, PhD studies compassion, and she has seen how compassion positively affects our bodies — our health and our self image. [Read more…] about She is Compassionate

You are the Temple Where God Dwells

August 21, 2019 By Juleeta Leave a Comment

You are God’s temple. Live in confidence and joy! Photo @ unsplash.

His ink-soaked quill moves quickly across parchment. It is dark, except for flickering candlelight. This is what I see when I imagine Paul writing his first letter to the Corinthians.

His heart is heavy for his friends who are disagreeing about who God is.
He desperately wants his friends in Corinth to remember the foundation of their faith — “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). And so he writes them. In Chapter 3, Paul uses the image of “the temple” to help his Corinthian friends see themselves — as holy, beautiful, and as a dwelling place for God’s Spirit.

He challenges young believers to rally around God‘s truth, to recognize every single one of them belongs to God. He reminds them, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3z;16)

Every single one of them is a temple where holy work is happening. Every single person is God’s dwelling place — no matter age, sex, social position, or physical appearance.

As we take those final glances in the mirror this morning, before starting our days, we can choose to believe the truth about ourselves. Yes, we are God‘s temple!

But we also get to take the next step. We get to look around the room and choose to see other young women around us as God‘s temples.
We help foster unity in the #sisterhood when we choose to see each other as holy and precious and loved and lovely. No matter how different we are from each other.

Whether walking quietly through the hallways or talking with the new girl in class, I hope you’ll see yourself as God’s precious temple.
No matter where you are….
You are where He dwells.

Join us on Inta @body_truth.

Empowering Young Women to Embrace Healthy Body Image by Becoming Compassionate, Capable, & Strong

Girls, Are You Ready for Change?

June 15, 2019 By Juleeta Leave a Comment

It’s out on DVD. If you haven’t read the book, yes it is worth your time this summer. Both the book and the movie will change how you see and love. I promise.

The Hate You Give – Have you seen it?

The first time I saw the movie, I laughed and cried and laughed more. I remember the evening well.

Bright lights flickered and faded to grey and then darkness.

I scooched back into my snuggly, red plush seat, and the projector revealed a figure on the screen. I looked right, barely able to make out the face of my girlfriend sitting only inches away. The pitch black of the theater invited me to focus on one image — the man about to speak to me, large and looming, straight ahead.

That evening, the darkness of the theater held a special kind of superpower. It created an intimacy between myself and the man who had just introduced himself as George Tillman, Jr — the incredibly gifted and bold director of The Hate You Give.

His deep voice spoke. With conviction, Tillman looked into the camera, his eyes seemingly focused on the millions of us sitting in the theater. He introduced this story of Starr, an African-American teenager whose name was gifted her by her father, that she might be a bright light for truth.

The book was written by Angie Thomas. But the story is also being written out in our lives today. How will teenagers, especially young women, respond in conversations about racism? Will young women be receptive to hearing and seeing the social ramifications created by hundreds of years of white-impelled shame on people of color?

[Read more…]