jesus and shame

Know Your Enemy

October 9, 2019 By Juleeta Leave a Comment

James Pond @unsplash nailed this photo. Crushing the Lego Enemy!

Have you ever looked at a magazine cover, and suddenly you felt not thin enough? Not curvy enough? Like your hair wasn’t thick enough or the right color?

Does that magazine model look “just so perfect” that it makes you second guess your beauty?

Well, that’s exactly what the magazine cover is supposed to do. The words and images work together to convince you: Buy this magazine, you will FINALLY know the secrets to becoming beautiful.

Satan attempts to scheme in these moments. He whispers to you, You need this magazine. Or this hair product. And these shoes.
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Methodeias is the Greek word Paul uses for “schemes” in Ephesians 6:10- Methodeias refers to a large scale, systematic plan. A project. A game-plan.

His schemes are organized, and they feed on our insecurities.

But if you know that Satan is scheming when that insecurity starts to rise up in you, you can identify what is happening. You have a good chance at STANDING against the schemes of the devil if [Read more…] about Know Your Enemy

Listen, Lovely. Can You Hear Your Name?

June 21, 2019 By Juleeta Leave a Comment

Photo credit: The talented Baylee Grambling @ Unsplash.

Girl, next time you post a photo of yourself doing something fun — playing at the beach, eating dinner with girlfriends, snuggling with your younger sibling, be ready.

There is always someone out there who does not want your good.

There are some people who are not your people. Yes, there are girls (and boys, alike) who will call themselves your friends in the hallways but who choose to whisper crude and vicious names for you, covering their own mouth and the listener’s ear with a cupped hand, attempting to hide their words. But the words, spilled out all over, spoken quietly from one person to the next, travel quickly and get exaggerated, like messages in an elementary game of “Telephone.”

And those kinds of words, the crude and vicious names — they hurt.

Even when someone justifies, “Well, it’s true.”

Listen, Lovely. Only people who completely love you know what is true about you.

Did you hear that? I called you Lovely.

Your birth name or your adopted name might be Brooke or Elizabeth or Jane. But keep this in mind, and train yourself to hear Your Maker’s voice as He whispers your name into your ear. Your Creator has always called you Lovely. From your very beginning, you were beautifully crafted and uniquely made.

But I am sure you have been called other names that eat away at your joy and crush your spirit.

Fat.

Flaky.

Weakling.

Beanpole.

Ugly.

Hoe.

Nerd.

Loser.

Idiot.

Have you ever wondered: Why do I hear these names repeat themselves to me more often than Lovely, especially when I look in the mirror? [Read more…] about Listen, Lovely. Can You Hear Your Name?

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…]