Brave Girl

To the Brave Girls,

To the brave girls that do hard things. 

The impossible, unimaginable, unattainable, and completely unrealistic things!

To the brave girls who break down walls and shatter glass ceilings.

To the brave girls answering the call that has been placed on their life.

To the brave girls silencing fear and anxiety.

To the brave girls breaking out of the boxes that society has thrown them in.

To the brave girls choosing to not be limited by their talents and skills.

To those brave girls standing in the gap demanding equality for the marginalized.

To the brave girls taking second chances

….and to the brave girls giving them.

To the brave girls doing the things that “they” said you couldn’t do.

Heck, to the brave girls finally believing in themselves and kicking fear and failure to the curb!

To the brave girls chartering new land and unforeseen seasons.

To the brave girls finally surrendering to God and allowing Him into the darkest, loneliest, deepest parts of who you are.

To the brave girls with loud and powerful voices.

To all the brave girls, all over the world. This one’s for you!

Brave girl, you will do great things. This is not like any other year. This is the year that you will rise up to the challenge and take what’s yours.

You will wage war on the things that once defeated you. And Brave Girl, YOU will win!!

His promises will be embedded in your heart and his voice will navigate you as you move along the path of life. The desolate and dark places that once crippled you in fear, will now have such a heavenly light shining on them, giving you the clarity and vision you need for your mission.

In the battlefield, when the enemy looks like a ferocious giant, you’ll remember that He has already gone before you and you’ve already won. You will walk boldly in the freedom you have found in Christ. You will pray down walls and your words will break the shackles off the oppressed. Brave girl, you will no longer be limited by the fear that once engulfed your life. You won’t be a wimpy, helpless, little, damsel in distress anymore. No, not you! You will rise up out of the ashes that once burned you and you my darling will stand tall and look Satan right in his eyes and send him back to the hell he came from.

Why? Because you are Daddy’s precious girl and Daddy ain’t no punk.

In a society that is constantly telling you who to be and how to look, you will not be influenced; instead, you will be a mighty woman of influence for this generation of women and little girls. You will choose to dance and even march to the beat of your own drum and you will be authentic to the woman God has created you to be. You will not be conformed to this world because you understand that you are not of this world. You will never fit in because you come from a heavenly and divine place and you'll be more than ok with that. 

They may try but they will never divest you of your crown and self-worth because the most powerful of them all has gently placed his banner of love and bravery over your life. You, my dear, have been crowned with love, honor, and truth and His spirit will reign in you all the days of your precious life. You will no longer wake up without purpose, but each day, you will wake up with a burning passion to do great things and you will finally go to the places He has called you to.

You will be a mighty weapon for His kingdom and this world will never be the same

……. because YOU, Brave Girl, have stepped foot on it.

Brave girl, you will do all of these things in the mighty name of Jesus.

Xo,

Beauty of Encouragement

Pray For Her

Colossians 1:9

New Life Version (NLV)

⁹ This is why I have never stopped praying for you since I heard about you. I ask God that you may know what He wants you to do. I ask God to fill you with the wisdom and understanding the Holy Spirit gives."

In November of last year, I attended a women's retreat hosted by the women's ministry from my church.  I was in a better place in my life, after dealing with all my heartbreak and pain from my past, but I was still not completely whole. My heart looked like a big ole block of Swiss cheese. I had holes everywhere that God was trying to deal with and I just wasn't letting Him. I admit, I was prideful and didn't think I had any areas left that God needed to clean up. Boy, did he prove me wrong.

During this time in my life, the struggle to hear God was real. I would pray, read my bible and all kinds of things but I could not feel His presence and it would frustrate me. I would cry and cry and just complain that I was tired of looking for Him and talking to the stupid wall. Man, I would tell God some things I would never dare tell my Earthly father, out of the fear that he might slap me. lol

Anyways, I felt like God was so distant. I felt like he had picked up and moved and forgot to send me one of those fancy moving announcement cards with his new address. So I prayed and looked for Him and then just gave up and that cycle repeated itself for such a long time.

Then I heard about this awesome retreat my new church was having and I decided that I was going to go and that this was the weekend God was going to show up. This was it! I wasn't taking no for an answer and I was willing to do all kinds of stalker- ish things to find where God was hiding. During this time, my friend Carol was constantly checking on me, encouraging me, loving on me and praying for me. She would remind me that God wasn't far and He still wanted my heart.

Let me tell you something, appreciate the friends who pray for you! You could have a million "loyal" friends but that ONE praying friend will change your life!

Carol was in communication with me all the way up to the day of the retreat. She wanted to be sure I was coming and she was determined to just get me there.

During this retreat they covered some intense topics. It was literally a soul cleanse. My heart was just wrecked the whole weekend.

The first day of the retreat they handed us these packets to complete. This packet was about 6 pages long and asked the most personal and intimate questions ever.

I completed the package and finished after about 30 minutes. I spent the rest of my time just sitting in silence on the floor. I tried praying but God was still playing hide and seek. I was just too emotionally worn out from that packet to go seeking for Him.

Then my friend Carol walks by, sits with me on the floor and asks me if she could pray for me. I remember she was so nervous because she didn't like praying for people out loud and it was her first time praying over someone in public.

So she started to pray and she prayed for things that only my heart knew about. She prayed with authority, love, and sincerity. She prayed like she was on a mission and she very much was. She finished praying, hugged me and carried on talking to the other girls that were there.

From that moment forward, I felt God just reaching into my heart and speaking into my life more than I had ever felt months prior.

One day, I will share all the amazing things that happened that weekend.

Anyways, that weekend changed my life and heart FOREVER!!!

That weekend also changed mine and Carol's relationship forever. God knew I needed a big sister to love me and just be there to encourage me along the way. She even gave me a tiny card that said "Contact a Carol" and  I always felt that I could do just that with her. I could contact her for anything and everything.

Since that weekend, I cannot even tell you the amount of times Carol has just been such a blessing to my life. There have been days where she sends me a prayer text and it instantly changes the tone of my day. She just loves on me so much that it's really hard to not feel God's love through her. She always so positive, encouraging and uplifting. When something is bothering me or I am struggling, I text her and she prays for me.

I strongly believe that if we all had more "Carol's" in our lives, we would have less stress and more answered prayers.

I believe that Carol's love for me is very much like the love Paul had for the Christians of Colossae. Paul was so thankful for them and so eager to see their relationship with Christ flourish. He took pride in praying for them. He took pride in teaching them. He took pride in suffering for them and with them. He took pride in disciplining them. He just loved the people of Colossae so much. He wanted them to know Jesus. He wanted their lives to be fruitful and bear the many blessings of God.

Now that is one awesome friend! That is a friend EVERYONE should want on their team. That is a friend every girl should want praying for her family and her own life.

Beauties, I encourage you to be a Paul or a Carol to someone in your life. It would be awesome if you could be that kind of friend to everyone, but let's start with baby steps.

We all need that friend who is willing to cry on the floor with us when we feel like we've hit rock bottom. We need that friend who will comfort us when we feel hurt and betrayed by other friends and family around us. We need that friend who will suffer in our pain with us. We need that friend who will pray over our homes, finances, families, relationships and marriages, when times are rough and when times are joyful. We need that friend who is willing to spend their lives just giving to our life because they simply love us.

We need that friend and we also need to be THAT friend.

Here is your assignment:

- Pick a woman you love
- Ask that friend what she would like for you to pray about (trust me, if you ask they will give you tons of stuff to pray about)
-Take 5 minutes a day or MORE to pray for your friend
- Love on them, check up on them and send them a message of love throughout the week
-Sit back and watch their lives change.

I encourage you to do this for a friend. The power of sisterhood is so strong. The power of love is so strong. Let's be the kind of women who love and pray for our friends.

Jessica Torres
Founder of Beauty of Encouragement