Splendor

Hi Beautiful,

I'm back and so refreshed. Thank you for allowing me to take some time to rest and refocus. I have been working on some new things and I will be sharing them with you very soon.

Before we start today's blog, I just want you to open your heart and forget anything and everything that has already discouraged you this morning.

I'm serious! You will miss the whole message if you are consumed by all of your worries and anxieties.

Let it go!


Over the weekend Beauty of Encouragement had some amazing things take place. I believe that God showed up and He showed out for us. He was taking His beautiful daughters and just doing a mighty work in their hearts and lives. I had people calling me, emailing me, and messaging me about their past and how they had held it in for sooooo long and with ONE blog it just all poured out. They told me how they took all their pain and just dug it so deep into their heart for years, and some even decades, to avoid ever having to face it. Then, as they read my blog, all the pain they had stored up in their hearts, just came rushing at them like a bullet.

I was completely astonished by what was happening. I knew God would show up. That is one thing I didn't doubt at all. It was truly amazing! I believe that God is moving mountains in the lives of those reading Beauty Of Encouragement. I believe that nothing and no one can stop what He is going to do in our lives this year.

So as all of these beautiful things are taking place for Beauty of Encouragement and its readers, I start to personally struggle a bit. At a time when I was so happy, focused on what God was doing through Beauty Of Encouragement and the women reading it, I just started to get attacked by thoughts that were trying to kill, steal and destroy the vision that God has placed in my heart. My mind just starts to get consumed with negativity like, "You're not enough for something this big. Look at this person, she blogs way better than you. You will never reach as many lives as she has. You're not that special that God would use you. You're not as smart. You're going to run out of things to talk about. You're going to stop blogging. You're going to give up like you always do. You're going to fail. You're going to disappoint these women. God is not in this. God is not using you. You're going to fail and the whole world is going to watch and laugh. You're a fool. God doesn't use fools. This is too big for you."

I heard all of these things in my head and slowly they were creeping into my heart. My mind turned into a battlefield. There was a war going on between the truth of God versus the lies of Satan. I knew that if I started to accept these lies, I was going to fail you, fail myself, most fail God.

So immediately, I started to do the only thing I knew how.... 

I had to literally cry my eyes out to God last night and tell Him how overwhelmed I felt by all of this. I had to be honest with my God. If I can't be honest with the God I serve then who can I be honest with? I started reminding myself of the truth that God has promised me through His Word.

So after crying my life away and asking God to bring me peace, I quickly fell asleep. The whole night I dreamt about this blog and the women it would reach. I woke up this morning a bit discouraged still. Then I prayed again and just asked God to give me strength for what He has called me to do. I asked Him to help me trust that He will instill the qualities, knowledge and drive that I need to finish the assignment He has given me. I prayed that He and only He would be the center of Beauty of Encouragement and that NOTHING, not one single thing, would take place without His say-so.

Then, in the afternoon, I was feeling so frustrated and I desperately needed to be reminded of God's promises to me. I needed hope, encouragement and I just needed to spend some time with my Papa. So I picked up my bible and  just let God pour into me. I am sooooo HAPPY that I decided to do that.

God showed me a verse that really changed my point of view. He gave me exactly what I was looking for. He showed me what I meant to Him and why I'm so important to Him.

1 Corinthians 15:41 - The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor."

and if you aren't sure what splendor means, here is the definition.

Splendor - great and impressive beauty

And then a flood of thoughts start coming to my head. Splendor is something that radiates impressive beauty. Something that has you in complete awe.

For instance, in this particular piece of scripture, it talks about the stars.

There are various kinds of stars. Some are close to the sun while others are farther away, which determines how big or little those stars are in size. They're all so different. They have different names and they all shine so brightly. Each star is unique in shape, size, temperature, and age BUT they are ALL made up of the same elements.

I remember when I was younger my uncle would let us look into his telescope and see the stars. The experience was so amazing and different each time I looked into that telescope. All of the stars twinkled so differently, they shined differently, and they caught my eye differently. Although each one of those stars was so different, they were all SO beautiful to me and they all served a purpose in that sky. None of them were too plain or less amazing than the other. When I looked at each star individually they were beautiful, but when I looked at the whole sky full of stars, it was splendid. What a beautiful piece of work God did with the stars.

Well, guess what?

In God's eyes, we are way more splendid than any star. So if He created the stars to be so different from each other, yet, each are so great and impressive in beauty. Then why would he not do the same with us?

Of all the things God created, He could have chosen absolutely any one of them to call His children, but He chose us! So if He spent time on making the stars so unique, bright and beautiful, think of how much more time and dedication He spent doing the same for us.

He took us in the palm of His hands and beautifully made us. He picked our eyes, our hair, our body, our feet, our height, our skin color, the amount of hair follicles we have and the color of our freckles. He  was so detailed and hands on with creating us. He knew us before we were in our mother's womb and He formed us to be EXACTLY what He considers to be perfection.

So next time you compare yourself to your friend with more success, your sister with a better marriage, your co-worker with better pay, the celebrity with the nicer body, the blogger with more talent than you. Just remember one thing, when God made you, you were an original. Your splendor is ONE OF A KIND. You are different from all of the other humans in this world. He took His precious time to make you like no other. He did not make you some cheap generic version of someone else. He made you as authentic as they come.

Everything He placed inside of you was given to ONLY YOU! No one in this world will ever live and be like you. No one in this world will ever exist and be like you. No one in this world will ever walk the Earth and be just like YOU! No one!

Everything from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet was designed for only you to have. Your passions, your dreams, your goals, your life, your existence were made with you in mind.

YOU have a purpose in this world. There are things that you have inside of you that NO ONE else in this world can deliver the way that you can. There is a purpose for your life that NO ONE else in this world was called to do but YOU. These things are exclusive to only you! 

So, stop comparing yourself. Don't accept the lies that the enemy whispers to you. What God starts, He finishes and what God has placed in YOU, He will give you what you need so that it grows and bears good fruit. What you lack HE will provide for you and in you.

So tell the lies to SHUT UP and to return to the hell they came from. You don't have time to waste on the lies, when you are too busy living for the truth.

I encourage you to feed truth to all the lies that try to tear you down!

YOU are extraordinary!
YOU are exceptional!
YOU are one of a kind!
YOU are satisfying!
YOU are unique!
YOU are praiseworthy!

and in case you forgot, YOU are worth dying for. 

YOU are splendid, my Darling. Don't you ever forget it.

Never be like the rest of them, when you're the best of them. 

If today's blog has encouraged you in any way, please leave us a comment below. We look forward to hearing from you.

Jessica Torres
Founder of Beauty of Encouragement

Ugly Little Mouth

Ladies,

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I am so excited to pour love, encouragement and motivation into your life. Please bare with me because it may not always be perfect, but I promise it will always be sincere.

Can you believe we are already three days into the new year. Gosh, how amazing is that? A whole new year full of endless opportunities and blessings. I know that soon the New Year hype will start to dim down and you'll start feeling a little discouraged and your motivation will not be as high as it was on January 1st. That's OK, because we will all have those times and we need to encourage each other to stay focused on the goal. So, think of this blog as a place to refresh your mindset!

I encourage you to share this blog with as many women as possible. Just like you there are tons of other women out there lacking encouragement, feeling beaten down by life, and simply ready to throw in the towel.

OK, so here we go..... Are you ready for this new journey? I am and I'm on fire for change.



Encouragement- the action of giving someone support, confidence, or hope


Wow, how awesome is that? the definition of encouragement is to GIVE someone else support, confidence or hope. 

Now, let's meditate on that for a minute......

Encouragement is a gift we are able to give to others. A gift we are able to speak into someones life. A gift that can support, restore hope or encourage someone else not to give up on life, to keep pushing, to keep fighting. However, too many times we take this beautiful gift and spike it with hate, jealousy and bitterness. 

Are you guilty of this? I sure am. I have also been on the receiving end of that and let me tell you, it's an UGLY feeling. 

I remember telling certain family members about my goal to open a business in my home. Immediately after finishing my sentence they started to speak negativity into my dream. It was almost as though they were just waiting for me to finish my sentence  so that they could tell me how I was going to fail. I felt hurt and upset and I even yelled at them. I mean, how could they? This was important to me. This could mean so much for my life and my finances. Without even thinking, they just started to stab at my dream as if MY DREAM was attacking them. I was mad, hurt, confused and upset. Then God reminded me that I don't need people to validate the gifts, dreams, hopes and visions HE has planted in me. I don't need people to validate my existence. He already did that! 

Now that's all nice and dandy, right? Jesus validated my worth, now I should feel free from people's negativity. Well, to be honest, I wasn't. I was enraged. I kept thinking of how my family should have been more supportive, uplifting and encouraging. In reality they weren't because they just simply didn't know how to. Generations and generations of people have this mindset of defeat. They are defeated in their minds, so out their mouth comes the same thing. 

That is when this very blog came into existence. I decided that I was going to speak encouragement into someones life every single day and I was going to be that tiny little voice that tells them "you can do it. Keep pushing through.".

Too many times we speak because we feel like it's our duty to the world. Too often we don't think about what we are about to say before we say it. Too many times we hurt people with our words and lack of encouragement.

Imagine encouragement like a gift you are giving someone. It's in the prettiest gold box with the perfect glitter polka dot wrapping paper, and wrapped around the box is the biggest, prettiest , perfect,  red ribbon. The wrapping of this gift is simply amazing and makes you excited to open your gift . There must be something beautiful inside. You can already tell because the gift wrapping is so thoughtful. So after anxiously waiting for so long you finally open your beautiful box. BUTTTTTT, You can't help but notice the awful stench coming from inside. As you make your way through the tissue paper, you feel something cold and slimy. Oh my goodness, your hand just touched a dead rat. In that beautiful box you were gifted a dead RAT!!!!! 

How do you feel? Disappointed? Forgotten? Upset? Angry? like a fool? Maybe even a combination of all those emotions? I mean, who would take the time to wrap such a beautiful box knowing it's filled with a rat?!

Has this happened to you? Have you gifted someone with something so special to your heart, only to find that in return they gave you back hate? We often gift our dreams up and hand them out to people we feel will support us and too often they taint our dreams with their poisonous words. 

It hurts, right?


So Beloved, WHY ON EARTH DO YOU DO THE SAME TO OTHERS? Why not do the opposite? 

Now, think of all the people who tell us their dreams and hopes. They are gifting us with their hearts desires and wishes, and in return we give them back a pretty little box filled with the negativity rat. We replace their dreams with our stinky opinions, our doubt, our hate and our negative words. 

It's a never ending cycle of negativity until someone breaks it. So......

Today, I encourage you to be mindful of all your words, your actions and your thoughts. Filter EVERYTHING! Speak encouragement. Speak life. BE that hope that people so desperately need! It starts in your mind and then it will pour out of your mouth. So today start by thinking positive thoughts and then speak on those positive thoughts. I challenge you to do this with me and see how it changes your day and your world. You may even change someones life, just by one thoughtful, encouraging, warm word.

Remember, your words have the power to speak life or death. Do not be careless with your words. Be accountable for what you say to others and to yourself. God himself brought things to life and ended things with just WORDS. He formed the world with words, "let there be light" and so there was. You too have the power to do the same with your mouth and words. What will you allow your words to bring to your life and the lives of those around you?

Go out there and be a spokesperson for love, hope, and all things good. Once you do this the universe will return it all back to you. 

I know we can do this, ladies! One GOOD thought and word at a time. Baby steps.

Please be sure to email us with how this new way of living and thinking has changed your day or life. We look forward to hearing from you.

Jessica Torres
Founder of Beauty of Encouragement