It's A Celebration

Hi Lovely,

It's finally the weekend! We made it another week! 

Celebrate! It was a tough and rough one with all the snow! 

After a heavy post yesterday and pouring my heart out to you all, I think it's safe to say today's blog will be a short one.

I don't have any stories to share with you today, but of course I have some encouragement. 

I just wanted to remind you ladies to dream big! Like dream REALLY big. Use that faith, sista! 

I'll be going into this area a little more in the upcoming weeks, but I wanted to lightly touch on the area today. 

If you think your dreams are way too big. Slap yourself! Just kidding. Don't do that. 

On a serious note, you need to believe, even when it's hard seeing such a big dream come to life.

Don't sell yourself short!

For instance, I promised myself that I would write my blogs as though I were speaking to millions of women. Turns out I was speaking to about 1600 at the start of this week. Such a great number, right?

Wait until you read the next part!   

Today, the amount of people who viewed my blog almost DOUBLED!!!! Yes! AMAZING!!

Whew! So incredibly fully of joy! 

So next time you think your dreams are too big, tell your mind to hush and then go to work! 

Nothing is too Big for the God we serve! Absolutely nothing!

Lives were changed before my eyes yesterday. God had women and men balling their eyes out and facing pain they hid for 20-30 years! I prayed for this soooo incredibly hard.

 I encourage you to take ALL that pain to God. If your pain still hurts you that means you have not been healed and it's still stored in your heart. Let me tell you, as a wise woman once said, "Ain't nobody got time for that". Take it to God! He will heal you.

I'm incredibly blessed to encourage you all. I'm glad that my reckless past was not in vain. God will use anything for His glory! 

Now, let's talk about something else really fast! 

I wanted to remind you ladies that there are SO many broken women in this world. My goal is to bring as many broken women as possible to read this blog. I need your help! Please continue to share this blog with all the people you love! I'm serious, it could change someones life. Just yesterday, I had MEN telling me that my blog has encouraged them. Haha! I was not even thinking about men when I created this blog, but again, God will touch anyone! 

So, share my blog! Share my blog posts! Share my Facebook Page! Share my Instagram! Share my twitter! 

Also, I love reading all your comments about how my blog has touched your life and I know other people will want to read them as well. So please, comment on Facebook and the actual blog. Let's get to know each other and love on each other. This is a sisterhood! 

We want to hear from you! 

Jessica Torres
Founder of Beauty of Encouragement 

Hello There, Kate Spade

Hi Ladies,

Before we get into today's post, I want to send an extra special thank you to a few different people.

1. Thanks to all the beautiful ladies that have been reaching out to me and are currently struggling with a broken heart. I am TRULY touched and I am praying for you all. Have peace! Keep pushing through. A broken heart doesn't last forever. Trust me, I've had a few.

2. Thank you to all the men reading my blog!!! I appreciate the texts and messages of encouragement. Thanks for sharing it with the women you love.

3. Thanks to all my followers for reading my blog. Encouragement is going to spread like wildfire in 2014. Thank you for allowing me to encourage you.

Alright, encouragement is waiting for us. Let's go get it.....

During Christmas, I always try to find a really awesome gift for my best friend. She has an amazing heart and is constantly loving on people. She loves to shower people with gifts, so she's always buying something for someone. It's the perfect time for me to thank her with something special, so I like to get her something I know she is going to love.

This past Christmas, I decided I was going to gift her with something special from Kate Spade. Who doesn't love a little Kate Spade in their life?

So I started to do a little online shopping. As I'm looking through the pictures of each bracelet and attempting to find the perfect one for my best friend, I come across this amazingly simple, sleek, rose gold, sparkling bangle that I just had to get for myself. Naturally, I quickly place it in my online shopping bag. Within minutes, I start to feel immensely guilty. Now, the bangles aren't too expensive, but when you have a mortgage and bills to pay, it seems more expensive than it truly is. So, within five minutes, I talked myself out of getting this bangle. Even though I love Kate Spade and even though I love rose gold.

I know, that's just the most devastating story you've ever heard. Isn't it? I'm sure you have been there too. We all have. We want something and then guilt just comes in and makes us delete it from our shopping bag. Whomp!

So, I purchase my best friend's bracelet and move on with my day. Never mentioning anything to anyone about that bangle I fell in love with and couldn't get.

Weeks later, about a few days before Christmas, my boss tells me she has a gift for me. I didn't put much thought into it. I figured she got me some chocolates or something small to thank me for working for her and the long hours I had recently been putting in. A few minutes later, she walked in the room with a gray box decorated with this awesome grey bow and the top of the box read the word Nordstrom. I excitedly opened the box and right before my eyes was this beautiful bangle that looked identical to the one I so desperately wanted a few weeks back. I was thrilled!  I mean it's probably some Kate Spade knock off but who really cares. It all looks the same to me.

As I'm placing my hand in the box to get a better look at it, my boss gently pushes my hand out of the way and flips over the little white tag that was attached to the bangle. To my surprise it said, Kate Spade. I was sooooooo thrilled!!! THEN, with the most joyful voice she says, "I love rose gold. I hope you like it too.". I hugged her so tight, thanked her and moments later left work for the day.

I got in my car and immediately just felt overjoyed and overwhelmed by God's love. Only Him and I knew I wanted that bangle. Only Him and I knew that I really wanted to buy it but I had to spend my money wisely and on more important things. Only Him and I.

I was almost in tears as I sat in my car. I know you're probably thinking it's just a silly little bangle. It's not like my boss bought me some fancy car, or sent me on some exotic vacation. But in some way that bangle made me feel like she did. I loved that bangle. I wanted to have a nice little designer piece. I wanted to buy it for myself but I knew being responsible was more important and staying on budget was the wiser thing to do.  But here I was a few weeks later being gifted with the exact thing I desired.

Do you see how faithful God is? A silly little bangle. He made that happen. It wasn't a coincidence. It wasn't just something that my boss guessed I would want and love. It was GOD!!! HE made that happen.

He knew this tiny desire of my heart. As tiny as it was, it was still so important to Him, so He made it happen. I didn't pray about it. I didn't say, "Oh God, why can't I ever buy what I want? ". I desired it and that's it. Just a secret wish I filed way back in the filing cabinet of my heart along with the other hopes, dreams and prayers that I thought were too "tiny" or too "stupid" to give to God. That's not what He wants us to do. He doesn't want us to store them away. He wants us to hand them all over to Him.

God loves our little wishes, dreams, hopes and desires. He goes through them daily. Some He picks up, reads, memorizes and puts back, to give us at a later time. Some, He picks up and says, "Ha, she doesn't need this. I have something greater", and tosses out. Then, others he picks up, reads, and says, "Now this is good for her. She can have this. " and gives them to us in His perfect timing.

This whole bangle ordeal really spoke to my heart. I finally realized that God wanted me to share EVERY desire, EVERY wish, EVERY hope, EVERY passion, EVERY idea, EVERYTHING with Him. Even the silly, stupid, little, pointless, ideas we have. Nothing is too little and nothing is too big for God and NOTHING is unattainable for Him. Nothing.

As I write this, in the midst of the happiness it brings me again, I feel a little shame. Somewhere along the way I forgot how important it was to share my heart's desires with God and how He truly just wants to know the deepest, most hidden, secrets of my heart that I often fail to share with Him. Thankfully, He searches our hearts when we forget to give these things to Him.

If God is so willing to give me this bangle from Kate Spade, then how much more willing is He to give us the biggest desires of our hearts, that we so eagerly long for?

Beauties, God is WILLING.

HE IS WILLING to restore your marriage.

HE IS WILLING to help you forgive that man/woman who molested you as a child.

HE IS WILLING to heal you from your hurt and pain.

HE IS WILLING to cure your illness.

HE IS WILLING to free you from the bondage of drug abuse.

HE IS WILLING to fix your finances.

HE IS WILLING to forgive you for having an abortion.

HE IS WILLING to heal your heart from the pain your parent left you when they walked out of your life.

HE IS WILLING to restore your hope.

HE IS WILLING to give you peace.

HE is able and He is willing! All you have to do is ASK.

So today, I encourage you to sit alone in private and just pour your heart out to the One who made you.

Let all your worries go!

Psalm 20:4-9

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