Letter of Love

Hi Ladies,

I just want to share some things with you that have been on my heart. When I started this blog, I promised that I would be 100% transparent, real and raw with you all. The reason for this is because I want you to know that you are NOT alone. I want you to know that there are other women in this world going through the same struggles as you. I want you to know that you can overcome. I want you to know that you are capable of changing and growing.

I just cannot stop thinking about you ladies. From the moment I opened my eyes today, I have thought about you, prayed for you and spoke life into your day. You have no idea how much love God has placed in my heart for you. I was literally in tears this morning as I prayed over your lives, families, hearts and minds.  I never knew it was possible to love women that I don't even know. However, God has placed it in my heart to serve you, to love you and to encourage you.  I take honor in that responsibility.

When you are feeling alone, down, sad, discouraged, please come back to this post to be reminded that you are loved. I want you to know that someone is cheering for you, praying for you, thinking of you and spending endless hours thinking of ways to bring encouragement into your lives.

I want you to know that you are special. You were beautifully and wonderfully made. You aren't an accident. You aren't a mistake. Even if your mama had you at 16, you were still born with purpose. You are part of God's perfect plan. He paid the price for YOU! To be close to YOU. To be a father to YOU. Every breath you take is because God wants you to be here, on Earth, living! 

I want you to live your life on purpose. I don't want you to have a victim mentality. I want you to step into this day with meaning and determination. I want you to shake off all of the things that discourage you, hurt you, worry you, or cause you anxiety. I want you to conquer this day.

Before you begin your day, I want you to go somewhere quiet. I want you to just start authoritively speaking good things into your life. What kind of life do you want? Then that is what you need to speak into your day.

I realize how silly this may sound but I assure you that it works. I do this everyday and it just changes my world and perspective on things. Here is what my words look like.

"Today I will have a servants heart. I will be love to other people. Today the right doors will be opened for me. Today doors will be closed that are dangerous to my life. Today I will meet the right people. Today I will cut out the wrong people. Today I will have a positive attitude. Today I am rich in happiness, health and wealth. Today I will serve God and please Him in all I do. Today I will not be defeated in my mind. Today I will be encouraged and share it with others"

Try it! Also, please share your story with us. I look forward to learning more about the beauties reading my blog.

Have a blessed day!

P.S. I am keeping today's post very light. The rest of the week I will be going in at your heart. I will be revealing some of my past mistakes with you. You won't want to miss this. I will be releasing a video soon to prepare you for Friday's blog. I'm about to expose my past to you and rock your world.

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