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

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 

Porcelain Throne Oppression

Hi Darlings,

Today's post will be short and sweet. Tomorrow I am bringing the fire, so please DO NOT miss out.

Today, I 'll be sharing a short story with you and then I will let you go on conquering your day.

The past few weeks I've been given the honor of potty training a stubborn 3 year old. It has been a living nightmare. 

First off, he won't go to the potty without being able to play a game on the iPhone. Second, he will spend all of his time playing a game and no time actually pooping or peeing. Third, when I talk about pooping or peeing, he starts yelling like a maniac. Fourth, I lose, he wins and then he's off the potty, peeing/pooping in his pull-up five minutes later. It really is quite the experience. 

Of course, I don't have much patience for things like this. But as we know, God gives us what we ask for, and OF COURSE I had the nerve to ask Him for patience. 

We have literally done everything we possibly can to convince this sweet toddler to use the dang potty. We've used reward charts, iPhones, lightsabers, and even Legos. We have tried it all! Not one thing has worked.

So all day yesterday, we found ourselves battling the porcelain throne once again. We went through a vicious cycle of getting on the potty, not actually using it, getting off the potty, and then pooping in our pullup five minutes later.  It was exhausting!

During our final attempt to overcome the oppression of potty training, the most heart touching thing happened. 

NO! He didn't poop or pee if that's what you're thinking.  

I was sitting on the floor of the washroom, trying to entertain this sweet angel as he is screaming his head off, and I begin to get overwhelmed with frustration. So overwhelmed that I had to turn away and try not to cry. 

Childless women are thinking I'm crazy right now but you mama bears feel my pain.

Suddenly, the little angel gets off of his porcelain throne and walks over to me, naked and all, hugs me and says "Jessica, I love you."

I swear, it was the sweetest, most loving, most encouraging moment ever. All of my feelings of frustration, anger, despair, irritation and rage just vanished away. It was then that I remembered God's sweet words, "Love covers a multitude of sins."

I wish I could live that moment over and over again. It was powerful because earlier that afternoon I was reading the book of Corinthians about love (the same verse I shared with you ladies yesterday) and I understood what it meant, but I wondered what it actually felt and looked like. And there I was, hours later, actually experiencing the literal meaning of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.

Love has the power to change things. Love has the power to change people. Love has the power to change YOU!

So my assignment for all of us today is to study the scripture below and then act on it.


1 Corinthians 13:4-8

New Life Version (NLV)

⁴ Love does not give up. Love is kind. Love is not jealous. Love does not put itself up as being important. Love has no pride. ⁵ Love does not do the wrong thing. Love never thinks of itself. Love does not get angry. Love does not remember the suffering that comes from being hurt by someone. ⁶ Love is not happy with sin. Love is happy with the truth. ⁷ Love takes everything that comes without giving up. Love believes all things. Love hopes for all things. Love keeps on in all things.

Go out and conquer the world, Love. Show them the love you're working with!



Jessica Torres

Founder of Beauty of Encouragement