"I look around the room at all the women, scarred and banged up and brave and still standing, and all I can hear is their song." - Ann Voskamp
I gotta admit, sometimes I get discouraged.
I get discouraged because what I want for the young women in this world is everything the world doesn't want for them. I get discouraged because there are so few good examples of young women in the "spotlight" of our society for them to look up to. I get discouraged because so many young women go to sleep at night hating themselves...with cuts on their arms and starving stomachs and an ache in their heart, just because they feel so incredibly unloved. I get discouraged because I can only help them one at a time, when I wish I could get every young woman in the world in the same room at once and just pour out love on them and listen and just tell them of their worth and their beauty...something many of them have never even heard about. I get discouraged because so many girls get used and then use in return because they truly begin to believe that's how the vicious cycle works. I get discouraged because society tells women everywhere that their wedding day is just another day for a big party, not a day to dress dazzling white and walk toward a groom you have waited and protected your heart for.
There are many days when I get so discouraged and so defeated and so disheartened...and then I realize...this is exactly where the enemy wants me. Defeated, broken down, and weak.
"The brilliant don't deny the dark but they are the ones who always seek the light in everything." - Ann Voskamp
I know this battle is far from over. But I know the fight is worth it if one more girl believes in herself because of the way Christ was somehow able to use a broken soul like me in her life. I know that I can't stop fighting until there are no more girls cutting, starving, burning, and hurting themselves in any way; until there are no more girls sleeping around because they want to feel loved so desperately, and until there are no more girls who think they need to fill up on everything of this world to feel joyful, wanted, accepted. I know there is no better time than now to turn up the volume on what I believe, what I know, and what I know I need to share.
I desperately want the women of this world to feel wanted. I want the women of this world to feel beautiful. I want them to be joyful and radiant. I want them to believe in themselves - to believe in the grace that they were created for a divine and altogether stunning purpose. I want the women of this world to know that they are enough - more than enough - exactly as they are in this moment - living, moving, and breathing in the hands of a good, good God.
I will never give up on this, I will never be quiet, I will not back down. There's work to be done, and there is no time to lose.
I will fight on for girls everywhere, remembering that the work I do is worthwhile, and that even amidst discouragement - all things are possible for Christ. All things are possible for a God who came and died so that we might have life, and have it abundantly.
More to come on this...excited to share a new movement with you all...
"Ours is the God who sees, and for the women forgotten and for the women unwanted and the women left behind, there is water in the wilderness and He is our well and all is well." -Ann Voskamp