Have you ever felt like this before? Maybe there's something about your body you would like to change. Maybe you don't like your hair, your nose, your arms, or maybe you have been told you're to skinny?

Found this little rap the other day on Social Media, If diet CULTURE were a person...

"Oh look, another young, impressionable girl. I can't wait for this one. A society evolved. We saw an opportunity. And to tell you the truth our plan has worked beautifully. BEAUTY, that's the thing, you see we set a standard. It's impossible, unattainable, and the approval that you're after. We praise a body type, an image that's ideal. And we sell you different diets, products, teas, and low-cal meals. The truth is nothing works, but we don't tell you that honey. Because as long as you're unhappy with yourself we're making money! Oh, and there's no end game. You see we make it tough. Over time our standards change, you'll never be enough. We're sneaky about it. We convince you you're the problem. When really you are perfect, but we brainwash top to bottom. It's time for me to go, I've got other girls to meet. But don't worry I'm not really gone. You'll see me in the streets. I disguise myself in magazines, social media, conversation...See that's the master plan, I'm all over this nation..." -CREDIT: Victoria Garrick.

1.) Anything negative you are feeling about yourself comes from the enemy. Whether it came from something someone said, the back of your mind making up scenarios, something you read, something you saw or heard. The enemy is doing EVERYTHING he can to get young girls to believe lies about themselves. Why? Because it makes them vulnerable to desperation...to wanting validation...and to seek it out anywhere. 

I used to think that because I wasn't the first or even the 10th choice to the boys at youth camp that I must have been disgusting. Repulsive. My personality changed & I tried to compensate with being bubbly, fun and outgoing even though I was introverted, shy and nervous in big crowds. I was always the one introducing my beautiful friends to the boys or the boys would ask me for my friend's numbers. Negative feelings became negative thoughts and those became negative actions, a relationship with food in toxic ways. Eating less than 1200 calories a day and starving to death until I would binge eat. 

Do you know what Loneliness can do to a person over time? It can be a slow death and over time you don't even realize you're grasping. You don't even realize what's happening sometimes until you've gotten ahold of something that got ahold of you and you feel trapped because you were looking for love in all the wrong places. 

Mom & dad can't fill the void, family can't, boys can't, men can't, friends can't...even this illusion of 'SELF-LOVE' can't. Until you start to wake up and realize where the negativity comes from, Satan the LIAR of liars, then you can't correctly combat the problem.

3.) The world didn't give you your joy and the world can't steal it unless you let them. I've been around girls my whole life who take on what the 'world's standards' say about them and they turn it on themselves or others only to tear down their value with words. 

"I'm getting fat and it's disgusting." How about, thank you Lord for providing the food I have to eat. For allowing me to eat delicious food and feed the body you gave me? Since when does tearing down ourselves make us any skinnier, more beautiful or change anything at all? It literally gets you NOWHERE and closer to NOTHING.

Have you ever been on your own? Lived by yourself without your parents and done your own dishes, paid your own mortgage or electric bill? Do you know how to save money, how about run a business? 

When did getting married because "the 'temptation' of sex may be too much and it's better to get married than make a mistake" become a thing? Shouldn't we be teaching teenagers-young adults what to do when their physical body is craving physical affection? That's not something I was EVER taught. How to deal with desire. 

The bible says, "Flee fornication (sexual immorality in some translations). Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body."

I Corinthians 6:18 KJV.

Some things we don't talk about in the church world are the many Avenues for sexual immorality. Do you know how easy it is for kids to get access to impurity right from their smart-phones? And what about masturbation? I asked confidants growing up what the Bible said about it, and 9 times out of 10 their answer was, "I'm not sure." Do you see a problem here? 

I agree there is a fine line between education, teaching biblical principles and just giving them the wrong ideas, but they are going to learn it. If they don't learn it from the right sources it's too easy to get things twisted the way the devil would have them believe it. After that it's too late and innocence is lost forever. 

I'm not perfect. I do not claim to be perfect. I have failed at everything I named in this article more than once. However, if we are not striving to do better, to be better to be more like Jesus every single day then we will become stagnant. 

If we don't call out these problems for what they are then it's too easy to fall victim to the world's standard of 'VALUE', to the enemy's lies about YOUR VALUE. The TRUTH is no matter who you are, where you've been, what you may look like, YOU MATTER TO JESUS and He loves you with an unconditional love that I couldn't begin to describe with my feeble words. 

As I type this I am praying for anyone who reads this to feel loved, to feel worthy, to know that those endless tears you may have cried because you felt like you were never good enough are not wasted. Jesus sees you, and He loves you, I love you and if you need prayer please reach out <3

Until next time, 

Ranessa H.