More Beautiful You Lesson 2

Despite tweeting about my blog last time, sharing it with the followers of LLLTD and my own and even was RT'd the wonderful David Cristini- I'm not sure how many people read it. But a know a few did and that makes me happy. I want to continue this study and I'm determined to finish it since it's taken me over a year to post about it. So... HERE WE GO... Lesson 2: God's description of beauty. (Those that don't believe in God PLEASE keep reading- this is good stuff) The book starts off by talking about how ALL beauty originates from God. Everything created by God is beautiful...the cool thing is starting at the Trees, seas, and bees,He created every single one of us "me's" (see what I did there? lol) Have you ever stopped to think that not everything God created is tangible or external. Beauty is NOT just external. Beauty is internal. He didn't just create the beauty. He created the things that make us work, our brains, blood, and all that stuff that isn't something we think of as attractive (hello- they are our innards! haha) But they do help make us who we are. Our brains help mold our inner beauty through personality. Some of us are amazing artists, some of us amazing musicians or actors! Some of us are nurturing...we've ALL got something in us that makes us unique and who we are as ourselves! There is a scripture that describes this better than any rant I could go on: 1st Peter 3:3-4 (sited in the book) "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." Like the book says, the verse doesn't say looking good is wrong but that the value is more on INNER beauty. What's in your heart, what makes you tick? The next part is a search through God's word. Feel free to look these up- the each describe the aspects of beauty that are important to God. IN FACT- I'd LOVE for you to comment and tell me what you get from the verses! Proverbs 11:16,22 Proverbs 31:30 1st Timothy 4:8 DISCUSSION POINT: How would you compare what is important to God with what is important to our society? I love this quote: "Remember, a perfect body never bought anyone peace during a difficult experience; it never produced wisdom in dealing with a complicated relationship; it never granted anyone a free pass through the gates of heaven" Here are some basic things about true beauty that God created: 1. True beauty comes from spending time with God. All His beauty secrets are written for us in the Bible. If we want to discover them, we need to read it every day. 2. We need to spend time praying- sharing our fears with Him and allowing Him to place His peace in our lives. 3. We need to learn from other Christians who can help us develop godly priorities and grown in our faith. One of the other great points this book makes is "Have you notived that there are no descriptions of any women in the Bible? We are vaguely informed some of them were lovely to look at but never are any of their physical features described for us" HMM... food for thought- their INNER beauty, their hearts are what is shared with us most. The Looking In the Mirror section: Ask yourself: "How much time do I spend each day working on my outward appearance? (list the things you do)" "How much time do I spend each day working on my inward appearance? (list the things you do)" "Who is the most beautiful woman I know according to God's standards? What makes her so attractive?" Memorize 1 Samuel 16:7 "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." "What are some specific ways that God wants you to view beauty differently than the world does?" "What are some things you can start to do today to make yourself more beautiful in God's eyes?" "Talk to God: Tell Him how you would like Him to help you grow to be more beautiful on the inside" I feel like I need to stress a certain point: I've never met a girl that has thought she's beautiful ALL the time. We're girls. We struggle with the point of beauty. We poke and prod at ourselves and if we still don't like it we let other poke and prod! No matter your size, how you do your make up, or what clothes you wear...WE ALL struggle with this point! You are not alone. I'm talking ALL sizes of girls struggle with this "beauty issue" The smallest of girls either get the idea that they are too fat (yeah I know...) or that they are too skinny and not good enough. And the bigger girls often feel they will just never find anyone to love them because they aren't good enough. It's all about self worth and it's something every girl is bothered by. At that point- love yourself, love who you are. The best part of you is who you are on the inside, the kindness, the love, the sarcasm, the humor, the fiestyness, whatever it is that makes you- YOU! God Loves you for who you are and heck so do I and I don't even know you. A little bit of a plug here: Another person who loves you for who you are is David Cristini who I'm going to tell you a bit about (he doesn't know I'm doing this- HI DAVID) If any of you on twitter follow @DavidCristini on there that boy is AWESOME and a LOT of girls have twitter crushes on him. I think of him as a little brother and I'm SO thankful he's in our lives! His whole point is "Every girl is beautiful and special and OH how true that is! And if you DON'T follow him on twitter you should! He's ALWAYS tweeting positive things that make us girls feel as awesome as we truly are! Another thing he has is bracelets- Check them out and get one (please): http://egibasbracelets.bigcartel.com/product/every-girl-is-beautiful-and-special-bracelet I couldn't find a video for the song I wanted to share tonight "He Thinks I Am Beautiful" by Loralie. It's a great song. If you want to hear it let me know. I've got it on my computer. Check this out- Another great song is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUTxl_cteGg

Apology and More Beautiful You continued

I Am SO sorry! I haven't updated this blog in over a year. Not that this is an excuse but here is what happened: After posting that the unexpected happened! I GOT A JOB! I worked for about 6 months and then spent the last few months kind of taking care of myself due to the stress the job added (completely unnecessary stress) So now I'm back and I've learned a LOT. I'm going to pick up where I left off with More Beautiful You (AKA the beginning) And we'll get through this. Then I'm going to add some other things I've learned. Over the past year I've undergone a lot of changes. In the job I had available to me a clothes closet in which I was able to get some fashionable and nice clothes. Suddenly with this job came an amount of confidence I never new I had with that I wore less makeup, nicer clothes, cuter shoes and ACTUALLY styled my hair more! This taught me that with confidence comes a desire to stand up straight and just do it! But beyond that my confidence brought out my natural beauty! It was amazing! Then I quit my job. With the stress of being jobless (again) I gained a ridiculous amount of acne, I'd never had acne this bad in my life. I felt ugly and gross. So I decided to fix it. I started getting into home remedy stuff and suddenly my acne got better. I'm working on losing weight for health reasons and I'm just happier because I know I'm working on a MORE BEAUTIFUL ME! Confidence has everything to do with that. Hold your head up my dears this is only the beginning of our journey, and I will try not to flake out this time (ha!) Lesson 1 (day 1) of More Beautiful you: Lyric used: "Little girl 14 flipping through a magazine says she wants to look that way" THE WORLD'S VERSION OF BEAUTY: I don't think I need to say too much about this lesson. We all know it- media controls our views of beauty. In magazines, movies, TV shows (reality and otherwise) the girls shown are 9 times out of 10 very tiny. The trends are revealing and the make up often caked on! Plastic surgery and Photoshop are medias best friend and they want it to be OURS too. The view of perfection that they show is just....unrealistic and downright...ridiculous! This book says that the number of cosmetic surgery procedures performed on girls 18 and under have nearly doubled over the past decade. The fact that media has done this to us is only proven by our reactions from friends and family (yes even parents) I've known family members who have ENCOURAGED eating disorders and surgery on the young person who they deem "unpretty" COME ON! That's just NOT right. This book delves deep into scripture which I will share with you the verses: Genesis 3:1-24 look it up and then answer these: In verse 6 what 3 things about the fruit from the forbidden tree made it attractive to Eve? How does our culture use these same 3 lures to entice us to seek more than God has already given us? What should Eve have done to avoid being seduced by the serpent to sin? Now it's time to look in the mirror. What does beauty mean to you and what aspects do you desire the most? The book goes on to suggest memorizing Psalm 119:36-37 Following the scripture is your choice, though I do recommend it. I found my own personal love for myself in my love for Christ. I've had people ask me "You are a bigger girl how do you keep your self esteem high?" Because GOD CREATED ME! I'm bigger because that's part of my story. I want to help other girls see the beauty in their differences, the things that stick out about them make them beautiful! I'm bigger yeah... but I am working on myself not because I think I'm ugly but because my health wants me to. Girls we can rock the bodies we can have, be who you are and you don't have to be a smaller size to rock it. As for the smaller girls who wish they could gain weight (yeah they exist) do your best to do just that but STAY HEALTHY. Remember ladies you don't need to show every part of your body to be respected or loved just be you- and when you see your beauty the world will too <3 Until next time... STAY BEAUTIFUL! <3 Check this video/song out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuCIcIQmBgU

More Beautiful You

Hey all:

I've started a study that I want to share with you all. It's a study book inspired by the song More Beautiful You by Jonny Diaz it is by the same person and his mom Gwendolyn Diaz and also goes by the same now. I think that this study is very important and once we realize our beauty and our confidence level rises it will help us to live, love, laugh, tackle our problems and determined while doing all of this. Our focus just needs readjusting! We'll be on this journey together and I'm so excited that you are "coming with me"

To start it out I'm going to post the song. The next post I make will be day 1. Theres just 12 studies. But I'll be posting my notes and thoughts. Feel free to comment and do the same. Lets do this journey together! This video takes a spiritual look at beauty and since I am a Christian it effects me in that way. But you dont have to be a Christian to like this song or enjoy this study. It's a true beauty and embracing yourself the way you are!

Empowerment songs

In the past few months many songs have been released, I label them as empowerment songs. Because thats what they are. They aren't always gender specific because here is the thing: Both Genders have difficult times.

A little vent digression: Have you ever noticed how gender judgmental and specific our society is? I constantly watch teens and my fellow young adults, where the girls feel the need to show way more skin than they should, and they get reprimanded... and I completely agree with reason for that! HOWEVER, when you tell a girl to not wear skimpy clothes or something like that, then theres a guy who ALWAYS walks around with his shirt off or those horribly tight jeans or shorts that show his man business...well thats a bit hypocritical. Oh "Guys lust more than girls" Um...NO I beg to differ! Next time you see a guy dressed like what I mention above go ask the girls that cant take their eyes off of him. Trust me on this...they are imagining A LOT. Lets not give guys more credit in the issue of lusting, girls have that issue too. Also, theres the whole issue of the fact that only girls cut, or are more emotional about certain issues. SO not true...As a youth minister I work with both genders that come to me about these issues. Lets start opening our hearts to the fact that both genders struggle and we should help BOTH genders.

Now back to the regularly scheduled blog: These empowerment songs are songs like... Mean by Taylor Swift, Perfect by Pink, Born This Way by Lady Gaga, Who Says by Selena Gomez, and Skyscraper by Demi Lovato. These are just a FEW recent ones I know there are more... The thing is, if you look through the hits in the past there are tons that came out. Such as Unpretty by TLC, The Beauty in Ugly by Jason Mraz and even ACC-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive by Bing Crosby (yes...that one is a VERY old song ;) haha)...they are EVERYWHERE but lately they've been coming at such a rate that it's proof that our generation, our society is crying out for help. We NEED the Positivity. (hey theres another one Positive by Taio Cruz) We need these songs that challenge us to Stand up for ourselves and others! This movement means a lot to me personally and apparently to many others. So instead of letting these songs fade to the background like so many of the songs before them lets all stand together and DO SOMETHING. Start living the lyrics of these songs, dont let people knock you down, rise up like like a skyscraper. Who says you arent worth it? They are the ones you SHOULDNT listen to, Dont let them make you feel unpretty! Together we can change this world and make it more positive. WE ARENT alone, there are SO many organizations trying to do this and if we ALL work together...well in 5 years we'll be looking at a different world. :)

Dont just cling to these things when you are down, cling to them ALL the time.

"Although they try to knock me down
I'm gonna stand up, gonna stand my ground
I'm gonna open up my heart to give yeah
Because it's the only way to live
I'm gonna be positive yeah" Positive, Taio Cruz

New Blog Posts

Hey everyone,

Lynnea here! Well LLLTD has kind of faded into nothingness. And for the longest time I've been trying to pray and figure out what to do. LLLTD hasnt reached many people but the thing is it's not about the amount we reached it's that someone IS reached. I'm not going to give up on a dream I've had since I was young...that dream is to see smiles on the faces of hurting people.

The rest of the team has gotten busy, totally understandable. So I'm now going to be using this blog to continue to encourage. I'll be running everything on my own for now so updates will not happen often but hopefully more often than they have been. Once things get more involved and happening more we might be able to revive or restart a team of people of LLLTD. I'm excited about doing this blog idea. In it you'll find out more about me, my struggles with bullies, death of a parent, struggles with peer pressure, and struggles with guys, as well as the time I was diagnosed with the disorder ACC. More than that it will be a blog that though I'll be speaking through my experiences I'll be speaking to encourage you. This life is not about me, it's about helping others and thats what this blog will be about as well.

I hope this goes well. God bless
-Lynnea

News and YOU MATTER

Hey Everyone: First for the news...The Leaders of LLLTD are officially: Cody, Lynnea (me), Jackie, and Leah...the rest have stepped down...We miss them but I want you all to know that Cody, Jackie, Leah, and Myself care for you SO much. And We arent quiting you!! We're now looking for others that want to help spread the word and share their stories.

Within the next week we will also be starting our weekly things like No Judgement thursdays and Spin for Smiles saturdays.

Now for the Bloggy portion for this entry.

Did you know that YOU matter?! You do. Something that you've done whether it be smile at a stranger, shake someones hand, share a kind word...any small or big thing you've done to make someones day shine brightly has mattered to someone. Especially if you are so sad that you dont feel like doing any of that but do it anyway...YOU MATTER.

You've probably stopped someone from committing suicide just by that small movement. Maybe you yourself are having suicidal thoughts. Remember "It gets better" and the fact that you yourself have made someones day better (whether you realize or not YOU HAVE done that) well that makes you matter.

The four of us love you and are here for you, because we all matter. We all need to come together and make the world a better place, remind each other that we matter and that it does get better. Spread love, not hate! Join us!

New News

Hey everyone! Lynnea here! I'm not sure we've made the announcement but a while back we added our new friend Jackie to LLLTD. Labanya has stepped down as leader and is now helping promote us. Dara I believe is also stepping down but it hasnt been confirmed. But there is more GREAT news....

Our friend Cody has joined our LLLTD crew and we are so excited to have him join us! I think that he will be a great help to any guys out there that need someone to help. So join us in welcoming cody!!! :) Love yall
-Lynnnea