This... has taken a long time for me to write! It's hard to talk about some of these topics, but I tried to do it as carefully as I could because it all means a lot to me. It took a lot of tweaking & a lot of asking God for the right words to use. But low & behold here is a lot of words regarding a whole plethora of things I'm passionate about. It's long, so get ready.
I'm writing this specifically geared toward a potpourri of
lovely high school girls in my life that are a part of Woodside Student Ministry, but it can relate to any female really no matter her age,
including myself. So read this as if I was sitting across from you at Starbucks over a cup of coffee or hot chocolate....
If you & I were sitting down at a Starbucks, Caribou, Panera, your house, my house, at church, wherever, to chat about life, love, & other mysteries right now,
I would as gently & as lovingly as I could scream this into your heart, because I love YOU.
Do me a favor & read this slowly. Soak it up. Drink up some truth for a minute {or two} sister. {I'm screaming it all right into my own heart too..}
{YOU are beautiful no matter what.}You my sweet friend, are a
beauty. Your freckles, your eyes, your eye lashes, your mouth, your smile, your teeth; straight, crooked, with braces, with spaces, white or yellow.. are
beautiful. Your eye brows; skinny, bushy, plucked, waxed, untouched... are
beautiful. Your ears, your nose, your blemishes, your acne, everything on your face that your make-up hides.. is
beautiful. Your height, your weight, your skin color, your toes, your fingers, your arms, your tummy,
everything about YOU.. is beautiful. And are exactly how & where a very crafty Creator perfectly intended.
Before time began God was sketching a picture of YOU & deciding where each freckle, birth mark, & mole would be on your body.
Do not FOR ONE SECOND let ANYONE {your mom, sister, brother, dad, uncle, aunt, grandma, grandpa, friend, BEST friend, or the reflection in your mirror}
tell you otherwise.
{YOU are worth more than YOU could ever imagine.}Sister, do you know
how much you're REALLY worth? Do you know that a King gave His WHOLE life for just
YOU? Do you know that He saved
YOU? Do you know
YOU mean more than anything in the world to HIM? Did you know He chose
YOU to be His? He wants
YOU. Do you know
YOU are desired by an
all-knowing, all-loving, mysterious, wondrous God? Did you know YOU are written on HIS heart? Did you know
YOU are worth more than any precious jewels, diamonds, or rubies to Him? Did you know He craves time with just
YOU? Did you know He longs for
YOU? Did you know HE wants what's best for
YOU? Did you know
He knows what YOUR heart needs? Did you know He is the author of YOUR story?
This Man, is your Beloved & He is YOURS, YOU are His. If you let Him be. Even if you don't right now..
He'll be waiting patiently for YOU to come running into His arms. Even if you can't accept His love for YOU, y
ou are STILL worth more than anyone or anything to HIM & that He'll always be there just for YOU.
Sister, no man, husband, boyfriend, friend, anyone or anything.. can ever love you as much as He does.{are YOU talking to God?}Do you talk to our God?
Like really, REALLY talk to Him? Do you talk to Him about the
desires of your heart? Do you ask Him to do
God-sized things in your life?
Do you believe He can do God-sized things in your life? Do you get on your face before Him pleading for direction, guidance, or wisdom for your journey? Don't be scared, ashamed, embarrassed, or feeling unworthy when it comes to talking to God about the the biggest, craziest, or teeny-tiniest desires of your heart! H
e already knows ALL of them, and the desires of your heart ten years from now, and fifty years from now. He desires to hear all about it from YOU.
Let Him know when you have a good, great, horrible, exciting, horrific, sad, or happy day. Let Him know when you're frustrated with Him, let go of your pride & let Him know you really don't have it all together &
you NEED Him to hold your hand & guide YOU.
*{the future husband prayer.}Story time, I remember sitting in my seventh grade English class (at a Christian school) with Mrs. Smith & her telling us about her & her husband. She told us that she had started praying for her husband when she was young, I guess it never really crossed my mind until she mentioned that, but
I liked it & it caught my attention. Since then I've pretty much done the same. The prayer has changed a bit over the years but has stayed pretty constant: "
God, I don't know who HE is, where HE is, or what HE's doing right now..." you get the gist of it right? I believe in a big God.
I believe in a God who listens to His children when they call on Him. You talk, He listens, even if you're talking about
someone you can only dream about right now. You can even use my prayer for Prince Charming if you want!
{hold high standards for YOURSELF}As a twenty-one year old, college student, there are a whole lot of OTHER things I could be doing with my life right now that people my age, younger, or older are involved with. I could be a
smoker, I could be an
alcoholic, I could be
sleeping with a different guy every weekend, I could be
out all night making bad decisions & doing a lot of things I would regret later on. As a pretty sensitive person with an overly guilty conscience, I'm not anywhere near involved with any of that. I hold pretty
high standards for myself & want to be a
good example to YOU, to be
someone YOU can look up to.
I'M NOT PERFECT (by any stretch of the imagination), but I want to be there for YOU. I want to be here to
encourage YOU. I want to be a voice in YOUR head to remind you that
you DON'T have to do this or that to look "cool" or to "fit in", that it's OK to stand out & be different. As Christians we're supposed
look different from the world, don't let the garbage of this world tempt YOU! Decide what you want people's view of you to look like. Do you want to be different? To look like a little Christ? I survived high school without going to homecoming, any house parties, prom, without drinking, doing drugs, or having sex, and
I still had a very fun & pleasant high school experience that left me feeling blessed.
{If you're a female, YOU are captivating.}The word
captivate is a verb that simply means to
hold the attraction of a noun (in this case, YOU as a woman, girl, lady, she, her, sister, daughter, all around female;
are captivating to the male species.) You catch their attention
, catch his attention the right way though. Be captivating by
being who YOU are. Don't try to be someone or something you're not to catch
his attention..
Sister you're captivating the way you are, being yourself.
Don't be a chameleon. PLEASE, don't be.
Don't change who you are to win the attention of a GUY! If that's the case.. then
he is NOT worth your while.
He should be interested in who YOU are, not who you pretend to be!
{survive high school/college without a boyfriend!?}Crazy I know, but SISTER, I'm just going to say it, and you can argue with me about it if you want but
dating in high school is a waste of time. *Any guy reading this can hear this too because it's the truth, I have two younger brothers, one in high school, guys in high school are not looking for a serious relationship, a wife, a soul-mate.
You are not ready to get married or to be someone's wife.
(dating in my book is for marriage, not a recreational sport, you & I can talk about this another time..) The chances of your high school relationship(s) lasting after graduation is
slim to none. Have guy
friends! Have
fun with them!
Hang out with them!
Get to know them! Sister,
graduate from high school, go to
college, get a
degree,
travel, start a
revolution, experience your
late teen-twenties-days, AND if God brings a
potential-God-fearing-handsome-man into your story in the midst of your college-travel-degree-getting-revolution-making-days,
then let it be. I've done it, I'm doing it right now.
I've survived. I am about as single as one can be, I've
never had a boyfriend, I've
never been in a relationship, and guess what? I have friends that are my age or younger that are
married,
engaged, or in
serious relationships, & I'm still
confused,
learning, &
trying to understand the whole male-species as a twenty-one year old. That's all I can say about this..
{YOU deserve nothing less than better, than the best.}When/if a guy wanders into your life, he should
respect you for who YOU are &
the standards YOU hold for yourself. He should be
encouraging &
building you up, not
discouraging you or
tearing you down (
physically, verbally, or emotionally). He should be
friends with your friends. You deserve a guy who
loves the Lord & likes to talk about
what God is doing in both of your lives. You deserve a guy who
challenges you spiritually &
encourages you in your walk with God. He should be
knowledgeable of the Bible. He should have a band of brothers who challenge him. He should have another guy in his life that
challenges him spiritually &
keeps him accountable. You also deserve a man who
prays for you &
with you. That's
just some of what you deserve in a man.
Don't settle for anything less or
anything convenient.{THEY need US to help them.}As girls we like to
look nice, we like to
feel attractive, we like
positive attention right? As daughters of the King,
it's our responsibility to help our BROTHERS. What we
wear, how we
look, the way we
move, the way we
act, the
things we say, can all alter
how a guy views us. We're responsible for helping
guard their purity & helping them by not being a stumbling block in their lives. There is a way to look nice & feel attractive without putting a negative light on ourselves as women. It builds
character &
helps us feel good about ourselves when we know we're not causing one of our brothers to stumble. And on the contrary.. I have no tolerance for MEN of any age talking disrespectfully about any girl, whether I know her or not. So let's save all of ourselves some trouble &
protect our brothers eyes &
help them to not have to talk in a demeaning way to us because of our appearance or how we carry ourselves,
carry yourself like the Princess you are.
{Be productive in the waiting for Prince Charming..}As women
we long to be pursued. Our
heart desires that special attention from a male, we like that
special attention. While we wait for him to come into our stories
we can't be wishing our lives away, we can't be
sitting back & wallowing in self-pity because Prince Charming hasn't come along yet! We need to be
spending time with our God. We need to be
hanging out with our SISTERS. We need to be
growing &
learning things along the way &
experiencing the life God has given to us. It's OK to be the
wedding-dreaming-baby-name-list-making-sappy-Matt-Wertz-love-song-listening girl.. like myself,
as long as you are growing in your relationship with God. Let Him show YOU what He wants for your story. Where He wants you to be. All of our
stories are different. All of us experience life in different ways, just
let God continue orchestrating it while you wait ever-so patiently for Prince Charming to sweep you off your feet. So when Prince Charming comes to sweep you off your feet, sweet sister of mine, your heart is so in tune with your
FIRST LOVE's heart that He allows a new man in your life.. it will be a beautiful thing.
You made it. You read these words, do some soaking up, write some things down, process it however you chose fit, but I'd really like to hear from YOU sister. I don't give out my phone number very freely, but I have e-mail, facebook, & do enjoy sitting at coffee shops for chats.
{lefillmore@comcast.net --this goes to my phone or lindsayefillmore@gmail.com}
{picture, totally unrelated:: just r-e-a-l-l-y missing my twin right now..
Once more & more of us started talking about our lives over the past few months, we started to see a trend or thread throughout each of our stories/updates that all kind of related to each other. It was so encouraging!
There was one point when we gathered around Angela & prayed over her. It was so great, she has prayed over us & for us so many times, it was so sweet to be able to come around her & pray over her! 
so how does a picture of the nashville skyline & the batman building have anything to do with a darling picture of some girls on a tire swing...
