Isaiah 41:10. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Do you need strength today?  True strength comes from God, you aren’t going to find it in some hashtag “me too” or by linking arms with other people who want to focus on anything and everything negative.  Choose strength, choose hope, and choose the only one who can give you all of that ~ Jesus Christ!  

You don’t have to be defined by something that has happened to you in your past.  We all have a past, but more importantly, we have a future.  Which one will you choose to focus on?  There’s a reason we don’t drive our cars in reverse all the time ~ it is much more difficult to drive while you are trying to look behind you instead of going forward, looking ahead and life is like that as well.  Don’t be defined by your past, choose to allow God to use anything from your past to be the best you can be for your future, but you must focus on what lies ahead for Him to do that.  If you have been abused, know that God wants to strengthen you and hold you up!  God’s wrath will be on those who abuse, He doesn’t look the other way, but He wants to strengthen you and lift you up out of that state of being a victim and fulfill all that He created you to be ~ a strong, godly, warrior Princess who knows she is loved by the God of all creation!  You are His creation and He cares about anything someone else may do to harm you!  You are precious in His eyes!  He loves you and He wants to give you the strength you need!  He doesn’t want you to live like a victim!  He wants you to live like the victor!  All the rallies and hashtags in the world will not empower you!  It is God who can and will empower you, don’t look for your strength anywhere else!  

I would like to encourage you today:  don’t focus on the past, if you need counseling or a life coach to walk you through something from your past, do it so you can move forward.  Stuffing abuse, will not make it go away, face it and move forward, and don’t allow it to define you!  Only God can define you because He is the one who created you!  He wants you to be all He created you to be and He wants to give you the strength to fulfill that!  Trust Him!  Give Him all of your hurts and struggles and allow Him to mold you into His beautiful creation.  Allow Him to make you better not bitter.  The world wants you to believe that you are a victim and they want you to focus on spending your time doing anything other than focusing on who you are in Christ!  Stand up, hold your head high knowing that you are a Princess to the King of kings and the Lord of lords and the God of all creation loves you more than words can say!  Draw close to Him and allow Him to guide you into all He created you to be!

Quote: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”  ~ Eleanor Roosevelt