Hello Beautiful.

"What if you had a genuine and captivating beauty that was marred only by your own striving."

- Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge

I read these words about a week ago in John and Stasi Eldredge's book Captivating, which focuses on the brokenness and healing of the feminine heart (it's a super powerful book that I definitely recommend to all of you). This quote sparked a discussion during my bible study on the topic of striving...What are we striving for? How are we striving? Does that glorify God? How is our beauty marred by this? How do we change that? And it really got me to thinking; each and EVERY one of us is innately BEAUTIFUL. We were created in the image of the God of the universe who is more beautiful than literally anything we can fathom, and if we are created in his image how can we NOT be beautiful?! 

Society has taught us that to be beautiful one needs to be skinny and have long, pin straight hair, with bright white, straight teeth and tan skin, but in reality that's not true beauty. What I've discovered over the past week after exploring this tough concept is that true beauty comes when we are content in the Lord, his love for us, and who we are. Simple is theory, but definitely tough in practice. I know that my life especially is so full of the junk and lies of this world that my eyes are blinded to how God sees. As a 19 year old girl it makes sense, in a worldly way, that I pay a lot of unhealthy attention to what the world thinks of me. But when you really think about it, God is SO much bigger than any opinion of even you're dearest friend or randomest stranger, and in the end HIS opinion is the ONLY one that matters. And his opinion is that he LOVES you more than you can fathom and that YOU are the most BEAUTIFUL human being in the entire universe.

Let your heart soak that in. And ask God to reveal to your genuine, captivating beauty to you.

xoxo,
Abby

The Land of the Buffalo.

It's official! I'm a WyldLife leader is the grand ole county of Floyd in beautiful Virginia. To say that I'm stoked would have to be an understatement (I've been placed for about a month now and the excitement hasn't gone down a bit).

Things I love about Floyd:

1. As of June I will have a room in two different houses in Floyd (being on a team with married people rocks)!
2. Floyd is full of hippies, and that makes things a lot more fun.
3. There are a TON of cows, so basically I was destined to spend the rest of my life in Floyd.
4. Our entire leadership is made up of a group of 16 of the most loving and God fearing people I've every met it my whole life. Also we are a group of 16 oddballs that make life so much more interesting.
5. I haven't been to many places in America, but I could probably argue that Floyd is the prettiest of all the places in America.
6. Every Friday night the country store downtown puts on a Friday Nite Jamboree and bands play live music and everybody flatfoots (cool Floyd dancing) - If you are a Tech student go to the Jamboree at least once, you won't regret it. 
7. People actually live in yurts.

I am so blessed and honored that God placed me in Floyd for at least the next three years of my journey to love on and teach the kids of Floyd county about the love of him and his son. I cannot wait to see how the Lord uses me in this county! 

This week are gearing up for first club of the semester and it is a very very exciting time for the WyldLife team! We would your prayers for the Lord's plan to surpass ours this week as we prepare for sharing the gospel with kids and that their ears and hearts will be opened and receptive to the message of Christ!

xoxo,

Abby