We will begin our Thirty-three Day Challenge by throwing out the trash…
Day one trash take-out:
Go through the house. If you have Glamour’s, Cosmo’s, Redbook’s, and yes I even mean the Teen Beats and Pop Stars pre-teen magazines that are designed to get your young girls addicted to gossip and the idolization of mere man instead of the God-Man, if you have these in your house throw them out.
When you go shopping for the next thirty-three days and you are standing there in line to check out… don’t pick up that magazine to flip through it as you wait. Don’t even look at the cover or read the cover page article headings… If you are at the doctor or any other place where you have to wait and there are magazines scattered about… don’t do it.
Go prepared. Bring your Bible… what are you studying in church, in Sunday school, what did the pastor preach on last Sunday, what was that question you had that you were afraid to ask about… research it in the Scriptures… or just make conversation with the person beside you… give them your smile and invest some of your time in their lives… you just might make a difference in their eternity.
Get rid of every single magazine that tries to tells you “how to be a woman” and “how to look as a woman” outside of God’s Word… any magazine that is centered on pulling you toward the mindset of the world instead of the Word. Throw it out today.
Don’t wait.
Do it now.
Don’t save one for later. Don’t stick them in a closet. Put them in the trash and dump the coffee grounds and the kids leftover oatmeal on top of them.
I don’t care if it’s a new issue that you haven’t read yet and it has a great article in it that you think you must read. Trust me… what ever advice they think they have is pointless and insignificant compared to what God wants to tell you today in and through His Word.
If you are married or plan to be married one day these magazines can be just as damaging to your marriage as men’s pornographic magazine’s. These magazine’s usually attempt to teach you how to manipulate a man and yourself in order to get a man or please a man… manipulation is the work of Satan. It’s his tactic, not a woman of God’s. Whose actions do you want to learn to imitate?
And here’s some more information to help you throw out today’s trash…
Thin, sexualised and digitally enhanced images of women are linked with women’s experiences of poor body image, depression and anxiety and eating disorders. The images contribute to self-harming behaviours and not performing well academically.
Women’s attitudes toward their own bodies are worse after looking at thin media images.
In young teenage girls, looking at pictures of thin, idealised models is likely to cause lowered satisfaction with their body and a high state of depression. Reading fashion and beauty magazines is associated with wanting to lose weight and initiating diets.
A five-year study found that reading dieting advice in magazines was associated with skipping meals, smoking, vomiting and using laxatives in teenage girls.
The American Psychological Association recently found that sexually objectifying material contributes to significant harm to young women.
“..there is evidence that sexualisation contributed to impaired cognitive performance in college-aged women, and related research suggests that viewing material that is sexually objectifying can contribute to body dissatisfaction, eating disorders, low self-esteem, depressive affect, and even physical health problems in high-school-aged girls and in young women.
“In addition to leading to feelings of shame and anxiety, sexualising treatment and self-objectification can generate feelings of disgust toward one’s physical self. Girls may feel they are “ugly” and “gross” or untouchable. …strong empirical evidence indicates that exposure to ideals of sexual attractiveness in the media is associated with greater body dissatisfaction among girls and young women.”
Girls are told early their bodies aren’t good enough – they need continual upgrade and enhancement.
Spend today meditating on Psalm 139.
When a lie comes to your mind about your worth, your beauty, your value… repeat
When the Scripture says your soul knows it very well let me share with you what the Hebrew translation and definition is of this word soul…
The word is nephesh and it means soul, self, life, creature, person, appetite, mind, living being, desire, emotion, passion, that which breathes, the breathing substance or being, the man himself, self, person or individual, the activity of mind, will, and character…
Read through Psalm 139 again and take a deep breathe when you read Psalm 139:14.
Take this deep breath and feel this breathe of air inhale deep within you. Close your eyes and picture this breath as these words of God pass through your nose, and you can feel this air rise up into your mind, and you can feel it being pulled down through your neck, into the very depths of your inner being. You can feel it circling your heart and tightening within your chest as you breathe in this truth of God, breath it in as a true breath of fresh air. Take this breath in deep and purposeful. Take it into your heart and then slowly feel it exhale out of your very core…
Can you feel it?
Can you feel Him?
That is what it means when God says your soul knows it very well that His works are wonderful and if you are His work… then you, precious and beautiful one, are wonderful too. Breathe in wonderful one… breathe in His Word of truth.
All day today… when you look in the mirror and are tempted to go, ugh! Stop and remember Psalm 139 and take a deep breath and breath in Psalm 139:14…