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By: Erin Weidemann

Whether you’re a mom or not, you know this struggle: the struggle of “Am I Beautiful?” and “Am I Enough?” Chances are you that during your early years you spent a little time crying alone in your room, wondering whether or not you mattered. It’s not much different for today’s girls. In fact, it’s much, much worse.

Girls are at war: with each other, with themselves, with a world that constantly tells them what they need to be to be beautiful.
“Love is reserved for people who are well-liked,” the world declares. “Love is something to be acquired, secured by being the most popular one in the room. Is that you? It’s not? Well, you’ve got to be something special, a real “somebody,” if you want love. And that “somebody” is drastically different than the person God created.
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The real trouble is that the world doesn’t whisper. It doesn’t coo gently the lies that creep, that slither into the cracks of our girls’ hearts, lying in wait for moments when they’ll be tested and too afraid to do the right thing. The world is loud, and it expertly expels these lies: a roaring and constant noise, a booming resound that echoes over and over and over again.
Well, no more. It’s time we, the grown-up girls, do something about it. It’s time for the next generation to live, rooted in the truth that real love is offered to them by their Savior. He gives it freely and completely, for nothing in return, and they are equipped and called to love others like He did: without reservation, hesitation, or fear.
It’s time to fill this world with a new noise. It’s time to teach our girls to be brave.
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Where can we find a beautiful example of real bravery? Someone who chose love and kindness over doing what was easy? Someone whose example can drive out the lies the world tells our girls – that there are rules for how they should love people? We find her in 1 Samuel 25. She’s Abigail: The Belle of Bravery.

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The key to Abigail’s bravery lies in her choice: her decision to go, to ride out to meet danger, to do the right thing despite the circumstances. She discerned quickly that the solution was love and stepped out of her comfort zone to love heroically.

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And because she was brave, God used her for a mighty purpose. He bent down and whispered into her life, revealing more of who He is through the choice that she made.

And the more our girls can understand His true character, the more they choose bravery over fear – the closer they’ll get to becoming His definition of beautiful.

The world. Our girls are not of it. It’s time to start helping them understand that they are heirs to a different kingdom than the one they occupy in the here and now. Let’s help them to rise up, to reach, to stretch for something better: a chance to change the narrative of a broken world to one that looks and sounds a whole lot more like Jesus.

Let’s teach them to make A Different Kind Of Noise.

about the author

Erin Weidemann is a teacher turned professional author. A former college athlete, Erin is also a five-time cancer survivor. She lives in Encinitas, California with her husband Brent and their daughter Rooney. Alongside her husband, she is the co-founder and CEO of Bible Belles, an organization committed to inspiring girls to discover real beauty through the female heroes of the Bible. She is also the host of the award-winning Heroes For Her podcast, available on iTunes.

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