Hey friends! Tiffany Dawn here, and happy
Tuesday Girl Talk! And I'm so excited to
tell you that today by the time you
watch this video, my hubby James and I
will be in Europe for the first time in
my life!! So if you stay to the end of
this video I'll tell you where exactly
in Europe we are. But first! With Mother's
Day coming up this Sunday, today I have a
special video for you guys called
#deardaughter. I've asked three awesome
moms who I have known pretty much my
whole life if they could share their top
pieces of advice because they've been
moms for a long time -- I'm not saying
they're old; I'm just saying to they've been moms
for a long time -- and they are some of
the people who have spoken really
awesome advice to me in my life so I
want them to share that advice with you!
So check it out and give this video a
thumbs up if you liked it and hit
subscribe if you want to see more videos
like this, and stay to the end to hear
where in Europe we are.
Many of you may have had really great father...maybe you
had a really poor father, but each of us
in our hearts -- we know what a good father
looks, what a good father should be like:
somebody who loves us unconditionally,
who supports us, who lead us, who guides
us, who sometimes even says no just
because he knows what's best for us and
he knows what's better and he has our
good in mind. And that's what God is. God
is the perfect father.
He loves us, He is good, and He's not
gonna just throw us aside because we
mess up. And He's not going to reject us
because we are grumpy. He wants us to be
in a relationship with Him - to walk through
our days with Him. And if we can get
ahold of that - how much He loves us, how
much He cares, how much He just wants to
hold our hand and bring us along - it will
revolutionize your life. Many years ago
my husband and I watched the movie My
Big Fat Greek Wedding. He commented part
way through how the girl looked so plain
and unattractive at the beginning of the
movie but by the end was quite
attractive. I told him, "That can happen
when a girl is loved." There is a beauty
that comes out of a person who is
confident that
they are worth something to someone. But
you don't have to wait for a man to love
you. You have a God in heaven who loves
you more than you realize.
Get ahold of that and let that change
your life. God's really been teaching me
this lately and -- no, actually God's
been teaching me this my entire life, but
I'm just finally getting a handle on it --
that it's okay if I mess up, it's okay if
I'm not perfect. He's not looking for
perfect. He said, "I am the author and the
finisher -- author and Perfector -- of your
faith," so He's at work in us. It's not like we
have to work it up ourselves, it's not
like we have to be perfect; we just have
to live our lives through Him because He
is good, good Father, and He loves us -- loves
you very much.
I know there's some bad things that
happen to us, or maybe we even brought
things upon ourselves. You can let go of
those bad things guys; you don't have to
carry them around. That was one thing I
wish that somebody told me when I was
your age -- that I did not have to carry
around the shame all the bad things that
I did in my life. It was a heavy weight
to carry and there's great freedom if
you forgive yourself and you go to
others who you've wronged and you ask
their forgiveness, and then you even ask
your Creator to forgive you. Your life
has been known to Him since before
creation. He knows your name and has
great things He wants to do in your life.
I did not grasp this as a youth. What I
wanted most was to be liked by everyone
else -- especially the boys. I lived my life
trying to be what I thought other people
wanted me to be. The problem with that
though, was that I ended up not being
anyone. God has a plan and a purpose for
each one of us that is unique to us.
You do have purpose in life, even though you
might think things are random in your
life or things aren't working out perfectly
for your life. Take a look through
different lens and look at your life
with gratefulness. As we live our lives,
we are constantly posed with decisions
to make. But what about the decisions
that are not so clear in the Bible?
What about decisions like, should I join
the soccer team? Should I date a certain
guy? Should I go to college and if so
what college should I go to? All of these
decisions need to be made by seeking God
and His Word, and possibly by seeking the
counsel of Christians that you look up
to. But most of the time God puts
thoughts in our hearts, ideas in our
minds, that just sound right. In Proverbs 3
it talks about "Trust in the Lord with
all your heart and do not lean on your own
understanding, but in all your ways and
everything you do, acknowledge Him" -- just
let Him in -- "and He will direct your path."
He'll say, "This is the way, walk in it." He
reminds me to do things; He helps me get
up in the morning. It's crazy but it's
great; I just love walking with God. He
says, "Delight yourself in me and I will
give you the desires of your heart," and
you might not even really know what
those are, but He knows cause He made you.
He has a plan for your life so if you
just connect with Him, hold onto His hand,
walk with Him -- He will bring you through.
He will make your paths straight. He will
direct you, lead you, guide you; He will
never leave you or forsake you. He is a
good, good Father. One time a man came to
our church as a guest speaker and he
shared this story with us. When he was a
college student, he applied for an
opportunity to travel the world for a
whole year with a man in ministry. He got
the position and he was so excited about it.
When he told his girlfriend about it, she
was not happy about it and told him that
it was a terrible thing for their
relationship and he shouldn't go. Well he
felt bad and he declined the opportunity.
Later that summer, his girlfriend broke
up with him. While you are single, do not
pass up opportunities that you feel God
is leading you to do just because
someone else wants you to do something
that will please them. If you feel like
going away to a certain college or an
internship or a job is the right thing for
you, and you feel God's leading you to do
that, you should go. Any relationships you
had before that that were strong and
deep, they'll still be there when you get
back. Any relationships that were built
on a flimsy foundation, won't be -- but
you'll be better off in the end. God is
faithful and He is worthy to be trusted.
In all my days I have seen that to be
true for myself.
He's been faithful to provide when I
don't have the means. He has miraculously
miraculously healed me more than once. He
has given me words to speak. He's helped
me heal from a broken home when I was a
child, an abusive stepfather.
I am just full and complete in Him -- He
set me free from so many things and I am
so thankful for it. He is faithful. If you
feel like God is leading you into
something that doesn't oppose His word
or His nature and the only thing holding
you back is fear, then you need to take a
tighter grip onto God's hand and take a
step forward. Fix your eyes on Jesus.
Explore all God has for you. Tell Him of
your desires and dreams and concerns and
let Him provide blessings that will blow
your mind in your life.
The number one motherly advice for dear
daughter, would be to develop an ongoing,
ever-deepening relationship with God. God
created us to be in a relationship with
Him. He created each one of us with a
need for Him that only He can fill. A
boyfriend won't fill it, your mom and dad
can't fill that for you - as much as we
receive love from these people - a brother
or sister, others your friends - as much
as we can receive from them, there's
still something that's missing that only
God can fill. And when He does come and
He brings that true satisfaction to you,
then you are actually able to give out
from what He gives you, and you can be a
better friend, you can be a better
daughter, you can be a better spouse, a
better girlfriend. Begin to walk in a
spirit of love, treating others the way
you would want to be treated. Take on
love, but guys you can't love without
knowing that you're loved.
Realize that you do have a Creator - one
who loves you - and ask Him to reveal
Himself to you, reveal His love to you,
because without that love, our lives are
empty - and it was that love that changed
my life when I was 18. Psalm 23 tells us,
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."
The psalm goes on to tell how God
provides everything we need, how He
protects us in the dark times, how He
fills us overflowing with his Spirit. So
why do we find ourselves so unhappy and
unsatisfied sometimes? I believe one of
the problems has to do with what we feed
ourselves - our hearts, our minds, our souls,
our spirits - on a regular basis. For me, I
have great desires for romance. Romantic
words and scenarios and loving glances
and affectionate touch - you get the
picture. As a single person it drove me.
It's all I thought about. Boys were the
focus of my life and getting their
attention and their affection - it
consumed my mind, but I was never happy,
because it was never fulfilled like I
wanted it to.
As a married person, I still found
myself discontented, because there was
never enough romance or it didn't go the
way I wanted it to. At one point there
was a single girl who lived with us for
a while and she was reading a Christian
romance book. She left it out I picked it
up one time just wondering what it what
it was all about - I had never read one.
And after only just a few minutes
reading at a random spot, I found myself
jealous of the girl in the book and
resentful that my marriage didn't look
like that did! That was an eye-opener. I
knew at that point that I would never
read another romance novel, but I also
decided not to watch any romantic movies
or shows because they were only causing
me trouble. I realized that they had a
short-lived sense of happiness but
afterwards left me empty and resentful.
Removing these things from my life has
brought great improvement. Instead of
seeing all the things I didn't have, I
was able to appreciate more of the
things I did. So take some time to
examine yourself. Are you unsatisfied or
discontent? Eliminate the things that
you do that make it worse. What are you
reading? What are you doing? What are you
listening to?
Don't just eliminate the things that
bring you down; fill your life with
things that bring you up. Spend time
reading the Bible, put Christian music
into your playlist, make sure you do not
neglect church, and spend time talking
with God. King David didn't just make the
statement, "The Lord is my shepherd, I
shall not want,"
and then grit his teeth and try to
believe it. He then goes on to tell of
all the good that God has done for him
and will do for him.
Begin to focus on all the good that God
has put in your life and how much He
cares for you. I was at the store the
other day picking out yarn to make a
scarf for my friend, and it got me
thinking: Remember that you have been
knit together yourself - that you were
created with a purpose. You're created
with just the right eyes, just the right
mouth, just the right nose, even the right
hair. Believe it or not, your whole body
was created with purpose, with skill and
mastery. Now when I'm making a scarf I am
not a master knitter, I'm not very
skillful at it, but I'm carefully picking
out the colors that I think a friend
might like. And if my friend, when I gave
it to her, said, "I don't like this scarf,"
that would make me feel terrible.
Consider your Creator who made you with
such precision, thought through even
before you were born the color of your
eyes, the color of your hair, the kind of
hair and body you'd have - imagine how He
feels.
Turn that thought process around and
begin to thank the Creator for those
things that you think are not perfect,
because He perfectly put you together.
Think about that. Thank you so much for
the moms who shared - to Aunt Joani, and
Michelle, and Dañne - this was beautiful.
And friends, what did you think? Which of
these most applies to your life right
now?
I would love to hear in the comments! And
now for our exciting announcement! It's
so weird like filming this right now
because I'm in my apartment in New York
and I'm just thinking like, "Oh my
goodness when this video comes out,
we're not gonna be here!!" Today as you
watch this, we are driving from Geneva,
Switzerland where we spent yesterday to
Lyon, France, which is considered the food
capital of France. And tomorrow we're actually
going to Chamonix, France, which is at the
base of Mount Blanc, and there we're
gonna hike along Mount Blanc to
glaciers and ice caves! What?? So yeah I'm
really excited for this week! So if you
want to see it, check out my Instagram at
TiffanyDawnIQB, and you can follow
along. I'm gonna post pictures of our
travels like every day - at least that's
my goal - at least once a day - so
definitely join me there! And I'm so
excited for the videos coming up for you
guys, because next week we've got one on
insecurities and the following week is
all about long-distance relationships!! So
stay tuned! Love you all, bye.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét