Your thoughts are interrupted by a text from a friend. She’s told you about the guy she met and is starting to date, without anyone else knowing.  You’re not sure how long she can keep it a secret, and how long the relationship will even last.  Maybe a week, maybe more.  She asks for your opinion.

You pause, remembering that scripture that keeps echoing in your heart even before the text came… “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.” Matthew 5:8.  Jesus’ words in Matthew 5 intrigue you as they seem to go against so much of what your classmates are doing.

What’s a girl to do with the everyday decisions her friends are making?

If you’re like me, you want to follow Christ and be His hands and feet to the world…the next door neighbor and the next locker neighbor. So you ask yourself…what’s a godly girl’s response?

Everything you need is found in Jesus. That includes, the attitude, the words, and prayers as a response to this shifting culture, any circumstances you face, any questions you are asked.

If we give ourselves to Him unconditionally/wholeheartedly daily, we will be able to see in our lifetime how God uses us to bring light in darkness (Matthew 5:14) and set captives free (Isaiah 61).

It’s not the time to build walls and thick fortresses to keep us from offering wisdom about the issues our friends face.  It’s a time to ask God who He wants us to be, in a broken world, center stage, life on display, all for His glory.

Christ followers worldwide are called to be salt and light…and the light of Jesus cannot be extinguished, or even diminished by anything that our culture says or does. Why? Because this salt, this light… it’s within you, as a daughter of the King.

Made to shine in your here-and-now…

When you pause and ask God for help in responding to a friend’s text.

With the closing of summer as you enter your school in a different grade.

When the teacher picks on you because your faith is not hidden.

Let these new challenges not shake your identity, but rather reinforce who you really are, and the truth of God’s Word.

Shine Jesus to the world by reflecting Him. He loves without judgement.  He shows grace to the broken.  He is purity and integrity.  So live in such a way that the world is in awe of God and the transforming power of the Gospel.

Has it transformed you? It’s transformed me. And the world is longing to see.

Shine!

Love,
Becca