Forever Beloved

Faith, Love & Truth

Little One, God Loves You {Book Review}

Little One, God Loves You
By Amy Warren Hilliker
About the book:

This charming board book expresses the five purposes of the bestselling The Purpose-Driven Life for little ones ages 4 and under. Includes a note to parents from Rick Warren!

This is a board book based on the famous books by Rick Warren. Amy uses her father’s message found in his book The Purpose Driven life and uses words and situations a young child can understand.

It’s a very short book but with a strong message. The length is perfect for the attention span of toddlers. And the illustrations are the cutest, a cute little happy rabbit family cozily living together!

God’s love is a big concept and this book makes it understandable on their level and lets them know that God loves them and made them.  It’s going to be a great addition to the books I read during Sunday School class!

This book was provided to me free of charge by Book Look in return for my honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Amy Warren Hilliker is a published author of children’s books. Amy is the daughter of Rick Warren, author of the best-selling book, The Purpose Driven Life. Amy resides in California with her husband.

Don’t Let Your Body Image Affect Your Marriage

Oh, body image…nothing can affect a wife’s confidence (or more often, lack thereof) quicker than a poor body image.

So many of us women suffer from low self-esteem, myself included.  I’ve shared my struggle openly on my blog. So often of our self-esteem issues revolve around our physical appearance. We are obsessed with our weight, hair, skin, facial features and so many other areas. You would be hard pressed to find a woman that would not change at least one thing about her appearance. Why do we find it so hard to love ourselves and the body we were given?

Advertising, pornography, Hollywood, our own unrealistic expectations and possibly even hurtful comments from our husbands have merged into the perfect storm. Time and time again we are told that to be beautiful we need to look like a certain way. The media tries to make you feel lower than low every single moment of your life. An unfathomable amount of damage has been left in that storm’s wake.

But the war rages on.

It is no wonder that so many wives (maybe yourself included) are not overly thrilled about getting naked in front or a mirror, let alone with the man they married.

I don’t know about y’all, but my body certainly doesn’t look like it did when I was 20. I’ve had babies, nursed those babies, I have stretch marks, widened hips and gravity has certainly not been my friend.  Not to mention the uncountable scars from the surgeries I’ve had.  My body has transformed. Each transformation seems to ingrain more body shame.

How can we stop this body image war? What is the secret?

Well, first of all, I wouldn’t hold my breath for the media, advertisers and the porn industry to change. I’m not so sure that is going to happen anytime soon.

Don’t believe the lies. Chances are you are basing your actions on lies rather than truth. If you are like most women, you have been told (either directly or indirectly) that your worth is rooted in your appearance. And that, sweet girls, is an absolute lie. It’s not that pretty and girly things are bad, it’s that those pretty things are not who we are. We are all made in Gods image. Every single one of us. Do you know what that means? I am beautiful and so are YOU.  We are daughters of the King and we were made in His image. Take a moment and let that sink in. You are perfectly perfect and what He wants you to be. Your value is not in your breasts, hips, hair, lips, eye color, skin tone or stomach muscles.

Talk to your husband and be completely honest with him. Study after study would show that the vast majority of husbands desire their wives – and they want wives who want to fully participate in sex and embrace it for the gift it is. The hang up about body appearance is more about our own insecurities than it is about their expectations. Nurturing sexual intimacy to its fullest in your marriage has so much to do with embracing the beauty and femininity of who you are. And you are beautiful. When he tells you he thinks you are beautiful and sexy, he really does mean it. Believe him. Accept the compliment and embrace it. Embrace him and his love.

I can be confident. You can be confident. We can all be confident. We can walk through this world with heads and hearts held high as daughters of the King. Daughters who are messy and broken. With Him, we are transformed into beautiful simply because we are His. Understand your identity in Him and the beauty and freedom He bestows on us and the love He extends to us.

Before Saying I Do

It’s no secret, we rushed to get married. Um, hello…met in February, engaged in March and married in June. If that’s not rushing, I don’t know what is. But we didn’t get married for the reason most thought. We simply were ready for our happily ever after to begin. Oh, how naively we went into marriage.

Marriage is amazing and I love it, but it’s nothing like I thought it would be. Lately, I’ve been thinking of what I wish I had known before I got married. Things that would have made it easier to avoid some of our mistakes and to not fall into the traps couples so often do {us included}. Marriage introduces challenges that couples just simply aren’t prepared for.

Marriage is not about living happily ever after – If we were honest, we all crave a fairy-tale and a happy ending. I know I sure did. The problem isn’t wanting a fairy-tale romance but trying to compare your marriage and your spouse to those whirlwind romances in the movies. Open your heart up to Gods love first and He will show you how to truly love your husband without unreal expectations.

Marriage is not all about you – That’s a hard lesson to learn, isn’t it? Contrary to what the world tells you, it’s not about your happiness. It’s not about getting your needs met. It’s about going through life together and serving God and each other. It’s about committing yourselves to each other, even though you may be different people in the years to come.

The more you put into your marriage, the more you’ll get out of it – Marriage takes a lot of work and time, there is no doubt about that. Realize that straight away and commit to it. Go into marriage knowing your not going to have a 50/50 marriage, but a 100/100 marriage. Give your all because you love them, not because you expect something in return.

You can’t do it on your own – Marriage is difficult. That is obvious when you see how many couples end in divorce. It’s two imperfect people living together, failing daily. The only way to make your marriage truly work is to center it on Christ. God intended marriage to mirror His relationship with the church so that we could basically be a testimony to others and SHOW them what God is like. You have to rely on God for wisdom, power, love and strength for your marriage.

Make time for each other a priority – Make any time together into a mini-date. Whether it is running to the grocery store or a quick little ride on the 4-wheeler together. Snuggle in, hold hands and make that time together count.