TODAY

If today, you woke up and you felt like a big bowl of crap...

just remember, Jesus is only a prayer away.

Prayer can do wonders and you'll feel so much better after you have done so.

Communicate with your Father today. Let Him know how you feel. He'll help you through your struggles and He won't leave you.

Be strong in the Lord and always go to Him FIRST before you go to anyone else.

Spend some quiet time with Jesus and see what He has to show you.

Trust Him. Always.


You are beautiful.

Ayanna

Who Is Depths Of Beauty For?

Some of you may wonder who exactly is this blog for.

Well, this blog is centered around young women of every kind. Of course, this blog is centered around Jesus Christ and always will be, but this blog is not just for christians.

Anyone who struggles with identity, self-esteem, self-infliction, depression, suicidal thoughts, homosexuality, or even if you feel as though you have it all together. This blog. This ministry is for you.

& of course, I believe every word of the Bible and believe what Jesus said is true and will always be true, and I also want you to know that you can come as you are. You can come to Jesus as you are even if you're not a christian. Jesus will accept you.

Side Note: don't get me wrong, no one makes it to Heaven but by accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and believing that He is the Son of God who died for our sins.

But what I am trying to say is that if you ever just need words of encouragement, comfort, guidance, or just seeking for a place of refuge, or you want to find something different than what the world is offering, this blog is for you.

As young women, I know that we go through so much and sometimes we go through some things where it may seem like no one can possibly understand. With this blog, I hope that you will find something here that encourages you to become better. I hope you will see this as a place where you feel like you are not alone, because you're not. You're not.

We all go through so much. Our lives are very different, but do have one thing in common(if not more): we are daughters of the King, Jesus Christ and He can help us overcome our struggles, our issues, our insecurities. He will help us to become servants and ambassadors for Him.

Together, we will learn to see ourselves the way Jesus sees us, and He sees us as His beautiful children.

You are beautiful. You are loved. You are made in His image, and you are perfect the way you are.

Ayanna

Got Thankfulness?

Hey y'all!



I've been m.i.a for a while...with good reason though, but, that will remain a different story. lol.


So, I live in Georgia and recently, we have come down with this snow storm. It's extremely crazy out there. People were swerving, hydroplaning, getting stuck. I saw people walking in the bitter cold and intense snow. It literally made me thankful that God allowed for me to get home safely to a nice, warm home. It made me think about all of the homeless people downtown...all over. Where in the world would they go in this chaos? No food. No shelter. Just the cold and maybe a thin, torn blanket. The thought of that made me feel convicted. Why did I feel convicted instead of sad, worried, or concerned over all else? Convicted is what my heart felt.



I felt convicted because sometimes I let some of the most important things slip to the back burner of my mind. I get caught up with the situations and frustrations that I'm going through that I forget to thank God for the things that I am NOT going through. Someone out there, some where has it so much worse than I do and yet, I complain. Yet, I'm still not satisfied because things don't go how I originally planned.

FYI: When things don't go your way...it's okay because God has a plan. It may not happen on your time or when you think or how it's going to happen, but if you're called to it, you will get to it. Being delayed could be the very thing you need so God can continue to work through you so He then can elevate you once you get to where has called you.



We have to learn how to consistently praise and thank God in the midst of trials and wonderings. We have to remember that this life we are living is so much greater than we can imagine. Even when we aren't aware, other people are still watching us. We have a bigger impact than sometimes we would care to have. Someone's salvation is always at stake and we have to remember that.



When we start to lose our thankfulness and we start to fall away from daily prayer and communication with God, we cut our spirits off from that River Of Life that we so desperately need to survive and thrive. We should never be so caught up in pride where we fail to go to God in prayer and ask Him to help us. We should never think that God won't be there so we have to rely on ourselves for help. Or we should never get upset with God over the things that He promised and showed us aren't going how WE planned them. If they are God's promises and plans, then they will happen on HIS time. We can't rush God. We can't rush our spiritual growth. Sometimes we're delayed to get to our calling because we aren't spiritually ready. Why would God elevate us in our calling and we're not ready to deal with everything that goes along with it? We have to remember to take it one step at a time, and with each step, we always have to remember to be thankful that God is allowing for us to make it to another step. Jesus always works in the details, and that is something we cannot afford to miss.



Along with God's calling comes patience, and before we can get to the calling, we have to develop patience, strong faith, perseverance, and most times, we just have to CHILL out. That's all. It's that simple.


As you're reading this, and you're laying down or listening to music, reading your bible, whatever it is, let's just be aware that we don't have to be where we are. We don't have to have the life that we live. Someone, somewhere always has less than what you have, so you have to be grateful. Let's possess a spirit of gratefulness. It'll carry us far. We're not entitled to anything. Everything God gives, He can surely take it away. Be purposeful with the talents, gifts, and abilities God has given you. Do something great for the Kingdom. Always.



Never forget that you are beautiful.


Ayanna

Captivated By Fear?

Have you ever had this dream lingering in your heart and whenever you would tell someone, they'd shoot you down and tell you that it's crazy or that you should dream something else because it's not going to happen?

Have you ever wanted to accomplish something that you felt so deeply in your heart about and you got so close, but you stopped yourself because you let the spirit of fear overtake you and you ended up backing out?



Well, I don't know about you, but I've gone through situations such as those and to be honest, I'm going through a situation like that right now.
A situation where the outcome and process can be so scary because you have people against you or your thoughts are against you and you'd rather back down than face the giant of fear.
Yeah, it's not easy...so how do we overcome fear? because we definitely cannot let it run our lives. We have too much in store for us!

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." Deuteronomy 31:6

The bible is filled with MANY verses and passages on not fearing. But, I think I want to discuss on this today. The beginning of Deuteronomy 31 basically talks about how God was telling the people to go ahead and cross the Jordan river by themselves, because Moses, who was now 120 had gotten too old to lead anymore. So, the Lord was like alright, y'all since Moses can't lead, y'all need to cross the river by y'allself but before you do, I will cross over before you to make sure everything is good and chill. Now consider, this is before Joshua is appointed as leader to lead the people into the Promised Land, so of course the people are going to be a little scared about what's going to happen.

The Lord was telling everyone to be strong, and not to be terrified about any possible enemies or attacks because He is with them. God reassures the people that He is not going to go anywhere. He will not let anything happen to His children.

How does this apply to us? Well, it applies to us because sometimes when we have somewhere we either want or know we need to get to and God has already told us before hand that He is with us and that He's not going to let anything happen to us, we still freak out and doubt God. We get scared of the unknown and what exactly is going to happen as we are working hard to get to that thing we want to accomplish. Sometimes, we don't even step a foot out in front of the other because we set our focus off of God and we fill ourselves up with so many doubts and what-ifs. We forget that God told us that everything was going to be fine...that God is with us.

Instead of operating in fear, we have to learn how to operate in faith no matter how scary the road may seem. "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." Psalm 23:4

Sometimes, we become afraid to go through a little trial and tribulation because we don't know what's going to happen to us while we go through it, but don't we know the Lord has our hand every step of the way? Even though we are going through a dark, dark, scary valley (which is only temporary), we have the amazing option not to fear anything that could ever harm us because God has our back. He does and He always will.

When we learn to surrender our fear or whatever else we struggle with, God will replace that with His joy, peace, love, boldness, faith. You have to know that you have already won the victory. You have to know that since you belong to God, you are ALREADY equipped to face your situations BOLDY by faith.

It's difficult, and it may be harder than we ever could have anticipated but we have to trust God in every circumstance. Because if we choose not to trust God, it's like us saying yeah, Lord, I want to overcome this but I'm not going to let you help me. What kind of sense does that make? If we know God can deliver us from whatever it is, we have to actually LET Him do what He needs to do while we wait patiently for Him and do our part.

Don't become a slave to fear, anger, sadness, depression or whatever else the enemy throws at you. Proclaim that you already have the victory and that you WILL and ALREADY have gotten through the toughest part yet. God has your back. Be free in Him. If you really want God to take away your fear, ask Him. Spend time and prayer and you'll be amazed at just what He does in your life.

Never forget that you are beautiful. Always.

Ayanna