Loved Because of Who You Are
If you are joining me here today from my Proverbs 31 Ministries Devotion Loved Because of Who You Are, welcome! I am so glad you are here! I’ll share at the bottom of this post exciting free resources for those of you who pre-order Loved & Cherished: 100 Devotions for Girls today!
I recently discovered the little gold diary where I wrote all my secrets as a girl.
It was fun to go back in time and see the beginner cursive handwriting reminding me what troubled me most back in the day: who my best friend was, who I had a crush on, and, of course, ideas for the best birthday party ever. Oh, to be young again and have those as my biggest concerns.
But then I kept reading. And in between the lines that talked about whether this girl or that girl was my best friend for the day, I saw something deeper. When I had a music performance, I wrote how well I thought I did. On report card days, I talked all about my good grades. And sports teams — well, I shared how I thought I had helped the team.
What the younger version of me didn’t know is she was keeping a scorecard of her life. The more points she got in her favor, the more she was “worthy” of being loved.
This was the lie I believed: What you do is who you are. The more you do, the more you’re loved.
I’ll admit there are times I still struggle with this, but here’s what I want to say to you, friend, and all the beautiful young girls out there: You are loved and cherished simply because you belong to Jesus!
God made the decision to create me, and that’s evidence enough that I am loved simply because I am His. I often wonder who I would have been if I had believed this truth back in my little gold diary days.
1 John 3:1 tells us: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him” (1 John 3:1, NIV).
John appeals to us to see — to experience — how great and wonderful this kind of love is that our perfect, heavenly Father has lavished on us! He grants us this unconditional love simply because we are His! Our achievements cannot increase or decrease His love for us, and there’s nothing we could ever do for Him to take it away.
Maybe there’s a little girl inside the grown-up version of you who needs to hear this today: You are loved. You are cherished. You are, simply because you are His!
And if you have a little girl in your life trying to figure out who she is in this world of score-keeping, speak this truth over her today, too: You are loved. You are cherished. You are, simply because You are His!
Am I loved? Am I valuable? Am I smart? A girl needs to know she’s enough because of God’s love. My upcoming book, Loved & Cherished, with coauthor counselor Michelle Nietert, empowers a girl to know she can have confidence that she’s loved, protected, secure, whole and valuable. When you preorder Loved & Cherished: 100 Devotions for Girls, written for girls ages 8-12, you’ll receive immediate access to the first 30 devotions — before the book releases, and a private invitation to join the Loved & Cherished Online Girls Camp. beginning July 16th! Mom, there will be resources for you too!
Click here to get your copy and sign up for camp too!