What Women Are Told - Jessica Tobler

Over the years I have walked through many different seasons of life. Some gut-wrenching and some down right beautiful. That’s because I lived a chunk of my life walking away from God and I’ve now lived a chunk of my life walking with Him. I used to be consumed by the world, then I was transformed. I use to perform and now I live loved. But there is one thing I’ve found common amongst all stages of my life —-I’ve had to fight for truth. For a place to be me. For a place to be free in my femininity and how that looks for me personally because there is *not one* woman who is the same. And yet, we live in a world that works hard to make us believe that we are in fact supposed to fit a certain mold. And if you’ve been around long enough, you would have noticed that it doesn’t die out. These thoughts. These thoughts of “not thin enough. Not tight enough. Not small enough. Not strong enough. Not smart enough. Just.. well.. not enough”.

Unless… that is, you allow God to come in and rewrite the story of how women “should be” on your heart. And if you’ve walked down a path like my old one for any length of time. You will realize that there is a bit more untangling to do. A bit more healing to walk through. And definitely some renewing of your mind.

Even after all that God walked me through in my thinking (I used to look in the mirror and see someone who was overweight and ugly. Note that I’ve never weighed more than 155lbs minus babes) I have still caught myself in new situations where worldly ideas would surface. Things that you know you do not even agree with and yet, there they are. Like a couple hours after I gave birth to my first born I thought to myself. “Okay, time to get my body back”.

Yep. That thought came to me. And you know what? Thankfully, God had made a Kingdom woman out of me by then so I swatted that thought like a fly on the 4th of July. Nevertheless though, it was there. I still have thoughts that come. Sometimes I give into them, then I have to repent and ask God what He thinks. Sometimes I swat without question because I know it is not a kingdom thought. It is not God’s intention for women nor His thoughts about me.

The expectations of woman to look and be a certain way in and out of every season are exhausting. We are made to believe that all we have to offer is what our bodies look like. We are outward focused driven. And on the inside, plenty of women are crying out “am I enough? Am I worthy of Love?”

If you are one of these women today I want to tell you this: YOU ARE ENOUGH. YOU ARE WORTHY OF LOVE. YOU ARE WORTHY TO BE LOVED.

And if you know God and you know these things

🏼But you still find yourself caught up in the cycles. It’s time to renew your mind. Take captive your thoughts and make them bow to Jesus! (See 2 Corinthians 10:5) Ask God “what lies am I believing about who I should be? And “what do you have to say about me?”