Jesusluvsall's Blog

Last September I went to a Harvest Moon Festival at Antelope Park here in my home city Lincoln. It was put on by the Asian Community Center. In the past it would have been only groups from East Asia, but much to the Center’s credit they have included people from other parts of Asia such as the Yazidis from Iraq and Syria. There was a performance by some Yazidi girls that grabbed my attention and made me think.

The girls, high school age, danced a routine to the song Scars to Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara. I had not heard the song before that but as I watched the girls dance and listened to the lyrics, I thought about Yazidi girls and women. When ISIS came into their area, they kidnapped girls and young women and forced them into horrors I won’t go into in this posting. The thought that these Yazidi girls were free to perform in public with no fear of being targeted hit me, so I searched for the song on youtube. So yes, I am sharing a secular song in this post because there is an important message in it.

With so much focus on outer appearance in our culture, sadly the people who struggle most are girls and women. Yet God sees beauty in all girls and women and desires for them to be his daughters.

Physical scars can also leave emotional scars. But there are also scars we cannot see that are spiritual and emotional scars from being victims of abuse, rejection, struggles with addiction etc.

There are women whose blogs I follow that I respect for how they have been willing to share about how God has brought emotional and spiritual healing into their lives.

I think of the young woman who bravely shares about how Jesus helped her overcome anorexia in her blog Beauty Beyond Bones at beautybeyondbones.com.

I think of the young woman who shares about ho God helped her overcome violence against women and speaks up for women in her blog The Voice of Peace at thevoiceofpeace18.wordpress.com.

I think of the woman who shares how God helped her overcome depression in her blog Called to Be A Writer at calledtobeawriter.wordpress.com.

I think of the woman who shares how God has helped her overcome addiction in the family in her blog A New Life at anewlife256599767.wordpress.com.

These are excellent blogs to read. I hope you check them out. I think this is on my mind because of my courageous student who will share this evening about escaping with her family before ISIS came.

Being a victim can leave scars. Jesus still has the scars in his wrists, feet and side from when he was crucified on the cross. His scars are there for our healing. He does not want to leave us as victims though. He wants to give us freedom over the abuse, addiction, or anything else that would keep us down as victims.

I wrote about scars and how his scars can heal ours in a previous post- scars.

That brings me to the second song I would like to share, I Am No Victim by Kristene DiMarco. She sings about how we are what God says we are, so we are not victims. It is a powerful song that can bless and minister to our souls.

Hope your Monday is blessed.