This Saturday a local Christian Organization, Light in the Shadow, came to minister to the women and teenage girls of Pan de Vida. They started the service with praise and worship to Jesus to open and lift our spirits to receive the message. Then there was a physical exercise where they made groups by alternating the size of them by even then odd numbers. This left one or several out each time. The purpose was to give an example of how it feels to be left out. The result of rejection leaves us empty and this then allows room for the enemy to move and lie to us. The exercise also allowed discussion on “cliques” and how they can be a very bad thing when striving for unity.
The Biblical message focused on self-esteem and how we allow what others think influence how we feel about ourselves. We are created in God’s image and when we criticize ourselves, we are also insulting God. Also, we are His temple and we are to care for it and seek to be healthy. We often fall for what society advertises as the healthy woman and most of it is always about external looks and less about who we are on the inside. The message hit on how we respond to meeting these ideas by anorexia, bulimia, cutting and other worldly ways. Jesus himself was said to be a man without any outward looks that would attract us to him, having nothing in his physical appearance that we should desire him. The desires would need to come from our heart, soul and spirit. They then went to scripture to emphasize the promises of God and His plan for our lives.
It is always a blessing to have others come and minister with these real issues through Biblical Application. The kids here already have enough to overcome because of the abandonment and abuse they have experienced. I think the testimonies from others confirms to them that we all deal with self-esteem issues and in order to live an abundant and spirit filled life, we need for it to be Christ centered…not self centered.
1Samuel 16:7 The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.
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