One day I started typing words to find myself in the pages of my story and what I discovered was someone very different than who I was when God started writing my story.You see growing up I thought a girl's beauty was in the numbers around her waist...I was deceived into thinking that numbers somehow measure our worth, yet the deeper I fell into this trap the more I felt suffocated by the lie that I wasn't enough.I starved myself thin hoping it would somehow define me more....there's a downward spiral one falls into when we strive to be more. ...We women are good at wading in these toxic waters, striving to be more. We are full of regrets, comparing ourselves always selling ourselves short.The broken part of me somehow believed I could make others love me more. The day I began learning I was more than the markings on a measuring stick I discovered the writings of our heavenly father were written for me too. I began etching His sayings upon my heart and found the more I filled my thoughts with His words, the quieter my destructive thoughts grew. His words were what truly began healing and rescuing my broken heart...there's a time in our lives we can all use this kind of saving. I found embracing my pain within the pages of God's word brought sweet relief.There's power in knowing we are worth living and dying for. When our brokenness meets truth there's something exponential that happens, even the most broken of people need this kind of rescue!A rescue that finds us in the hurt of our wounds and tells us there's more to live for. I found when God drew a boundary around my heart I could live more freely with those He was calling me to.God began showing me my wounds were not the entirety of who I was. That He holds together who we are with His truth, hemming us in with His love and grace. Our worth is never measured by our ability to manipulate what others believe about us but is only measured by our Father's love for us!If we put our identity in what we do not have rather than in what our heavenly Father says of us; our identity shifts with the numbers on the scale which never seem to be what we are aiming for. It's a game with death that doesn't care if we live or die-our life has no value in its entanglement. Its funny how that happens...we all feel a bit lost in this thing called life, sometimes we're just stepping into the footprints in front of us hoping they lead us to where we want to go.And yet God designed us for so much more than this. Not to play another person's role but to embrace the life He's given us, with us in mind.Have you ever noticed how different we all are?My wise father in love used to say,'everyone's odd but God'...He had that right, look around and you'll see a world full of people so unique and different in every way-no two of us exactly alike- not even twins. Each one designed to to be set apart to live out their own unique purpose.But we don't get that most of the time. We're constantly mimicking and imitating one another somehow trying to blend in.We look to trends to mandate the styles we wear and the steps we take. And yet at the very same time we long to stand out and make our mark in this world.God designed us to find rest in the skin He laid upon these bones of ours....every curve that delicately outlines our bodies down to the wrinkled lines growing upon our faces...they all give us distinction.He even chose our hearts and placed them into the depths of our chest to make us who we are!So unique are our organs that Drs have found our specific qualities being transferred from donors to recipients....people who've discovered with their new organs comes new cravings and passions they've never had before....friends this shouts the work of a creative designer with the intention of our uniqueness...Because truth is:God has a plan and a purpose for every single one of us in His -story.Take my friend Alyssa who's making a God-sized ripple with her  #sowkind movement, calling people to write down their words of encouragement and share them in brave and beautiful ways...or Brice and Amanda who are cultivating & growing leaders across the Islands of our world...and you my friend the way you loved that person the other day who's overlooked most of their life, or when you wrote and mailed that card this week, or the beautiful way you opened your home up and even that simple prayer you whispered for the brokenness surrounding you: all of these are beautiful acts of love which God designed you for!These tiny acts are where God does His mightiest work because we never know the impact we are making in another's life. The ordinary becomes extra-ordinary when God meets someone through the humility of their hands.Every small little ripple here can create a Tsunami on the other side of the world. Love given in big sized proportions cause a catalyst in people's lives.The way we really make a mark on our world is by leaving fingerprints of our Heavenly Father all over the places God sends us.What part of our vast universe has God called you to love to death? Jesus made His mark on us when He loved us like that! His love was so big that He submitted Himself to death, SO THAT we might live....this is where Jesus' mark has made more of an imprint on humanity than any name we will ever make for ourselves.That's what my son recently taught me when he preached the biggest boldest sermon my ears needed to hear. He reminded me life is not about making a name for myself but rather making Jesus' name known.So when you feel forgotten or overlooked remind yourself this one life you've been given is not for you to be remembered by but for God to be seen through!Friends, may we let this be what bounces us out of bed every morning and breaks us to our knees, until our world hears and knows He's come to love them through every brokenness and pain they bear. Because God wants to write every person into the lines of His story and has created each one of us to play a role in His master plan.And when life seems to keep messing you up making you feel like a loser remember you were made and you matter deeply. Your life matters!Our lives find purpose when we extend them to others.Take my friend Jason who decided the forgotten and overlooked kids of Louisville needed purpose too. So he got together with some of his friends who had made it to the big leagues and asked them to go back to their neighborhoods to tell these kids there's more to life then stealing , selling and surviving. Purpme goes into schools and passes out hope, helping young people find their way and find their purpose in life. You see we all have a part to play....each given a role and chosen with us in mind.So start today friend outlive and outlove the ones God has placed beside you and you'll find your burdens lessening and your hope being restored. There's healing found here...My journals bind the pages of my broken journey finding healing through my heavenly Father's words...writings exhaling my unspoken thoughts.God saw, God heard and God came to my need and He hears, He sees and He meets you here too.Discover the writings of God which were written with you in mind, specifically to minister to the secret places of your soul....one day you may find too that the person you first began your journey as has become the person God intended all along for you to become!