Fierce Free and Full of Fire: 5-Day Devotional Sample

A complicated matrix of factors keeps women from believing they deserve better; inferiority complex, embarrassment, power differentials, and fear, just for starters.  Women are famous for putting up with crap.  We take every manner of abuse and mistreatment, then employ mental gymnastics to make sense of it and somehow believe we deserved or caused it.  This robs us of our dignity and leaves us vulnerable to debasement. This cycle has passed on for millennia. 

You deserve better because you are a cherished human being created by a God who loves you. You are worthy of honor and bear the imprint of heaven.   You deserve the blessings of this earth-bound life: to be deeply loved, wanted, valued and treasured.  You are not just a commodity for someone else’s bottom line. You are not a utilitarian tool to be used and discarded.  You are not dumb. You are not a problem. You are not inferior. You are not too much.

You didn’t provoke someone else to abuse, harm, or marginalize you.  You could not possibly be the cause of violence, injustice, exploitation; that is not how this works.  Mistreatment doesn’t begin with its target. It begins with the perpetrator, and how they choose to treat you is not a  reflection of your worth.

I submit to you, dear ones, that the world of possibility is infinite, and goodness is your birthright.  Expect it.  You do not need to ask permission or wonder if you are one of its recipients.  Choose to no longer justify manipulating, bullying, condescending, belittling, or harassing behaviors. Recognize and resist self-sabotaging behaviors.  Call shame what it is and refuse to submit or be defined by it, especially if it originates from your past.  Instead, choose to show up for your life with bright eyes and clear expectations.