Testimonies about the Power and Faithfulness of our Mighty God

One Woman's Story of Beauty

When I was a little girl, I had a dream. My dream was to be beautiful and
capture the heart of my prince charming, who would sweep me onto his
white horse and carry me off into paradise where we would live happily
ever after. As a child, my favorite fairytale was Cinderella. I have always
loved to watch movies and read love stories that end in “happily ever
after.”

In third grade, a classmate made fun of me, calling me "Pinocchio." It was
my first experience of thinking I may not be beautiful, and it really hurt.
How was I going to capture the heart of my prince charming if I wasn’t
beautiful?

In the fifth grade, boys started paying attention to me because of my new
curves. If I couldn’t be beautiful because my nose was too big, maybe I
could still capture the heart of my prince charming through my curvy body.

In high school I realized that boys were interested only in my curvy body
and not in sweeping me off my feet or living “happily ever after.” Yet my
dream lived on inside me stronger than ever.

In high school I thought I found my prince. He pledged his undying love
for me and, in return, I gave him my virginity. I was elated: my dream was
finally going to come true! But two months later, my dream was crushed
when my “prince” betrayed me with another. Not only did he crush my
dream, but he also left physical scars that would last a lifetime.

At that point I decided gave up on my dream and started living for myself.
I was tired of being hurt. What did that silly dream mean anyway? In life,
there was no real “happily ever after.”

After years of living for myself, I still could not shake that dream. No
matter how hard I tried to forget, it would not go away. Then I met my
husband. He seemed to fit the role of my prince perfectly. After he got
down on one knee and proposed, I just knew he was the prince I had
always dreamed of. FINALLY, my dream would be fulfilled…or would it?

After we got married, it didn’t take long to figure out our marriage wasn’t
going to be lived “happily ever after,” yet my dream was still alive and
well inside me. How could that be? After all, I had found my prince. So
why was I still searching for the fulfillment of my dream if I had my prince?

I knew what had to be missing - children. We would start a family and then
we would live happily ever after. But a family didn’t come after years of
trying with no success.

At that point I had reached my lowest. I didn’t want to live. My dream was
never going to come true, my marriage was not “happily ever after,” and
now I wasn’t going to be able to have the family we wanted. Driving down
the road one day by myself, I asked God to end my life because it had
been a complete failure in my eyes. I didn’t want to live anymore.

God didn’t answer my prayer the way I had asked Him to, but He did
answer it in a most unexpected way! He gave me a Bible verse - Proverbs
3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own
understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your
path.

I wrote that verse down every day for more than a year. I meditated on it
and asked God to show me how to put my trust in Him. Then God started
giving me opportunities to put my trust in Him. Changes started coming
quickly. My husband got a job transfer from one state to another, which
meant moving further away from family to a place where we didn’t know
anyone. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Then we discovered the
reason for our infertility, which meant immediate surgery for me. Trust in
the Lord with all your heart.

Suddenly my depression turned to hope in Christ. I was actually excited
for a new start in a new place. I was excited that having surgery might
open up the possibility for us to have a family. I was finding out that
putting my trust in God was changing me and my outlook on life. My
husband was still the same man, and we were still without a family, but
now I was looking forward to the future, a future with Christ as the head!

This is when I asked Jesus to take complete control of my life. I had done
a miserable job of living on my own and had come up completely empty.
When I surrendered my life to Christ, He showed me that HE was the one
who placed that dream inside me as a little girl, and the role of the
PRINCE was reserved for Him alone and no one else. He placed that
dream inside me so I would not give up my search for Him.

I believe God places a dream in each of us that only He can fulfill. Your
dream may not look exactly like mine, but if you haven’t surrendered your
life to Christ, then your dream has not been fulfilled yet. People try to
fulfill their dream with all sorts of things: money, clothes, entertainment,
kids, sports, food, drugs, hobbies…the list is endless. But at the end of
the day all those things come up empty. They are not fulfilling for long.
The only lasting fulfillment we can have is found in Christ alone. In John 4:
14 Jesus says, “but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.”

I have spent most of my life trying to be beautiful - buying the latest
trends in makeup, clothes, and beauty products. But as each year goes
by and the years keep adding up, I get more wrinkles, more age spots,
and more sagging skin. I have discovered that “worldly” beauty is a losing
battle. I have also discovered that the world’s definition of beauty is
fleeting. It changes from one day to the next and is definitely not
attainable! But the most important thing I have learned about beauty is
that God already sees us as beautiful. He created us in His image. We do
not have to do anything to attract His attention. We do not have to woo
Him with our beauty, our intelligence, or our bodies. In fact, HE woos us. It
is His desire that each of us comes into a personal relationship with Him.
That is why He plants a dream inside each of us, so we won’t be satisfied
until we come into a relationship with Him.

1 Peter 3:3-5a says, Your beauty should not come from outward
adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine
clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty
of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this
is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to
make themselves beautiful. As Christian women, our true beauty comes
from the inside. With Christ living in us, we will not be able to contain His
beauty. It will naturally flow out of us.

Now I don’t want to leave you with the impression that I am currently living
“happily ever after” because God is now the center of my life. I have
come to realize there is no such thing as “happily ever after” in our fallen
world. In John 16:33 Jesus says, “In this world you will have trouble. But
take heart! I have overcome the world.” But even in this world, God has
partially fulfilled my dream more than I ever expected or imagined! He
continues to change me to be more like Him, which means I am becoming
more beautiful everyday because He is beautiful. He is my prince who has
rescued me from this world with the promise of a “happily ever after” in
eternity. He has given my husband and me two miracle children, the
family I never thought we’d have. He has given us a fresh start in a new
state, a secure job, and great Christian friends. I wish I could say our
marriage is stronger than ever, but because my husband doesn’t share
my love for Christ, we have issues in our marriage, which we continue to
work on. But I can say I have found complete fulfillment in Christ!

There is one small detail of my dream that I haven’t addressed yet, my
Prince riding in on His white horse to carry me into paradise. I will let the
Bible address this portion of my dream. It comes from Revelation 19:11
and 16, where the apostle John is speaking of what he saw. I saw Heaven
standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is
called Faithful and True. On His Robe and on His thigh He has this name
written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I can hardly wait to see my Lord
coming for me on a white horse to take me out of this imperfect world to
live with Him forever in Heaven! It is what I live for.

As I wait for the final fulfillment of my dream to take place, I will leave you
with one more of God’s promises found in John 14:13. Jesus says, “Do
not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my
Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I
am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go there and prepare
a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also
may be where I am.”

You too can claim this promise if you have surrendered your life to Christ!

- - From a child of God

Hope in the Lord Ministries

But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:31

Testimonies

But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength...
Hope in the Lord Ministries
Blair, NE 68008 Phone: 402.960.3670 Email: webmaster@hopeintheLord.org