JoAnne Simmons - It All Matters to Jesus Devotional for Girls: Mean Girls, Manicures, and Mondays...He Cares about It All

Dedication:
To my parents, who raised me to know and love Jesus, and to my in-laws for doing the same for my husband. Thank you!

And to Doug and Jodi and Lilly. You make life so full of love and fun.

Acknowledgments:
Adelie, Ashley, Aubrey, Emma, Hannah, Kassadee, Sara, Sarah, and Wyndhamyour honest answers were a huge help while I was writing this book. Thank you so much!

2016 by Barbour Publishing, Inc.

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Okay, first thing: stop right now, wherever youre reading this bookare you in a favorite reading spot? Is it upside down on a beanbag chair, or snuggled with a ginormous pillow on the floor, or propped up on your bed, or crammed into an empty cupboard with a flashlight? The empty cupboard was one of my favorite reading spots when I was about your age. The roof of my house was, tooseriously!but I do not recommend that to anyone else. Im lucky I didnt break my neck.

Anyway, you need to get one thing straight from the start of this book: the bottom line is that YOU matter to Jesus. So very much so that He left a pretty posh place as God in heaven to come down to earth as a baby, live a human life, and then suffer and die a nasty deathbut rose from the dead (yay!)all so He could make a way for you to be with Him in a perfect paradise forever. Thats kind of a big deal, dont you think? And if someone loves you that muchand He totally does!then every single thing in your life is important to Jesus as well. Mean girls, manicures, Mondays whatever.

If its something that matters to yougood or badit matters to Jesus.

Raise your hand if you like math. Im sitting hard on my hands because I completely dont, but I sure hope some of you do because the world needs lots of people who are great at math.

Whether you like numbers or not, can you count to all?

Thats like asking if you can count to infinity. You just cant do it. Well, you could try, but then youd spend the rest of your life counting and youd still never reach the end because (duh!) its infinityand who wants to count forever, no matter how much you like numbers?

The title of this book says it all matters to Jesus, emphasis on all. That means there is no number limit to what matters to God, and there are no limits on the types of things that matter to God.

If youre not a number lover, then maybe youre a word lover, and you like dictionaries. If you check the dictionary, youll find definitions of all include the whole, entire, total amount, quantity, or extent of and every and any whatever. That pretty much covers every single thing we could think of, right? There is nothing that matters to us that does not matter to God.

And its not true just because its here in this book; its true because Gods book, His Word, the Bible, says its true. Check out these verses:

First Peter 5:7 ( NLT ) says, Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. Does it say just our big worries? No. It says all.

In Psalms we read, Our L ORD , we belong to you. We tell you what worries us, and you wont let us fall (Psalm 55:22 CEV ). We have all sorts of things that worry us, from superstressful things to things not quite so serious, but we can tell them all to God, and He wont let us down about them.

And no matter what, we can totally trust that God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19 ESV ). Every need, every worry, every fear, every problem, every frustration, every anger, every thought. It all matters to Jesus.

Every joy does, too.

Your worries and problems arent the only things that matter to God. The happy things in your lifejoy over getting a new pet, or excitement over an upcoming birthday party for a friend, or an accomplishment like finally sticking that landing in gymnasticsall those types of things matter to Him, as well. He wants to share in your joy, and He wants you to thank and praise Him in all things, just like these verses say:

The L ORD is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.
P SALM 28:7 NLT

Shout for joy to the L ORD , all the earth. Worship the L ORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
P SALM 100:12 NIV

Dont worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
P HILIPPIANS 4:6 NLT

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
R OMANS 8:28 ESV

So now you might be wondering how much the things in your life, good or bad, matter to God. Just a little bit? Or a lot? The best way to answer that is to focus on how much God loves you. When someone really loves you, then every single aspect of your life, big or small, matters to that person in a big way. And God sure does love you in a