Thomas Nelson - Brave Girls: Beautiful You: A 90-Day Devotional

Brave Girls: Beautiful You

2016 by Thomas Nelson

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Tommy Nelson. Tommy Nelson is an imprint of Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc.

Cover design by Micah Kandros Design

Illustrations by Olga and Aleksey Ivanov

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the International Childrens Bible. Copyright 1986, 1988, 1999 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7180-7611-5

ISBN-13: 978-0-7180-7614-6 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Gerelds, Jennifer.

Title: Brave girls : beautiful you / written by Jennifer Gerelds.

Description: first [edition]. | Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 2016.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015038073 | ISBN 9780718076115 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Girls--Religious life--Juvenile literature. | Girls--Prayers and devotions--Juvenile literature.

Classification: LCC BV4551.3 .G48 2016 | DDC 248.8/2--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015038073

16 17 18 19 20 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1

Mfr: RR Donnelley / Crawfordsville, IN / February 2016 / PO# 9381197

Contents

Other Books in the Brave Girls Brand

Brave Girls Holy Bible

Brave Girls Bible Stories

Brave Girls: Better Than Perfect

Brave Girls: Faithful Friends

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 NKJV

W hat is beautiful?

When Gracie, Hope, and I (Glory) asked each other that question, we were surprised by how different our answers were. The idea of beautiful made me think of deep, lovely colors with sparkle and shine, like the perfect party dress or twinkling stars in a dark night sky.

But my (Hope) first thought was of a brand-new, leather baseball glove, since I love sports so much. Then I thought maybe beautiful is more like when my brothers and I are getting along and having fun together.

And I (Gracie) had a totally different picture. I immediately thought of the models Ive seen on magazine covers and some of my favorite movie stars. I mean, isnt that what everyone thinks beautiful is? At least thats what I thought at first...

So it was pretty clear to us that the idea of beauty can mean different things to different people. Whos right?

We didnt know, but we figured that Godthe Creator of everything beautiful could probably help us get to the bottom of what true beauty is. So we started praying for wisdom and looking all throughout the Bible to see what He says.

His answer amazed us! In this spectacular world filled with color, creativity, and originality, do you know what God sees as most beautiful of all?

His kids!

God thinks we are completely awesome because the Spirit of His beautiful Son, Jesus, lives inside each person who trusts in Him. No matter how quirky you may think your body or personality is, having the Spirit of God living inside you transforms your life into something out-of-this-world gorgeous. Its the ultimate makeover!

When you put your trust in Jesus, His love shines out of you and lights up the worldlike a candle in a dark room. And that love frees you to be exactly the person God designed you to be, without having to look a certain way or be like everybody else. Youre beautiful because God created you and is making you more like His Son, Jesus, every day!

Want to know how? Then spend the next ninety days with us and discover how God made you in the most perfect way possible, to show off just how wonderful He isin beautiful you!

Glory, Hope, and Gracie

I f you know me, then you know how much I just loooooove girly things like pageants, dress-up parties, perfect outfits, and a really good updo (thats a fancy hairstyle, for those of you not into that kind of thing!). I love beautiful things because they make my heart happy in a way thats hard to explain. When I see something beautiful, its like I want to become a part of it. Since everything beautiful comes from God, I guess its His way of helping me see Him, appreciate Him, and want to know more about Him.

In this next section, I hope youll learn to seemaybe for the first timeall the beautiful gifts you have in your life if you belong to Jesus. Our connection with Him not only takes away our sin but also adds all kinds of beautiful things to our liveslike being adopted into Gods family forever and being promised a home in heaven for all of eternity. Belonging to God brings amazing color, beauty, and joy into our everyday lives. Simply opening our eyes to see the beauty God has placed all around us helps Him transform us into the beautiful people He has created us to be.

Glory

Yes, I am sure that nothing can separate us from the love God has for us.

Romans 8:38

H ow do you know when you are loved? Write some of the times you have felt loved:

When do you feel loved? Is it when you get hurt and your mom or dad puts a bandage on you and holds you close? Is it when your best friend stops what shes doing to listen to you? Is it being forgiven when youve messed up?

Love can show itself in a million different ways, but it always has the same effect: it makes us feel warm, safe, important, and secure. But because people are sinners, they cant always love perfectly. It might even seem like some people might stop loving you altogether if you arent good enough.

But God isnt like that. The Bible says God is love. And because you are Gods child, He gives you the greatest and most forever kind of love you could possibly haveHe loves you like He loves Jesus. Best of all, nothingnot even deathcan separate us from Gods love. No matter what happens, His kids are always safe, important, and secure. Gods love never ends. Theres nothing more beautiful than that.

Prayer Pointer

God, help me believe that Your love for me never changes and that it lasts forever.

If anyone belongs to Christ, then he is made new. The old things have gone; everything is made new!

2 Corinthians 5:17

W hat would you like for your birthday? Circle the items that interest you:

new clothes

old tennis shoes

a new art set

used pencils

a new phone

your brothers old basketball