Ginger Garrett - A Womans Path to Inner Beauty: Devotions to Nourish Your Body and Soul

Devotions to Nourish
Your Body and Soul

Author of Beauty Secrets of the Bible

Ginger Garrett

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

Unless indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message. Copyright by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Author photo Don Sparks Photography, Atlanta, GA, www.DonSparksPhotography.com

Cover photo Fancy Photography / Veer

Cover by e210 Design, Eagan, Minnesota

Some devotions were adapted from Ginger Garretts blog, www.GingerGarrett.com .

Harvest House Publishers has made every effort to trace the ownership of all poems and quotes. In the event of a question arising from the use of a poem or quote, we regret any error made and will be pleased to make the necessary correction in future editions of this book.

Published in association with MacGregor Literary, Portland, Oregon

A WOMANS PATH TO INNER BEAUTY
Copyright 2011 by Ginger Garrett
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97402
www.harvesthousepublishers.com

ISBN 978-0-7369-3000-0

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Printed in China

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To every woman who longs for
true and lasting beauty.

Id like to thank the Harvest House publishing team for welcoming me into their family and making this book such a joy to work on. May all your efforts to serve the Lord and bless readers be returned tenfold into your lives! I owe a special thanks to Delta Airlines for cancelling a flight due to bad weather, which left me stranded in an airport with Jean Christen of the Harvest House team. Jean and I met for the first time that day on the concourse and discovered we had much in common, including a heart for womens issues. And to LaRae Weikert for sifting through all my ideas and keeping an open door when inspiration strikesthank you! And finally, for Barbara Gordon, an editor with such a gentle and gracious touch. Thank you!

I also owe a debt of gratitude to the readers who have sent me emails over the past two years since Beauty Secrets of the Bible was published. You shared experiences, insights, and encouragements. I pray for you all so often. May God bless you and lead you deeper into His grace and peace.

W elcome! Within these pages youll find words of comfort and inspiration and a challenge to open your heart to the truest meaning of beauty. Its my prayer that youll treasure the scriptures Ive selected, and that God will use this little book to do a great work in your life and in the lives of the women around you.

Let me begin with the certain truth that you are beautiful. Does that surprise you? You may not feel beautiful. You may feel run down, overwhelmed, frumpy, overweight, wrinkled, past your prime, or any number of adjectives weve invented to describe ourselves. But let me assure you: You are beautiful! And its okay to feel beautiful. Feeling beautiful is really about feeling free, and freedom comes from knowing the truth. And real truth is based on Gods Word and His love for you.

As we walk together through these pages, I am praying for you to find Gods perfect freedom in beauty. You can become

free to love others more fully and accept their love more completely in return

free of depressing habits and oppressive thoughts

free to accept yourself and others unconditionally

Are you ready to start our journey? Were going to discover the beauty that is unique to each of us and uniquely Godsa beauty you and I are called to give away. Well be discovering what God says about beauty and your purpose in this world.

All His great blessings to you,

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

PROVERBS 13:12

A t a certain age, a woman must choose between her face and her hips. I dont know who said this, but as women we experience peer pressure about our appearance almost our entire lives. When were young, fat is our nemesis. As we age, fat keeps our faces looking youthful. At some point, as this saying suggests, we have to decide if were going to be fashionably thin or fashionably young.

This never-ending battle or circular question brings us right back around and deposits us at the beginning. I notice the lines on my hands, so I slather on hand cream faithfully every night. Then I notice that my neck needs dire attention. I run out to buy firming cream for my neck, and the saleslady gently suggests I may want to invest in a firming cream for my thighs first. Meanwhile, Im off to the gym every day to build lean muscle, burn fat, and hope my swimsuit is kind to me this year. Once I was worried I wouldnt fill out my swimsuit; now Im worried Ill fill it out in all the wrong places.

This much is clear: At every stage in life the worldly definitions of beauty will be right beside us, whispering in our ears that we need to try harder. Beauty, by the worlds definition, will always be just beyond our grasp. Worldly beauty is a hope deferred because we cant catch it, grasp it, or claim it. And the Bible warns that hope deferred will make our hearts sick.

As you pray through your body issues, ask God to reveal to you where your hope truly lies. Ask Him to guide you as you journey through these pages so that your hope will be set on the right things and your heart will be strengthened and healed.

Lord, I pray for what You alone can deliver. Fulfill my longings as I seek You. Please free my heart, revolutionize my definition of beauty, and change my future forever so I can honor You in everything I do.

Honor one another above yourselves.

ROMANS 12:10

H ow you catch a man is how you have to keep him. I was single and on the prowl for a good man when these words from an older woman caught me off-guard. Shes right, I realized. If Im spending all my time on my appearance, trying to catch a guy by being beautiful, Ill catch a guy who only wants a beautiful gal. And that wont be a problemuntil I start to fall apart. Even in my tender twenties I knew there was an expiration date on my looks. However, when I married, I wanted it to last forever. Clearly this older woman knew something I didnt.

Around this same time, I met a man who had married a lovely girl. This lovely girl gained an enormous amount of weight after the wedding. I wouldnt mind the weight, he confided to his friends, if only she treated me with respect. He was in pain because she treated him in an ungodly manner. He was willing to trade having a lovely wife for having a loving wife.