Hayley DiMarco - God Girl. Becoming the Woman Youre Meant to Be

God Girl

God Girl

Becoming the Woman Youre Meant to Be

Hayley DiMarco

2009 by Hungry Planet
Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287,
Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
DiMarco, Hayley.
God girl : becoming the woman youre meant to be / Hayley DiMarco.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-8007-1940-1 (pbk.)
1. Teenage girlsConduct of life. 2. Teenage girlsReligious life. I. Title.
BJ1681.D565 2009
248.8'33dc22 2009026729

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from GODS WORD, a copyrighted work of Gods Word to the Nations. Quotations are used by permission. Copyright 1995 by Gods Word to the Nations. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NIV is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NKJV is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NLT is taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright
1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Published in association with Yates & Yates, LLP, Literary Agents, Orange,
California.

Creative direction by Hungry Planet
Interior design by Sarah Lowrey Brammeier

Contents

3. A Girl Who Knows True
Happiness

4. A Girl Who Knows How
to Communicate

A Final Word to the
God Girl

Live in me, and i will live in you.

A branch cannot produce any fruit by it self.

It has to say attached
to the vine.

In the same way you cannot Produce fruit unless you live in me.

John15:4

1
Do You Know
a God Girl?

I believe that the God Girl is the
most amazing girl on earth.

Thats because she worships the one true God, Jehovah. Yahweh. The Alpha and the Omega. The Beginning and the End. Everything she does is colored by the fact that she loves her God with all her heart,all her soul, all her mind, and all her strength. She knows where she came from and where she is going. Her life isnt perfect; it wasnt meant to be. Its sometimes messy, sometimes loud, and sometimes uncomfortable. She has dreams, hopes, prayers. She wants what every other girl wants: to love and to be loved. She wants acceptance and laughter. She wants hope and peace. Some days she is on top of the world and nothing can bring her down, and some days she is certain she has hit bottom. But what makes the God Girl different from just any girl is the God in her name. Her right relationship with the Creator of Her right relationship with the Creator of the universe. Her acknowledgment that she cant do this messed-up and crazy life on her own and her willingness to trust the God who can. When life is more than she can bear, God is more than she needs.

The life of the God Girl centers around not what others think of her or do to her but who he is. She defines her life by the fact that she belongs to him. The most pivotal moment in her life was the moment she said yes to his call. When she heard him say I love you and she believed it. When Jesus reached out of the pages of that old Bible, grabbed her hand, and said, Come with me. Make me Lord of your life, and I will be with you always. You will never have to fear again.

Do you remember that invitation? Did you say yes?

I remember when I did.

I had been searching so long for him. I went to a Catholic high school, and there I learned a lot about Gods holiness and wrath. But most of all I learned that I was broken, messed up, weak, and imperfect. The God I saw could not accept meI was too dirty, too unlovable. But I wanted him desperately. I knew that if I could just get to him, he would fix me, love me, heal me. And so every weekend I turned on the TV and watched an old preacher named Jimmy Swaggart. And every week I cried and accepted Christ into my heart. Every week. It just never seemed to stick.

By the time I was in college, I was certain of only one thing: I was not good enough for God. I was driving limousines at night and going to TV and movie auditions during the day. And then I met him. His name was Greg, he was so cute, and I wanted him to want me.

And so I pursued him. He drove limousines too, and he was a Christian. I told him I was too, though I didnt know what that really meant. Then one day he took a risk. He asked me why, if I was a Christian, I talked like a sailor. You see, I loved cussing. I had a potty mouth.

I thought about it for a minute, and then I told him, I decided a long time ago that I wasnt good enough for God, and I know Im going to hell. I just cant do everything he asks. So I figure if Im going to hell, I might as well have fun on the way.

Greg looked at me with such confusion. And then he said the most important words Id heard in my life: You realize that once you are saved, you are always saved, dont you?

Where did you hear that? I said in shock.

Its right here, he said as he pointed to his old, worn Bible. He opened it up to Romans 10:9 and read these words: If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved(NIV).

If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved..

Romans10:2(NIV)

I remember this so vividly. I stood up with both hands on my hips and yelled, Why hasnt anyone ever told me this?

This whole time Jesus was right there for me, and I didnt see him. I couldnt believe how close he was. How permanent and secure. So suddenly my life changed. In an instant it was like the light went on and I saw things I never saw before. Greg gave me that Bible, and it sits beside me now, even as I write these words. I read it that day, and over the next month I read the entire thing. I was in awe! I was amazed that the answers to every question I had about life were right there in that book I had looked at so many times before and not understood a word of. It was as if a veil had been lifted, and suddenly it all made sense to me. If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

From that point on I made it my mission to help people find the Jesus who meets all their needs as he met mine. The power of salvation was so strong in my life that I knew it would change anyones life who would just listen. My life didnt change completely in one day, or even in one month, but as I began to make his Word a part of my life, the layers of mess started to peel off of me. And now I am a completely new creature.

God changes lives. There is no question. If he hasnt changed yours, its only because you havent let him. It can be scary to let him and easy to believe that he wont come through, or that if you trust him youll be fooled. But Im living proof: that isnt true. He was there all along; I just didnt have the facts.

God Girl is my gift to your heart. I pray that it will be a window into his Word and a lifeline to your soul. If you believe that Jesus is who he says he is, then you, my brave heart, are a God Girl. You might not feel like one right now, but you shall. Trust that you were led here for a reason. Trust