Here’s what you need to know:

Contributors for Blog Team:

• Our blog team is looking for young ladies to post 2-3 times a month.
• Must have your own blog that is up to date.
• Have a passion for life and our Lord.
• The blog team posts articles about anything that interests you so long as it’s uplifting and informative to today’s authentic ladies of faith.

Seasonal Magazine Contributors:

All interested ladies ages 14-25 must send their info in for review by Sept 1st

• Our seasonal magazine contributors can submit anything from recipes, inspirational articles that uplift the soul, sewing, crafts, photography, etc that pertain to the season at hand.
• All articles are to be void of condemnation and are encouraged to lift up the natural expression of Christ in our lives. We encourage a unique style in each girl. We do not expect conformity. We want to see, read, and know the unique gifts our Lord has given you. Write what you are passionate about in an uplifting manner.
• Must be able to work with deadlines and receive constructive correction from our editors regarding your articles. We may encourage you to dig deeper into your topic before publishing your article. Articles are due 2 weeks prior to publishing date.
• All contributors must be diligent in answering emails in a timely manner.
• All contributors will have a signature created for them and we ask for a bio to share with our readers. We will link your mini-bio to your blog, so be sure your blogs are family friendly.

Send us your:

Name

Blog URL

3 links to former articles of interest from your blog.

Social Media/Advertising:

We are looking for girls to help promote the blog/mag here at GGM, as well as being open to share on Twitter and/or Facebook about our articles and other advertising promotions and sponsors.

We’re also interested in receiving advertising from family friendly companies that support ladies of faith and home education. If you would like to be a part of our advertising team or are interested in purchasing advertising on our site let us know. In some cases,  we may be willing to trade in exchange for products to review and use as giveaways to our readers.

All interested in any of the above opportunities, please contact me at

GGMEditor {at} gmail.com

Sisterlisa is the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Growing in Grace Magazine and owner of SoulLibertyFaith, a devotion blog for women. She is married and homeschools her four children while remaining active in serving the Lord in her community.

I could give you bible verses about it, I could write out some long speech about inner beauty, or I could give you the ‘mom answer’.  I’m not going to do any of those.  First, I’m going to tell you about me.

It is SOOOO hard to compete with today’s flawless, magazine cover women.  We expect it of ourselves, guys expect it from us and others point out the places they don’t see it in.  The questions arise.  Who made fried food?  Why am I so ugly?  Why do I have to break out today?  How does that product work so well for them?  She is SOOO not photoshopped, look at her, she’s perfect!

I’ve never stopped breaking out.  I constantly battle acne, blackheads, whiteheads, oily skin, dry skin, etc.  *ugh*  I’ve had the same acne in the same place for years and it just won’t go away.  I’ve tried just about everything.  NOTHING works for me and I just have to deal with it.  They may shrink pretty small, but they usually come back within a few days.  I can’t really talk to you about what works for your skin because I don’t know.  Although, I can talk to you about you.  You ARE a bright, vivacious, captivating, young lady.  You are you.. and that is something no one else can EVER be.  There may be thousands, maybe even millions of models out there and they all are paid to try to look the same.  They don’t really have a choice to show the real them, but you do.  You can show others you.  The dancer, the artist, the singer, the baker, the blogger, the architect, etc.  That one thing that you are SOO good at, who you are inside.  The beautiful you that you may have been hiding, trying to forget or push out.  That one part of you that sets you apart from everyone else.  That girl inside is a unique, one of a kind, perfect she.

Be yourself.  Do not be afraid of what others may think of you.  You are yourself, and that’s the best you can be.  Do not be pressured to be extremely random if that is not you and do not be pressured to constantly speak in a Britsh accent if you don’t want to.  Do not try to be like everyone else.  Find what you love and pursue it in your own way.  If you love creative writing, write about what you want to write about.  If you love to play an instrument, play it in your own style and it will be WONDERFUL!  The fashion wearing diva clones wish they could be as original as you are.  Be you!

Think about it.  There are thousands of girls with perfectly straight hair, but only you have your exact hair.  So many people try to dress like one person, or sing like one person.  You are a rare treasure.  Not one person, past, present or future can ever be you.  Only you are a perfect (insert your name here).

I, for example, do not have corkscrew, boticelli, wavy, s’wavy or combination curls.  Some days they’re boticelli and some days they’re wavy with a slight curl at the bottom.  They have a mind of their own and they can’t be stopped, but they are perfect in their own way.  Another example, I do not have brown, green or hazel eyes.  Mine are some sort of a jade green, fading into jungle green finally to amber just before reaching the pupil.  If it is day time where you are right now, go outside with a mirror and REALLY look at your eyes.  Look really well.  They’re amazing.  I bet you’ve never seen someone with that kind of color in their eyes.  You are the only one.  Beautiful.

Do you understand what I’m saying?  No one, can ever be YOU.  You are the only one who can ever be YOU.  You are a gem among gems.  The real you can NEVER be copied.  Let the real you shine through the photoshopped world and watch the clones be amazed at the one thing they can never achieve in perfection.  You.

Lady Jess is a homeschool graduate pursuing her interest in holisitic medicine and healing foods. She assists her mother in teaching her younger siblings, plays guitar, and loves baking.

For others it may make them uncomfortable because they do feel the need to pray, but don’t want anyone to think they have done something ‘sinful’ if they walk forward.

Some people tend to feel guilty if they don’t walk forward, even if they have nothing to pray about. They just feel guilty that they weren’t spoken to directly about anything.

This ‘invitation’ time causes a lot of mixed feelings in a variety of people.

Many different churches handle this time in their service differently. Some churches make it seem almost mandatory to walk forward and you may not be able to really figure out why this is so or why it makes you feel uncomfortable.

When God speaks to a person’s heart, He can do so at any time of day or night, wether you’re in a church building or the park. He can even wake you up at night out of your sleep to speak to you about something. He did this with Samuel when he was a boy in Eli’s home. He is even close to us when we are living in turmoil about something. Jonah said God was with him in Sheol. {Jonah 2}

Some feel that the communication that takes place between them and God is personal and not open for discussion with other people. They are correct in that regard. Our relationships with God are unique, one of a kind, and personal. We don’t need to share every decision we make with the church or even the pastor.  I’m not intending to discourage anyone from talking with and praying with other people, but just easing some of the coersion some might feel in the process. We have the freedom to keep personal decisions private. We also have the freedom to be free from condemnation.

There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ. {Romans 8:1}

So why do we feel so uncomfortable at that time in a service? We know God loves us and desires a relationship with us, but what makes ‘the invitation’ so uncomfortable? Is it all the things I mentioned or some? Is it anything more?

We become so concerned with what everyone else thinks. We think we can feel the stare of others if we walk forward and if we don’t. Either way we feel defeated into condemnation. Why? Since we know there is no condemnation, then why do we feel this way?

Maybe there are statements made such as , “If you want to get close to God walk forward and someone will pray with you.”

Do the following questions go through your minds?

• “Of course I want to get close to God, but I don’t want people staring at me and wondering if I haven’t been close to Him thus far.”
• “I do want to be close to God and now if I don’t go forward they might think I don’t want to be close to God.”
• “Do I have to walk forward to be close to God or can I be close to him right here in my chair?”

You’re not alone in asking these questions and having these feelings. Have you ever heard the quote, “We are our own worst enemy”?

We are! We are our own worst enemy and we tend to put more condemnation on ourselves than anyone else does.

You CAN be close to God without walking forward.

Your worth to God in Christ is not based on what other people might or might not think of you.

Refraining from walking forward does not mean you are in ‘sin’ or refusing to be close to God.

We each have a unique personal relationship with God. He is not looking for cookie cutter children. He wants us to be one-of-a-kind with Him. He loves you right where you are in your journey to discovering the depths of His amazing love. When he prompts you to grow, you will. You cannot grow past the point in which He has brought you so far. We grow because He is the Living Water and because he feeds us, supports us, and shines his Son upon us. Growing is a natural part of life in our physical bodies as it is in our spiritual lives. So just as you can’t rush being older than what you already are, you can’t rush spiritual maturity.

Each situation we encounter in this lifetime will offer us opportunities to grow. Some might experience a spiritual growth spurt and others might seem to crawl along in their growth. Each person is unique and we have the freedom to be at the pace that is specially designed for us.

So the next time you feel that uneasy feeling about ‘walking forward to get closer to God’, just remember to ask Him what He is asking of you, not what man is asking of you. He loves you right where you are.

Sisterlisa is the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Growing in Grace Magazine and owner of SoulLibertyFaith, a devotion blog for women. She is married and homeschools her four children while remaining active in serving the Lord in her community.