Self Worth | Grit and Grace Life

Overcome Insecurity and Gain Confidence With This One Truth

By Karla Rogers Heaton / Purpose, Featured

I stood in front of the mirror last week, staring at my hair with that familiar mix of frustration and disappointment. It wouldn’t cooperate, no matter what I tried. So I spiraled. I found myself obsessively searching Pinterest boards, product reviews, and new color ideas. Not because I really needed a change, but because I didn’t like what I saw. I didn’t like me. That kind of self-talk used to be my default. I spent years caught in a cycle of self-hate and self-sabotage, trying to fix what I thought was wrong with me. I thought I had left that version of myself behind. But there she was, showing up again, whispering the same old lies. What shocked me most was that […]

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change happens when god is in your recovery journey

Change Happens When God Is in Your Addiction Recovery

By Rachel Hagstrom / Faith

My breathing is shallow before I step into the stale, dimly lit room. I take a seat, nodding a hello to the docile man to my left and smiling at the woman who sits across from me facing their own addiction recovery. Her candid vulnerability and blatant remarks resonate, often causing me to think about her words long after our time together ends. I was just six months into my recovery journey and the youngest person in attendance. I’m not sure if we’d peg each other as friends outside of this room, but in this place, it’s as though these people understand me better than some of my bosom friends—their authenticity and vulnerability is refreshing and without airs or pretenses. But first,

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Bible Verses From the Grit and Grace Team on Self Worth

Bible Verses on Self-Worth From the Grit and Grace Team

By The Grit and Grace Team / Faith

From where do you derive your self-worth? Is it in the busyness of your job, where you clock up to 60 hours a week? Maybe it’s in your doting husband and your three smart, well-mannered children. Or, on the other side of the spectrum, maybe your self-worth is at rock bottom and you feel useless, as though your life holds no value. We’ll stop you right there to say that’s not true, friend. Here are some Bible Verses on Self-Worth that will help you: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1 Peter

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How Breaking Up Made Me a Strong Woman

By Ashley Johnson / Relationships

Once upon a time, I was in a five-year relationship. There were good times and bad times, but overall—it was just a lot of time. A lot of shared experiences. A lot of shared life. It was a devastating loss at the time, but, now, I’m so grateful for the experience because breaking up made me a strong woman. Yes, I was sad when we went our separate ways. But more than anything, I was so incredibly lost. I didn’t know what to do with my time. I didn’t even know what I liked to do. I had no idea who I was by myself. I wasn’t exactly a fan of feeling my emotional pain; what I really wanted to do was fast-forward

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3 Things to Do When You Feel Broken and Unlovable

By Jessica Harris / Relationships

How many of us can honestly say we’ve made it through life with no regrets? It seems almost inevitable that we’ll make some poor decision, say something wrong, or choose the wrong door at some point. But what do you do when it feels like your choices make you unlovable? Years ago, I sat on a hilltop in North Dakota with my then-boyfriend. I knew within hours of my plane landing that this relationship wasn’t going to work out. We weren’t connecting, and I had followed him all over his rain-soaked farm more like a lost duckling than an endearing girlfriend. As the wind whipped against the side of the truck, he stared out the windshield, tears welling in his eyes. I

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When a Strong Woman is Quitting but Not Failing

By Dr. Zoe / Purpose

You’re reading this because there is something in your life that you have an inkling you need to let go of. Whether it’s a job, a relationship, a dream, or a life path, you know you really shouldn’t be involved in it anymore. It just doesn’t feel right, but you aren’t sure what to do about it. You may be quitting but not failing. I don’t know about you, but I have a million “don’t quit” mantras in my head that make quitting feel the same as failing. They all say that if I choose to end something in my life, I am a failure. When you think of yourself as a strong woman, quitter doesn’t play into that description. Having perseverance

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woman sitting on couch looking hopefully out the window ready with steps to move on

Ready to Move On? 4 Steps to Leave Brokenness Behind

By Allison McCormick / Faith

I have some sweet friends who have family living in their office closet. It started a few years ago and has grown from one to two, and finally three. They often tease that there is no more room for another urn or sealed box. And I’m earnestly praying they don’t have to expand their relative’s memorial to another space. Recently, they shared that the closet was being emptied. Each loved one was going to their final resting place. And with each departure, I wondered if there wasn’t a sense of sadness mixed with perhaps a little relief. It can be hard to live waiting for the past to move on. Is Your Past or Pain Keeping You Hidden Away? I lived in

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woman with curly brown hair smiling up at the sky because she learned the value in embracing your true identity

Have You Embraced Your True Identity?

By Allison McCormick / Faith

OK, ladies, I’m going to be painfully transparent. I know this will sound shallow but I am wrestling with a decision: Do I cut it off or let it grow? I’m talking about my curls. They have reached my shoulders, that not-so-sure-about-what-to-do length, and I am running out of creative ways to keep the frizz under control. When I was little, I wore my hair in two braids down around my waist, but a summer filled with swimming resulted in a pixie cut. Evidently, pool chlorine irreparably damages hair. Since that time, short hair has been my calling card. Well, until the pandemic. A lack of access to my hairdresser and encouragement from friends culminated in this out-of-control curl problem. I recognize

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To the Woman Who Cleaned up After My Autistic Son

You Don’t Have to Make an Income to Contribute to Your Family

By Amber Koehn / Motherhood

All my life, I wanted to be a mother. It’s just something I knew, deep down, I was meant to be. I also knew that I would have to work outside the home, because if I stayed at home all day with kids, I would go crazy. To me, I didn’t think I could be fulfilled or feel important if I wasn’t working full-time. It’s kind of funny sometimes how life proves a person wrong. After my first two daughters were born, I thought I had a system all figured out. My husband ran a restaurant at the time, so he was never home. He also decided to go back to school full-time and earn his degree, so I was the one

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mom sitting on a race track eating apples and laughing with her daughter while getting her teen ready to launch

Is Your Teen Ready to Launch? Here’s How You Can Too

By Brianna Barrett / Purpose

I am calling all the mamas struggling with finding themselves in a new chapter: “All aboard the struggle bus, I’m your driver and fellow struggler with change.” Life has recently been full of struggles and new chapters. A new school year gives us back our routines, but each year comes with its own stresses of grades, extracurriculars, and childhood drama. A maxed-out calendar and a stressed-out teen make for a stressed-out mama, who is struggling in this new season. Is Your Teen Ready to Launch? In the past month, my son received his license, started his junior year in high school and first classes at community college, started dating and driving himself everywhere, and graduated from his teen drag racing class where

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A Modern Day Esther: Finding My Voice Through a Hero in the Bible

By Meaghan Dawson / Faith

It was kind of like a modern-day beauty pageant, minus the talent section. It required no essay entrance exam or interview portion. There were truly only two necessary attributes to be invited into King Xerxes harem—beauty and virginity. That was it. Young girls from every province of the kingdom were screened, gathered, and brought into the harem based solely on these two qualities. Meet Esther. She’s an unlikely hero of the bible, and I like that about her. I get her. Even though thousands of years separate us (and, you know, one of us was royalty and the other not), she and I are not very different. Her lessons are my lessons, our hearts connected. It would be easy to dismiss her

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Running with Grit and Grace in Hot Pink Spandex

By Lynn Fleshman / Health & Beauty, Life & Culture

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of speaking to a group of beginner runners on the topic of motivation. Why would I receive such an invitation? Well, because I’m about the world’s least likely and most enthusiastic runner. Especially running with grit and grace. I’m all of 5-feet-2-inches high (on a tall day), I weigh in around one hundred and sexy (which happens to be 20ish pounds more than my doctor thinks is necessary), and I faked asthma to get out of gym class in middle school. Nevertheless, I’ve conquered numerous 5Ks, several half marathons, a full marathon, and a triathlon. One of the reasons I’m asked to help motivate beginners is because of my—ahem—non-athletic appearance; it instantly qualifies me

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My Independence Day—Choosing Between My Self-Worth and His Selfishness

My Independence Day—Choosing Between His Selfishness and My Self-Worth

By Jill Littig / Relationships

When I stormed out of Jimmy’s apartment, mid-dinner on the Fourth of July, I left the peach and raspberry pie I had made behind. We’d spent the morning apart. I stayed at my apartment baking and thought he was sleeping late at his. Instead, he went water skiing with a mutual friend. I loved water skiing, and he knew it. I’d Gotten Used to His Selfishness at the Cost of My Self-Worth His ability to push me aside started to feel like a natural reflex. The missing sensitivity in him was made up by his family, so it took me a while to realize he was truly a jerk. There on his balcony, mid-bite into my hamburger, he bragged about his morning.

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Don’t Let the World Dictate Your Self-Worth—It’s Up to You – 244

By Smart Living with Grit and Grace / Podcast

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | TuneIn | RSS | MoreHow do you measure your self-worth? Is it determined by a respectable title at work or the approving nods ands compliments you receive on an outfit? Is it measured by how similar your home looks to your favorite influencer’s or your own personal follower count on Instagram? This week, Darlene Brock and Julie Bender get together to offer a single resounding answer to all those questions: No. Your self-worth isn’t determined by any of these things. And yet, the culture we live in upholds this pervasive idea that our worth is dependent on what we do or how put-together our lives appear, when in reality—in God’s reality—it’s who

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What My Faith Says About My Purpose

By Darlene Brock / Faith, Purpose

I know that a woman of faith probably shouldn’t admit she thinks any book of the Bible is depressing, but there is one that I truly believe is! I realize there are some pretty troubling stories and incredibly sad scenarios written in God’s Word, but before you get all weird on me, thinking I am speaking badly about the Bible, hear me out. I find it easy to believe that God would agree the stories are both troubling and sad. Much of what is written reveals our human failure and our pursuit of selfishness and sin. These words also reveal God’s righteous intervention as He offers His mercy and grace with the goal of rescuing us from ourselves. It is when I

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This Is How I Found Out Who I Am

By Amanda-Lee Pitzer / Faith

I love Sundays. After church I take my son down the street to our favorite farm. He throws on his boots, grabs his horse, and tacks her up. He knows exactly what he is doing and how to do it. He talks to her as he works, adoration in his eyes. Once she is all set, he takes her into the ring, hops on, and begins warming her up with a few laps. The barrels are set up, and he begins walking her through as he reminds her of the task at hand. He comes to a halt, and his instructor steps away and lets him have at it. Sometimes there is frustration as he drops the wrong hand from the reins

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three happy women in bathing suits taking a selfie on the beach and not worried about body image issues

The Airbrushed Bombshell: Brushing Back Body Image Issues

By Brianna Barrett / Faith

As I look through my Instagram feed, I’m greeted with numerous pictures of beach attire including the dreaded bathing suits. Every year or so, we ladies go on the adventure of finding the perfect swimsuit to accentuate our bodies. Maybe before the big shopping adventure, you go on that New Year’s resolution diet of low carbs and water, or maybe you have been going to the gym six times a week in anticipation of this forthcoming season. Maybe you are like me and getting close to 40 and don’t feel comfortable in your skin, much less with your skin showing for the entire world to see. Body Image Issues: Focused on the Imperfections When I gaze into that mirror, the first thing

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