“You don’t have to be with somebody to be somebody” - Diamond Monet

You saw the quote, I saw the quote, we all see the quote. As simple and rhymey as the quote is, some people find it hard to believe. I’ve seen so many girls live their lives going from boyfriend to boyfriend, relationship to relationship, looking and longing for a deeper kind of love. They act like they need to be in a relationship to feel valued, to feel loved, and to feel like they belong. It saddens me to think that they look at themselves so lowly, that they measure their value by placing it in the hands of others. I look at them and ask myself, “ Don’t they know that they are valued simply because God created them? Don’t they see that while they are spending all of their time chasing the hearts of these men {but let’s be honest, boys :) } they are forgetting that they have a Heavenly Father who longs to show them what real love looks like?” I’ve had friends of mine tell me that they decided to send inappropriate pictures of themselves to a boy just to see how he would react, sadly thinking that this action would cause this guy to be interested in them. My heart hurt for my friends as they shared stories of themselves lowering their standards and breaking boundaries of modesty and self-respect for their temples. I wanted to scream, “Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and that God made you beautifully and wonderfully?!?!” Eventually as time passed on, I found that with every heart-wrenching story I was told, the more I felt God telling me that I had to say something about it. About two years ago, I met up with a close family friend and we began to talk about school drama and the latest news on various topics. I remember discussing with her the pain I had seen young women around me put themselves through, throwing themselves on boys, begging for somebody to love them. It really started to irritate me if I’m honest, and in that moment I remember looking up at my friend as I exhaled, “ I wish they could just know that they don’t have to be with somebody to be somebody, you know?” Ever since that moment, the quote listed above has stuck with me, and I have used it ever since. I hope I am not the first person to tell you that you are a precious treasure in God’s eyes. He sees you, He knows you, and He loves you with all of His heart! You don’t need to date someone to feel valued and listened to, and you don’t need to show your body off in order to feel loved. You have a Heavenly Father who adores you and is proud of who He made you to be. He has formed you with intention, breathed life into your lungs, and has a purpose for you far beyond what you or I could ever imagine. Stop seeking approval from others and start longing for a deep relationship with the one who made you. In the end, His opinion is the only one that matters anyway.