{"id":175,"date":"2014-02-27T05:50:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T05:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cherylrostek.com\/index.php\/2014\/02\/27\/words-for-ella\/"},"modified":"2014-02-27T05:50:00","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T05:50:00","slug":"words-for-ella","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherylrostek.com\/index.php\/2014\/02\/27\/words-for-ella\/","title":{"rendered":"Words for Ella"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>(For those of you who do not know, Ella Smith is the heroine in the novel I began penning a few years ago.&nbsp; I have surpassed the 50,000 word mark and so my work can indeed be deemed a novel; but the book itself has been sitting still for the last while)<o:p><\/o:p><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This is it! This is what I want Ella Smith to know.&nbsp; This is what I want every woman to know: you are beautiful because you are created in the image of God.&nbsp; <o:p><\/o:p><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I\u2019ve been struggling the last couple of months with self-image.&nbsp; It\u2019s not a new struggle (and I\u2019m quite certain it\u2019s a very ubiquitous one); but, it is one that hasn\u2019t even remotely shown its face in my life in the last year.&nbsp; So it\u2019s fresh for me. Trying to remind myself why I\u2019m beautiful and not dwell on physical flaws and to reaffirm my self-worth.&nbsp; I\u2019ve also been struggling the last (too long of a) while with prioritizing my faith and listening to God speak.&nbsp; I felt particularly down in the dumps the last couple of days and so committed to go to bed early last night. &nbsp;I read a few pages of a parenting book that was given to us by the church for Rayna\u2019s child dedication.&nbsp; It spoke of how parenting requires you to listen to God. \u201cHumph,\u201d I thought \u201cI should try that again: listening to God.\u201d So I decided to ensure that I would rise in the morning to some personal time. When I arose and walked into my living room a spectacular sun rise lit up the sky above the mountain line.&nbsp; It was a brilliant orangey pink and I was stunned.&nbsp; It was just what I needed to be reminded of God\u2019s spectacular creation. During the moments that followed I was reminded of 2 things that God has spoken to me in the recent days which I haven\u2019t really pursued; so, I left my couch with a reminder to not only listen but act.&nbsp; Sort of a \u201cyes-God\u201d compliant attitude.&nbsp; <o:p><\/o:p><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But God spoke to me again.&nbsp; As if a gift and as if to say I\u2019ll continue to speak to you if you will listen.&nbsp; It was this evening at the gym while I was stretching and the pump-up tunes were blasting in the background. It was not a quiet, tranquil moment; but my heart was ready and so I heard it \u201cYou are beautiful because I made you in My image.\u201d&nbsp; And I was given a vibrant visual reminder of the sunrise this morning and the beauty of God\u2019s creation and God saying that His creation is \u201cgood\u201d.&nbsp; I am beautiful.&nbsp; Like that sunrise.&nbsp; Created in God\u2019s image.<o:p><\/o:p><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I\u2019ve been thinking about my novel and actually wanting to complete it and as of a month ago I actually have an outline formulated to finish it.&nbsp; Part of the details require me to figure out what lasting and final words to give to Ella through the voice of her grandmother.&nbsp; I love the verse in Ephesians 2 where it states \u201cwe are God\u2019s masterpiece.\u201d&nbsp; And I think Ella will need to hear that.&nbsp; But (I don\u2019t think this will create too much of a spoiler for those of you who will actually read my book) in the minutes after I savored God\u2019s words and finally wiped off my work-out mat and packed up to come home, I found my mind wandering: \u201cDid I need to be here so I could know better what to say to Ella?\u201d And the common thread of womanhood felt so strong to me: the need for security and the all-too-often search for it in the wrong avenues.&nbsp; It\u2019s a struggle, I believe, for every woman to be a confident woman who loves herself.&nbsp; But this is vital so we can love those around us.&nbsp; And what is vital to reach this place is to embrace our God who calls us His beautiful daughters. <o:p><\/o:p><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>So, Grandma Brown to Ella and woman to woman remind one another that you are a masterpiece, who is rightly called a daughter of God, and has been created in the very image of God! (Ephesians 2:10, 1 John 3:1, Genesis 1:27)<o:p><\/o:p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(For those of you who do not know, Ella Smith is the heroine in the novel I began penning a few years ago.&nbsp; I have surpassed the 50,000 word mark and so my work can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Words for Ella - Cheryl Rostek<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cherylrostek.com\/index.php\/2014\/02\/27\/words-for-ella\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Words for Ella - Cheryl Rostek\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(For those of you who do not know, Ella Smith is the heroine in the novel I began penning a few years ago.&nbsp; 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