I recently watched  a short video on Facebook by a woman who said her grandmother compared a woman to a glass vase, in that, once the vase is broken it would be impossible to piece it back together.

I know this woman’s grandmother isn’t the only person who thinks of women this way. We see all over Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat and Pinterest quotes or pictures describing the pain a girl or woman feels over being broken. Broken by love, broken by family, broken by fake friends, broken by disappointment, broken by selfishness: they break and view themselves as glass. Shattered, they assume, they will remain. They choose, with each moment of self-pity and self-focus, to remain broken.

If we look at the Bible, however, the women that God used to fulfill His great plans were firm faith warriors. Eve experienced the greatest loss any woman could experience the day she bit into that forbidden fruit, but she didn’t remain destitute outside of the garden she could never return to. She went on to speak of God’s gifting when He allowed her to conceive and give birth to her firstborn son.

Miriam was born into slavery and watched as Pharaoh attempted to murder Israelite baby boys. She watched her brother go into the river, not knowing if he would die. She endured decades of promises that God would deliver her people. All of these would have broken her permanently if her spirit were made of glass: but Miriam endured and helped her brother lead their people towards the Promised Land.

Esther… Ruth… Mary… Mary Magdalene… Priscilla… Lydia… so many women of the Bible who showed incredible faith despite their broken lives that didn’t go according to their earthly plans. They chose faith over their feelings.

God intends for you, His daughter, to be made of steel: He has called you to be His warrior princess. You will not be broken by waylaid plans. You will not be broken by a relationship God did not intend for you. You will not be broken by abuse, neglect, or the world’s opinion of what you should look and act like. You have strength through your Father to endure it all with grace.

But this requires a choice. You have to be willing to choose to control your feelings rather than letting your feelings control you. I know it can be hard — especially if you’re used to letting your feelings take over. I’ve been there — I lived there and wasted years on feelings. But God so clearly tells us that we’re to be “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” Thoughts and feelings that leave us feeling broken are high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. God says we can be healed, that we can have victory, and that we’re not to trust our hearts (our feelings). Yet, we allow our feelings much more power over our spirits than we let God.

God has equipped you daily to win your battles against your feelings and circumstances. Lamentations 3:21-23 tells us, “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” God renews His daily mercies for you to live every single morning. That means that whatever mercy and grace you need to thrive in this day, God provided to your spirit the moment you opened your eyes from sleep. That headache you woke up with? God’s given you a mercy to handle that gracefully. The lady on her cellphone that cut you off on the highway commute? God’s got a mercy for that one, too.

Everything that you need to get through the day with a loving, kind spirit with a Christ-like attitude, God has gifted you each and every single morning. But, just as with our salvation, we must receive those faith gifts in order to use them. Acknowledging that God knew you’d have that headache and that God knew you’d be cut off is the first step towards accepting God’s new mercies. Praying that God would help you accept His mercies will give you the power to use them, too. If you already have a good idea of what could happen that might upset you throughout your day, you can ask in advance that God help you through it with His mercies. And how soon we do forget that He gave us beautiful instructions for growing our faith in His Word every single day. If you find yourself wallowing, ask yourself these questions:

1. Have I prayed about this?
2. Have I read my Bible asking God to teach me from what I read?
3. Am I trusting my faith in God or in my feelings?

You are more than your circumstances or feelings. Psalms 104:31 tells us “The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice in his works.” We know that God reigns forever, but most women (me included) tend to think that our feelings will reign forever, too. It’s so easy for us to get caught up in our emotions and start believing that our feelings will break us at any moment. But if we’re able to bring every thought into captivity, how strong could our feelings be in comparison to our God?

I’m not saying you can’t be sad when things happen to you that hurt. There are things that deserve our tears and sorrow. I am saying you can’t stay there. Don’t wallow. Don’t complain. Don’t covet what great things  every girl around you seems to have in their lives. Just choose to believe that God equipped you for the circumstance He’s placed you in. Christ is enough.

Now go have some faith, my warrior princesses! Face those feelings battles ferociously in His strength!

Love, Meghan