Stand up. Fight on.

We are in a battle. A battle for our hearts, for our lives, for our dreams, for our futures. The enemy wants nothing more than to cripple us. To leave us in our tracks. To leave us broken, wounded, and ineffective for the kingdom. But I say stand up. Fight on.

When I look at my life as a 25-year-old single, some things have gone according to plan. Other things have not. If you would have asked me when I graduated from high school, what I would be doing when I was 25 I would have told you I'd probably be married with kids and working as a PT. I've got that last part down (and I'm loving that!) but the first part, not so much.

But as I'm learning, life doesn't always go according to plan. In the last year since graduation, God has brought me back home to Texas to a job that I love, a home that I own close to my family, a sweet puppy that I love, and much to my surprise, he brought me back to the church I grew up in. Now don't get me wrong, I love my church. I just didn't think that when I graduated from college that's where I would end up. But here I am. And in the last year, I've been given the opportunity to plug in and work with an amazing group of middle school and high school girls.

Over the last several months, we have studied and discussed topics real to girls and women alike. Acceptance. Appearance. Failure/shame. Discontentment. Isolation. Conflict. Gossip. Broken Promises. The list could go on forever. But  I'm convinced that whether your 13 or 80 the enemy's game plan is the same. To attack a woman at her heart. To attack the places and spaces in her life where it hurts the most and to leave her ineffective for the kingdom.

So often recently I've caught myself missing out on opportunities because of my discontentment with singleness. But what I've realized is this, Satan wants nothing more than to leave me broken, lonely, discontent, and angry with this season of my life. He wants to miss opportunities to minister and to bring glory to God's kingdom. For so long I've looked at my singleness as a burden. But what I've missed is the blessing. The opportunities that are ONLY available right now being single. But Satan will not win. I will fight on.

Lets be honest, this world we live in is a scary place and getting scarier by the minute. Tonight my heart is heavy and burdened for sweet innocent babies who are being beheaded  simply because they or their families are Christians. Sweet brothers and sisters who seem like a world away are standing up to fight on, in the name of Jesus. Oh how selfish I am. My struggles and burdens at times seem suffocating. But the truth is, no one has every put a gun to my head demanding that I renounce my faith. No one's ever threatened to behead me or my family because we follow Christ. But somehow I lose my battle far more often than I'd like to admit. I let Satan win. I let him cripple me and leave me ineffective. But I owe it to these sweet brothers and sisters to stand up and fight on. To focus my eyes on Jesus, the places and spaces that he has me today, and to fight on. If they can stand up and fight on in the midst of battle on a mountain top in Iraq, I can stand up and fight on in my comfortable American life.

Over the last several weeks I've been thinking about my girls (yes, "my" girls) as they prepare to go back to school in a few weeks. I've been thinking about their hearts, their dreams, their futures and the attacks the enemy will most certainly throw their way this year. And my prayer is that they will stand up and fight on. That they will know the love and acceptance of a Savior who loves them enough to send his son to die on the cross for them. That they will known that their worth lies more in who God says they are than who the world or some guy or some popular group of girls says they are. That God's plans for them rest more heavily on the advancement of his kingdom than the grades they make or the athlete they are. That they are not defined by broken families or broken promises. That they can stand up and fight on.

I want my youth girls, my friends, the ladies in my church, the ladies that I see at work, the women in my family, the girl on the street to know that you can stand up and fight on. The best part is this...we don't have to do it alone. God doesn't send us into battle alone. I'm reminded of God's preparation of David, a lowly shepherd boy in his youth would take down the Giant that an army of trained men feared. And God prepared David to face the giant by using every day circumstances and challenges in his life.

Sweet ladies, girls, sisters in Christ, be encouraged. We can stand up and fight on. You don't have to do it alone. Whatever your battle is that your facing today God is preparing you. Maybe he's using the circumstances in your daily life right now to prepare you to take down the Giant. Imagine what our world would look like if we all stood up and fought on. If our middle school and high school girls stood up and fought on. If they fought to protect their hearts, their dreams, their futures, and their friends. If they grasped tightly to the promises of the Father and ran wholeheartedly into the battles for their schools and for their worlds. If singles fought the battles of loneliness and discontentment and ran wholeheartedly towards the opportunities God has for them right now. If moms fought the battles of fears, anxieties, broken dreams and broken promises, and ran wholeheartedly into battle for their children, their husbands, and the futures of their families.

Sweet sisters will you stand up. Will you fight on? Will you trust that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords has a plan that is so much bigger than we can even imagine. A plan to walk into battle with you every single day so that his name may be glorified. That whether your battle is in your home, your school, or on a mountain side in Iraq, he is with you. He is ready to take your hand, lift your from your knees, from those broken spaces and places in your life and he is ready to fight for you. Will you stand? Will you fight on? Will you look to the left and to the right and see sisters standing and fighting with you?

We are in a battle. Will you stand up and fight on?