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Emerald Barnes

#LiveBeautiful


Ever since I heard about Tabitha’s hashtag, #LiveChosen, I’ve been a huge fan of it. Why? Because it reminds me so much of my own, #loveyourself and #youarebeautiful. I know you’re wondering how that’s possible. It is strange, but to me, they interconnect. I even joked with Tabitha about a #livebeautiful hashtag to connect them.

Let me explain my hashtags for a moment. #youarebeautiful and #loveyourself came about because of my novel, Entertaining Angels. I wanted to show people that they were beautiful and loved just as they are. You don’t have to conform to society’s standard of beauty to be beautiful. You’re just beautiful. God created you as you were, and He loves you no matter what. That’s the most important thing to remember. God loves you no matter what, and He created you to be on this planet. How amazing is that?! He thought the world needed YOU. I guess you could even say that He chose you.

That’s why #livechosen is special to me, although it’s not my hashtag, because it shows us that God has chosen us for greater things. He created us with a purpose and full of beauty and love, and He has chosen each of us to do a specific thing for Him.

For instance, I’ve been put on this earth to show you guys how amazing, beautiful and wonderful you are! To tell you that God loves you just as you are, and He loves you no matter what you look like or no matter what you’ve done in your past. You are God’s child, and it’s our job to love ourselves just as He loves us.

Why is it important for us to love ourselves? It’s important because if we constantly hate ourselves and put ourselves down, we can’t do what God has chosen us for. We’re too focused on us to see the bigger picture, to see that God has bigger and better plans for us.

I think we all know the story of Queen Esther. She was a very beautiful woman who was chosen by the king. He loved her very much and gave her everything that she wanted. She was raised by a Jewish family, and Haman, the king’s right hand man so to speak, wanted to kill the Jews. This upset her uncle, Mordecai, and he implored for her to go to the king and plead for the Jews.

From what I understand, she wasn’t supposed to enter the king’s court. In fact, if you came to the king’s court, and he didn’t want to speak with you, you would be killed, but she found favor in his sight and he told her that whatever she wished, it would be given to her.

Things were laid out to where she told the king of Haman’s plans, and Haman was killed instead of the Jews. God had chosen her, given her favor, so that an entire race of people would be saved.

Mordecai said it best when he spoke to Esther: “…Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)

Esther was put in the right place at the right time, and God chose her. He made her beautiful and desirable and He did the same thing for you. He made you all of those things because you have a greater purpose. Even if you don’t know that purpose, it’s still there. You just have to trust God.

There’s one thing that He told me that has always stuck with me. “You’re beautiful because I made you.” He created us, and God only creates beautiful things! You’re beautiful, and you are chosen. It’s time that we start to #livebeautiful so that we can #livechosen! God has a plan for each of us, and it’s our job to set aside our doubts, fears and worries and know that God has put us where and when we are for “such a time as this.”

You are a beautiful person, and God loves you very much. I hope that you remember that when you look in the mirror and see nothing worth loving. You were created for so much more. You are worthy of love, of everything that God has given you. Never doubt that.

#LiveChosen, my friends, because the Savior loved you enough to create you.

Emerald is awesome. We share a publisher and a heart for girls. I totally recommend checking out her blog as well as her books and engaging with her on social media. She is beautiful inside and out. And she has the best southern accent ever!!

Her blog


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