Introduction (00:00)
Hi. I’m Kayla Wilder, and you’re listening to Love, Faith & the Miles in Between. This podcast is about the amazing ways that God shapes us and the exciting moments on the journey. If your heart is ready for renewal and discovery, this space is for you.
Hi everyone! Hello and welcome to episode six. I’m so excited to have you guys here. Thanks for joining. Um, no matter where you are, if you’re in the car on your way to work, if you’re at home, just starting your day, uh, whatever you’re up to. Thank you. Thank you for joining.
Let’s Start with a Miracle (00:35)
So let’s talk about glow ups. Let’s talk about glow ups. Um, Godly glow ups. I, I’m not kidding. Before I like sat down to record this episode, a fly like landed on my arm and then stayed there and let me walk over to the back door, open it up and let the fly go free out into the wilderness. And there was another fly that was trapped in between the door and the the screen door. So they both went free.
Um, and that was so crazy because literally, like in my notes that I have here, like I wanted to specifically talk about what it’s like, um, when, when the spirit of the Lord is like, it’s coming out of you and, and, and not just people, but animals can, can feel it too. It’s like part of the Godly glow up package. That’s so that was so awesome. Um, so I’m excited, I’m excited to share this stuff with you guys because it’s summertime. Um, everyone’s traveling. Everybody is, you know, spending time outside family, friends, functions, you name it. Um, and of course, like right around this time, I think is when people start to like really take their, their physical appearance into consideration. Like it’s always about making sure that you’re dressed right and making sure that, you know, your hair is done and everything else.
And, and even if you’re Christian and you know, you really live on, do not worry. Um. Even still, like you can get ready for an event and then look at yourself and just be like, what? Like actually like what’s going on? And it stings in the heart a little bit too sometimes. So. So I wanted to talk about the process of God kind of plucking you up out of that, that worry and that concern, um, about, you know, your personal appearance, your aesthetics, all of those things. I wanted to talk about him plucking you up out of that and placing you in this, in this space where other other things are, are, are beautiful and they’re important and they’re visible. Um, and they all contribute to, to, to spreading the good news. So yeah, let’s get into it.
What is A Godly Glow Up? (3:07)
o the goal of a glow up is to make you feel beautiful and whole and clean, right? But Jesus said that what comes out of our hearts is what makes us dirty or clean, right? Not what goes on our backs, not what we eat. And so when we want to change, we have to ask Jesus first because he’s the one who makes us feel whole. He’s the one who brings peace to us and gives us perspective on our past, and shows us the hope for our future.
Everything is like everything comes from him first. And so when he puts it in our hearts, uh, our glow ups, they, they show up a little differently, like a little, they show up a lot differently. Like we as people change wholly and entirely when we give God the reigns and you become a better steward of your temple. You know, your body, of your home and your hobbies. Um, you have more love for people. You’re more obedient. And then when we say that you are a light on a hill and a shining city that can’t be hidden. Like it really does. A Godly glow up really does make it that like you literally become the person who, um, is, is, is shining in, in the midst of a crowd. People are drawn to you. Um, and you make an impact and it’s, it’s a beautiful thing. It’s a beautiful, um, it’s a beautiful way to live.
It’s a beautiful way to live. And in my opinion, it’s better than anything that you could have done on your own is how it started for me was first obedience. The first rule to a Godly glow up is obedience. You can’t access the goodness of the father if you don’t do what he says, right? His reward is with him. And so if there are instructions, because that’s the thing, it’s not always that like, you know, His voice comes down from the heavens and He tells you what to do with your life.
Um, it actually, it starts out really basic in the Bible. Um, there are instructions, there’s scripture, there is a particular scripture, um, that’s been on your mind, an instruction that you heard from, from a parent or an elder or a boss or somebody that you respect something that they’ve been telling you to do. First things first, in order to get this Godly glow up is you have to follow it. You have to follow that instruction. That’s, that’s step number one. Um, my favorite example of this is when Moses came down from the mountain after having spent time in the presence of God, right? And his face was glowing.
Not to make everything about like, you know, how we look, but when it comes to like, wanting to, wanting to feel proud of your temple, wanting to, um, present yourself a certain way, um, or knowing that you have to present yourself a certain way because of the work that God has assigned to you. Um, when it comes to Moses coming down from the mountain. For me personally, I was like, okay, so what you’re saying is no more acne. What you’re saying is my skin looks right. Like what you’re saying is like, my hair is healthy, like a Godly glow up. It requires you to be in his presence. And when you spend time in his presence, everything else like gets wiped off.
It’s like a, like a whiteboard, like a whiteboard with like the expo markings. What am I trying to say? Like a whiteboard with the expo marker drawings all over it. And being in the presence of God is like somebody not just taking the, um, the eraser and like giving it a good wipe down. But you remember the spray that everyone used, the spray that like sanitized the whole thing and it left it leaving like, and, and it left the whole thing smelling like rubbing alcohol and lemon. That’s what the presence of God does to your organs. Um, to, to your skin, to your mind.
Like he, I mean, it’s God. He’s the creator of all things and the, the, the prime, the prime like premium. Top shelf version of how you’re supposed to be feeling in this situation, in whatever situation you’re in. The key to that is in obeying him.
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How to do the Exercise (7:58)
So this is a story that I wanted to tell when I was twenty three. I found myself having like a really bad streak. Um, I had like, I had, like, this is when the Lord had put it on me that it was okay for me to be interested in fashion. Um, that it was like a hobby, a passion he’d put in me.
At that point, I had started figuring out like, what looked good on me and what, like, made me feel the most confident. And I remember I had a, I had a period like two weeks straight where even though like, I felt like I looked good, even though I felt like I was, you know, taking care of myself. The way that I was being treated was so, like off, if you know what I mean.
Like, like, it’s like, if you go into a boardroom and you’ve got on your best suit and you practiced your speech down and you’re your presentation is perfect. And then at the end of, at the end of it, all the people who are watching you like start asking you about what you ate this morning or like, whether you drink like mineral water or purified water.
It’s like, it’s like, it’s like if you go in somewhere with like an intention and a purpose and you know that you did it right. And then the response has absolutely nothing to do with anything that you just did. I was so frustrated, I. I had put a lot of like time and effort into doing my hair and my nails and finding, um, just finding something that worked for me.
And it wasn’t supposed to be a really big deal either. I didn’t necessarily go into the bathroom that morning thinking that like, oh, it’s, I’m, I’m a new person. It’s the new me and I’m gonna change things up. It was more about just like not wanting to feel, not wanting to feel like. Slobby, dare I say it? Is that the word sloppy? Not not wanting to feel like sloppy or like, just not put together. I just didn’t feel, I just didn’t feel, I don’t know, I didn’t feel like I was taking care of myself at that time. Um, and so I did, I went in and I started taking care of myself and yeah, I know the way that people responded was, was super crazy.
It became a lot about like, oh, like, well, you must be trying to get this kind of person’s attention and you want to do these things and this, that, and the third, and that was when I realized that you can’t like, you can’t make changes based on what other people say or what, what you think other people are going to think about you. Um, it has to be about it has to be about love. It has to be about what’s happening inside of you.
And I found this is the craziest part was I found a blog post and God bless them, these women were so like serious. I was reading through the article and I was like, what can I do to, you know, feel better about myself and change how how the people around me are perceiving me. And this article just came flat out, straight out and said, if you are being objectified by people, it’s because you’re objectifying yourself.
The way my jaw hit the floor, I. Oh my gosh, I was so offended. I was so confused. I looked around and I was like, I, I was totally alone as well. I read it in my room, but I looked around and I was like, I know they’re not talking about me, me, but right in the middle of me thinking about it, I was like, you know what? They probably like the fact that they would even say something like that means that whatever they’re doing, they’re, they’re serious about it. They’ve got something figured out. So let me just let me just try this out. Let me, let me not think about what, you know, let me not think about what someone else might say, um, about me. Let me just let me just figure out how I feel.
And so that was an exercise that I did where I like, stood in the mirror and went down like the list of things that I was that I couldn’t help but notice, and that I asked myself like, are you thinking about this thing? Because it’s something that you could use to reflect who you truly are within. Is it like a, is it something where you could express yourself artistically or something? Or is it just about being worried about what someone else thinks of you?
And once I made the list, um, I took everything that was on the side of. I think about this because I’m worried about how other people will perceive it. I took everything on that list, and it was a long list too. It was like, oh man, it was my makeup. It was, um, my hair. Yeah. It was like the color of my nails. It was, it was everything. Well, not everything, but the list was long.
The list was so much longer than the side of, um, I just wanted to express myself. So I took everything on the, on the, on the other list and I just threw it out the window. It was like, okay, for the next week, I’m not going to think about my hair. I’m not going to do any makeup. I’m not going to worry about my nails. You know, we’re going to throw this thing up in a bun clip, clip my fingernails and, and, you know, throw on some mascara and call it a day and like, that’s it. That did everything for me.
The Results (13:51)
It did every— and it was double sided too, because it also like, because obviously my clothes were a part of this situation, right? But Jesus tells us not to worry about our lives, what we will eat or what we will wear, right? And so this did like a kind of like double, double whammy on me.
Um, as soon as I stopped paying attention to the things that I thought other people were paying attention to this, like the, the, the truest part of my heart just started coming out. Like I just started connecting with people, um, over, over what was really interesting to us. And a lot of times it wasn’t like some like a long conversation. A lot of times it was like little, little moments here and there, like standing in a room, um, with a stranger and you both connecting over what you see is happening outside of the window, um, or over a book that you just picked up without, without worrying, without even thinking about like, well, what do they think about how I look like?
It’s, it’s a totally different, it’s a totally different way of life.
And it’s so liberating. It’s so freeing. It’s the best thing ever. Um, yeah, I’m gonna recommend, I’m gonna recommend, um, giving it a try, give that exercise a try and, uh, tell me in the comments, let me know, let me know what it does for you. Let me know, let me know what it does for you because this is like, it’s, it’s, it’s awesome.
Um, there’s like a spiritual, there’s like a spiritual reality, um, a, a way of a way of life, a door that opens up to you, uh, when you put down worldly things and you can feel the difference, you can feel the difference, and you can see the difference. From the moment that I walked out of my apartment that day, I just felt different. I felt healthier, I felt better, and, um, my relationships were better too.
Not only that changes, but also literally like this brings us full circle, like the fly landing on my arm and just like staying there, the Spirit of God. It puts you in like Disney princess, Disney Prince mode. I’m not kidding. Like it’s it’s like the heart that God develops in you while he’s blowing you up. It doesn’t, it doesn’t just make you like come. When it comes to outer appearance, you want to help people. You want to be of service. You want to be a light in your community amongst the people that you love, and people can see it. And this is how the gospel gets spread. Um, the light that’s in you, it starts to attract people at a more sincere level.
Like it’s one thing when you’re like just kind of getting life done and it’s feeling like it’s going pretty good. And so people are like, okay, like I kind of, I want to see what I want to see what’s going on with this person. I think I could learn from them, but when, when God is transforming you, right? That’s when you start to see how literal Jesus’s words are, like when he says that you’re a light on a hill, it really, really, really means that you might as well be in a dark room and you’ve got like a, you’re the only person who has a flashlight. Like the way that people are drawn to you. It’s, um, it’s it’s beautiful.
It’s beautiful because they need Jesus.
Like the people who are coming to you, they need Jesus and they recognize him. They recognize him through the glory that is radiating off of you. Um, all because you’re, you’re, you’re, you’re following instructions. So now your soul is glowing, your skin is glowing, your hair is growing. It’s, you couldn’t get a better package than a Godly glow up. You really couldn’t.
So try this out. Obedience number one. First things first is obedience. Obey God’s Word over your life. And then number two. Try the exercise. Stand in the mirror. Ask yourself what you spend time on because it’s part of personal expression versus what you spend time on because of how others might perceive you. And then everything that’s on the how others might perceive you list. Just neutralize it.
Put your hair in a ponytail. Wear the most basic outfits. Um, really just like make it as minimal as possible. Give Jesus the opportunity to, like, cleanse that whole side of you out. There’s a completely different life, a beautiful life, a better life that’s waiting when you when you hand those things over to him. And that’s the whole point of life, isn’t it?
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Scripture (19:12)
It’s like Proverbs thirty one, verse thirty says, charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting. But a woman who fears the Lord is to be honored.
19:20 Heart Talk
Because the point of a Godly glow up is to honor God is to fear him first. Fear him first, and then everything else gets put into place. Because the world’s way isn’t the only way. You don’t have to go to Pinterest and create like a giant vision board on on your personal aesthetic if you don’t want to. And you don’t have to romanticize your life if you don’t want to.
That’s not what the Bible says to do. That’s not what the Bible says to do.
The secrets are in Christ, and the secrets are really not secrets at all. It’s it’s it’s, it’s simple instruction. It’s about putting other people first. It’s about being of service. It’s about being kind. It’s about helping one another. That’s, that’s the beauty that, that you really want. And I say this Disney princess, Disney prince thing again, because I really like, I can’t get over it. Just imagine, like what it must have been like for Jesus when he was out in the wilderness, not in the wilderness, but when he would go and pray alone, away from the disciples.
Can you just imagine, like Jesus in the woods outside of Jerusalem and all of the bunnies and the birds and the squirrels in the area, just, oh, come to him. Come to him like he’s Snow White because he’s Jesus. Like what? It’s the cutest thing ever. It’s the cutest thing ever. And I don’t I don’t love flies. But what just happened? That’s that was amazing.
Give it a try. Give it a try. The beauty that. The beauty that is inside of you. You’ll also see reflected outside of you. You just have to rely on God and love your neighbors. And that’s all I have for this episode.
Thank you for listening! If you have any questions or if you’d like to share your testimony. Please remember to to share it with us, to share in the comment section or send an email at info@amourabroad.com. And why don’t we pray out this episode?
Prayer (21:35)
God, thank You for Your love. Thank You for Your patience. Thank You that You wait for us when we go our own way and You hold Your arms open when we return again. Give us grace to see, courage to trust, and hearts to discern what leads us back to You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Outro (21:56)
Thank you for joining me on this episode of Love, Faith & the Miles in Between. If you enjoyed today’s topic, please share it with a friend, and remember to subscribe to the newsletter for more travel, faith, and love stories.
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