How to Protect Your Femininity

A 5 step blueprint on how to protect the gift of femininity God has given us

Discussing how to protect our confidence, vulnerability, life force energy, and more, and taking lessons from the story of Samson

My Worship Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ymqW6Yjv7Iw5ZbTan2uuU

Have a beautiful and blessed week!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, hello, my beautiful ladies. Welcome into the Fruitful Feminine. We are talking about how to protect your femininity today. This was a requested episode and I'm really, really happy to make it. And if this is your first episode, welcome. I'm Alexis. I'm a feminine energy coach and I love Jesus. And this is the space where we talk about both. Really understanding how a relationship with God looks like and feels like as a woman and how to be the best version of yourself that God created you to be. If you've already been here for a while, welcome back in. I love that you're here. I'm so excited to have this conversation today because we're going to be reading a story that we've never talked about on this podcast. And it's one that is ironically about a man, but it's still gonna have to do with this topic. And it's one of those stories that when you read it, you think, how could he not understand what he's doing? But we all do this and we often don't catch it. And so I want to share this story to plant as a seed in your subconscious so that you can be aware and protect your femininity. A couple of announcements. Number one is next week we will not have an episode. I'm going to be spending some time with my brothers and my sister. We're taking a siblings trip. Yes, it actually made it out of the group chat, and I'm so excited. So I will miss you all next week. Um, I'm actually gone as you're listening to this. I just didn't want to leave you for two weeks. And so thank you so much for your patience, as I won't be seeing you this week. Next announcement: this doesn't have anything to do with the episode, but I want to make sure that you have this. I created a cookbook. It's the most random, fun side quest activity that I've been playing with. And I always talk about recipes and health. I'm really passionate about nutrition and feeling good in your body. It's the foundation of feminine energy, right? Actually, it does have to do with this topic today. And so if you want that cookbook, go to thefemineglow.com, go to our website, go to the about page. So you've probably already been on the website a while, but where the cookbook is is on the about page. It's not on the home page. It's free, it's fun. I made it super, super uh cheeky and just really playful. And there's a few recipes in there. Each one talks about what part of your body it's good for, whether it's your libido, whether it's your gut health. So free cookbook just came out. I'm very excited about it. Now, coming back to how to protect your femininity. We're gonna be talking about how to not just protect your femininity, that idea of being a woman, but also internally, your inner essence, your feminine energy. Why is it so important to protect this? Is because being a woman, you are more vulnerable. God has created us as a more vulnerable gender intentionally. And there's a very specific way that we have to protect that. And you can see how powerful the gift of a woman is all throughout scripture and how much she is protected and honored and just treasured by God. One example that I think of is when I was reading the Old Testament, I think this was in Deuteronomy, and it's talking about all of the tribes of Israel, how they form, and at what age the men have to be soldiers and be a part of strengthening their military. And there's one rule that really caught my eye, and the rule for the Israelites were or was that the men cannot serve as a soldier if they are newly married. They must have one year just to spend with their wife. I love that. Wouldn't that be nice if that was the law today? Newly married couples, you don't go to work for one year, just enjoy each other. Husband, enjoy your wife. Like the rest of the men have got it covered, okay? Wouldn't that be so nice? So how powerful women are, it's such a you can see it so much throughout scripture because what women do for men, just one year of a man spending with his wife is enough to fuel him for the rest of his life to build that bond, to build up his strength, to build up his confidence as a man. What women give to men is even more permission to be men. And we're not gonna focus too much on what women do for men today, but that's just a cherry on top. The gift of femininity is also so powerful that a disconnection from it is a disconnection from life. If there were no women in this world, if there was no femininity, no feminine energy, life would end. We must protect femininity if we want to protect life. An example that I'm even thinking of is just how one woman makes such a difference in this world. If you've ever thought, what is my importance or what is my value in this world? You matter so specifically, and God places every woman in a specific spot at a specific time. The perfect example of this is Ruth. Ruth, she married a man. She probably thought, okay, my life is set. Um, I this is who I'm gonna be with for the rest of my life. She comes into the family of Naomi, who becomes her mother-in-law, and sadly, Ruth's husband dies, and Naomi's husband dies, and Naomi's other son dies. And so now Naomi is is left without a husband, but these two daughter-in-laws. And Ruth decides to go with Naomi back to her homeland and to honor her and to honor God. And while Ruth is there in her homeland, she meets a man named Boaz. And please, if you have not listened to the episode, The Masculine Energy Man Blueprint, that's actually one of our highest listened to episodes. I just saw this the other day. Please watch that episode because I talk about what to look for in a partner, in a man, and that is so essential when it comes to protecting your femininity, also. But why I brought up Ruth just now is because Ruth, when she meets Boaz and they end up getting married, and they have a son, they have a son named Obed. Obed is the grandfather of King David. King David is the ancestor of Jesus. Jesus descends from Ruth. Jesus descends from a very specific woman that God caused so many events to happen to to get her to a perfect place in a perfect time so that the Messiah could enter the world. So that's the power of women. A disconnection from it equals a disconnection from life. And when you are disconnected from your femininity, when you're disconnected from the parts that are so powerful of being a woman that God gave you as a gift, you disconnect from life. The life that you can create and the life that you bring others. Femininity is also so powerful that it saves a whole freaking generation. If we think about Esther, if it were not for Esther, all of the Jews, including Mordecai, probably including Esther if she didn't speak up, would have been wiped out by King Xerxes' assistant Haman, who wanted to kill all the Jews. Esther's gift of femininity, which, ooh, she used some beautiful, beautiful feminine energy. We talk about her story in another episode. I'm just blanking on uh which one this is. Um, if anyone remembers, can you please comment actually? So, Esther's feminine energy to go and speak to the king and say, My king, my husband, I'm worried because your assistant wants to wipe out my entire family. Women were not allowed to go and approach men at this time. They were not allowed to go and approach the king. Esther did, anyways. That's the power of feminine energy, and she literally saves a whole entire generation. Women are also so powerful that it was not even men that first realized Jesus had risen from the grave, it was women. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James, and a few other women. And when these women go and they see that the tomb, or they see that the tomb is empty and the stone is rolled away, they realize Jesus has risen. They're so excited, they run and tell the disciples, they run and tell the men that were walking with Jesus. Most of the men don't even believe them. The women were the ones that had that strong faith. That also is a gift of femininity. We're not going to talk about it too much today, but just the ability to believe is a gift of a woman. So women became the first ones to even share the gospel. So all of these powerful traits of femininity, yes, they are powerful. They must be protected because they are so powerful. So, how do you protect them? I'm gonna give you four ways of how to protect your femininity, and we're going to be reading the story of Samson. I'm so grateful for your guys' comments, by the way, because sometimes when I'm reading the scriptures, like we're reading a full story today, and I think, does this feel boring for the girls? I hope that because you know sometimes when you can hear someone reading, you kind of zone out. I like to talk, of course, and I love to give my own opinions, but I also love just reading out of the Bible. It feels so filling, and it's it's literally life. Uh, so I'm really glad to hear that you enjoy when I read these stories. So thank you for that feedback. This one I'm not gonna read a full chapter, but we're in the book of Judges. This is Judges 16, starting with verse 4. And this is the story of Samson. If you don't know who Samson is, I'll give you a quick backstory. At this time when Samson was born, in the book of Judges, Israel had entered the promised land. So they escape Egypt, God brings them into the wilderness. They're literally in the physical presence of God every day. Bread is falling from heaven, they have everything they need, and God is preparing them to go into the promised land. Long story short, well, 40 years later, I don't know if you can call that short, um, that's a whole other story. They finally enter into their promised land. And the Israelites, led by Joshua, conquer the north and the south of the promised land. If you've been consistently listening to every episode of this podcast, you're gonna know exactly what I'm talking about because we've been talking about this every week. How the Israelites, they're getting closer and closer to the Promised Land, and how not all of it is conquered, but a lot is, and you know why. So basically, they get into the Promised Land, and you would think, finally, after this 40-year journey, they have everything they need, they have an abundance of land, they have such fruitful harvests, they have like this was the most beautiful land in the world that God chose to give his children. Side note, I have a friend who lives in Jerusalem, and when I talk with them on the phone through a video chat and I see the land, it blows my mind how beautiful it is. I've never been to Jerusalem, I've never been anywhere there. Uh, but there's something special about that land. And in the book of Jeremiah, God says, I wanted to give you the finest possession in the world. And he was referring to the promised land. So the Israelites, they're about three generations in now, finally in the promised land. What do they do? They are disobedient to God, they are unfaithful to him, and they start worshiping false gods. They start worshiping idols, they start worshiping these physical images that were never meant to lead them. And God gets angry, releases his protection on them. I'm even angry as I'm talking about this, but we all uh we all fall at some point. And God goes, All right, go and stay protected by the gods that you want to serve. And the Israelites lose the promised land. And so all throughout Judges, it's this theme of Israel loses their promised land because the enemies overtake them, they lose the favor and protection of God, which is how you also lose your femininity is disobedience. And they constantly go into this pattern of they're slaves to their enemy, they cry out to God, God rescues them, he sends a judge, which is just a leader of Israel, to come and raise them up. And then the Israelites they get too comfortable, 30, 40 years pass, and they start worshiping these false gods again and forget about Yahweh. And it's just this pattern in judges of slavery, freedom, slavery, freedom, disobedience, faithfulness. And so God raises up Samson as one of the judges. So this is where we're fast-forwarding to. So before Samson is born, an angel, but not just any angel, the angel of the Lord, which is actually Jesus, comes to Samson's parents and tells them, You're going to have a baby. This baby is going to be dedicated to the Lord. He's going to be special, and he needs to be set apart as a Nazirite. And Nazirite was someone who dedicated their life to serving God. They consecrated, meaning they set them part, they set themselves apart from the community and did different things in a way to honor God. Three rules that the Nazarites had: they were not allowed to cut their hair. This will be very important in the story of Samson. They're not allowed to touch dead animals, dead carcasses, or sorry, not dead animals, uh, dead people. Like if someone died next to them and they happen to touch that person, they are no longer allowed to be a Nazirite at that time. It was very, very strict. Um, and I think dead animals were included in this, but I'm not a hundred percent. I'm still trying to study and figure this out. Third rule: they're not allowed to drink alcohol, they couldn't even have a grape. And so the angel Jesus, he tells, or the form of Jesus, the angel of the Lord, tells Samson's parents, you're going to have a son, dedicate him as a Nazarite, he's going to serve the Lord. And so Samson grows up and he has this really beautiful, special, long hair. It's always the men who get the good hair. It started in the Bible. And he never cuts his hair. And he ends up discovering that he has this supernatural strength. Uh, for example, there's a part, I think it was a lion or some animal, where Samson was able to grab the animal by the mouth and kill it. I'm sorry to get a little bit gruesome here. Uh, but he, yeah, he is able to have this strength that doesn't make sense. And it's because his strength is coming from God, of course, but in the form of his hair growing. And why it's in the form of his hair growing is to symbolize his dedication to God. So it's not the hair that gives him strength, it's the act of obedience, not cutting his hair as a as a not a costume, but as a a physical trait to show the world I serve the Lord. And so uh Samson, he's also being stirred by the Holy Spirit as he's growing up. So he just starts getting these feelings, these desires, these visions from the Holy Spirit as he's growing up. He foolishly, so Samson sees this woman that he wants to marry, and before the wedding, he he it's a Philistine woman, by the way, which was the enemy who was oppressing Israel at the time. And so Samson, he's already disobeying God by choosing to marry a woman who does not share his same faith, who is not from his same culture, and he m decides to get married to a woman who is a Philistine, who is also enslaving his people. And Samson gets in gets himself into some trouble. He gives some Philistine men who are friends of the bride, he gives them a riddle. And I'm not gonna go too much into this, you can read the full story if you'd like. Uh, but this riddle ends up getting his wife killed. And so this begins this long-term battle of Samson versus the Philistines. He wants to get revenge on his wife being killed, and the Philistines are mad that over the riddle and Samson's behavior and his revenge on them, and this long battle begins. So, this is where we're going to pick up reading. Judges 16, verse 4. Samson and Delilah. If you know this story, you knew this was coming. Sometime later, Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah who lived in the Valley of Soric. The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, Entice Salmon to tell you what makes him so strong and how he can be overpowered and tied up securely. Then each of us will give you 1,100 pieces of silver. Side note, uh, this was equivalent to $33 million in today's world. There were about five rulers who were going to Delilah at this time, each wanting to give her 1,100 pieces of silver. So 5,500 pieces of silver in today's time would be equivalent to $33 million in 550 years of continuous labor. So this is a very enticing offer to Delilah. Side note, this is why you cannot be in relationships with people who are unequally yoked, because they will be tempted by the world. They will be tempted by sin. And the love of sin without the root of God will always lead them to choose sin over you. You cannot be in that relationship and have a have a life of peace. So Delilah said to Salmon, or Salmon, Samson, I think I'm hungry. Please tell me what makes you so strong and what it would take to tie you up securely. Samson replied, If I were tied up with seven new bowstrings that have not yet been dried, I would become as weak as anyone else. Side note, when I this is for my girls on YouTube. When I say leave at the first sign, this is what I mean. When Delilah asks Samson, please tell me how you can be tied up so securely. AKA, run. So the Philistine rulers brought Delilah seven new bowstrings, and she tied Samson up with them. She had hidden some men in one of the inner rooms of her house, and she cried out, Samson, the Philistines have come to capture you. But Samson snapped the bowstrings as a piece of string snaps when it's burned by a fire. So the secret of his strength was not discovered. Afterward Delilah said to him, You've been making fun of me and telling me lies. Now please tell me how you can be tied up securely. Samson replied, If I were tied up with brand new ropes that had never been used, I would become as weak as anyone else. So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them. The men were hiding in the inner room as before, and again Delilah cried out, Samson, the Philistines have come to capture you. But again Samson snapped the ropes from his arms as if they were thread. Then Delilah said, You've been making fun of me and telling me lies. Now tell me how you can be tied up securely. This is me talking, this is not scripture. If you're wondering why is Samson dumb, first of all, you're not alone. Uh, but second of all, you'll see why he is continuing to go back to Delilah when I give you the four points around how to protect your femininity. So Samson replied, If you were to weave the seven braids of my hair into the fabric on your on your loom and tie it up with loom shuttle, I would become as weak as anyone else. He's getting closer and closer. So while he slept, Delilah wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric. Then she tightened it with the loom shuttle. Again she cried out, Samson, the Philistines have come to capture you. But Samson woke up, pulled back the loom shuttle, and yanked his hair away from the loom and the fabric. Then Delilah pouted, How can you tell me I love you when you don't share your secrets with me? You've made fun of me three times now, and you still haven't told me what makes you so strong. She tormented him with her nagging day after day until he was sick to death of it. Finally, Samson shared his secret with her. My hair has never been cut, he confessed, for I was dedicated to God as a Nazarite from birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as anyone else. Delilah realized he had finally told her the truth. So she sent for the Philistine rulers. Come back one more time, she said, for he has finally told me his secret. So the Philistine rulers returned with the money in their hands. Delilah lulled Samson to street to sleep with her head in his lap, or with his head in her lap. And then she called in a man to shave off the seven locks of his hair. In this way she began to bring him down, and his strength left him. Then she cried out, Samson, the Philistines have come to capture you. When he woke up, he thought, I will do as before and shake myself free. But he didn't realize the Lord had left him. So the Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They took him to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze chains and forced to grind grain in the prison. But before long his hair began to grow back. And I'm sorry to leave you with that cliffhanger, but that's going to be the end of the reading from Judges. What a story, right? And the story's not even done. There's still more. We're going to pause here and talk about a few things. Why I chose this story specifically is because it very clearly shows how to protect your femininity by living a certain way, saying no to certain things, and saying yes to others. The very first point here: how to protect your femininity. Do not flirt with sin. Do not even let sin come near you. Samson, from the outward view as a reader, it's it's the idea of Samson, why are you even giving her another chance? We love to look at Samson like this, but how many of us have given chances that we should not have, right? Well, Samson was stuck in this mode of flirting with sin, and even worse, he was intimate with the sin. And he kept inching closer and closer to it. Notice how the third, the third or fourth time he tells her, if you were to tie my hair in a braid, he's inching closer to sin. He's letting sin in his room, he's letting sin exist in his conversations, he's flirting with it and entertaining it. And the thing is, when we're flirting with sin, we place strength in ourself and we lose the strength of God. We place strength in our ability to say no to it or to know when to stop, and you can't. Because sin, when you flirt with it, becomes a slippery slope that you will be gliding on until you realize that you've fallen and you don't know how you got there. First Corinthians 10 12, it says, if you think you're standing strong, be careful not to fall. When you flirt with sin, you will stumble and you will lose protection. That verse is so frightening. It says, God left him. God doesn't ever leave us, he's always here. But his protection and favor may leave us. Just like in our episode, the connection between favor and obedience. If we are being disobedient, we lose access to favor. Because we're running and playing with disobedience, our hands are too full to even carry the favor. And so when you flirt with sin, it causes you as a woman to lose your protection. And what are forms of protection that God has given us? Our intuition, our discernment, our purity, our righteousness, our confidence. I was just having a conversation with someone, and I said, when I slack on my boundaries, especially when it comes to human relationships, I don't have my boundaries up the way that I should, I lose confidence. And when I lose confidence, I'm not a good coach. I must have boundaries for the sake of my community and for my clients. It's not even just for me anymore. That point about how purity and righteousness protects you. I'm not saying you have to be a perfectly holy person. That's impossible unless it's Jesus Christ we're talking about. But your purity and righteousness protects you. If we go back to the story of Ruth, when Ruth said, no, I'm not returning to my hometown and to the false gods that I grew up knowing. Naomi, I'm staying with you. My mother-in-law, I'm staying with you. I want to serve you and I want to serve your God. And she's serving Naomi, she's gathering grain, she's working hard. Ruth stumbles upon her husband, who just happens to own the field that she's taking grain from. And so her obedience, her righteousness, her pure heart to love and stay with Naomi leads her into favor and protection. And oh, the way that Boaz protects Ruth. I'm reading the story of Ruth again, if you can't tell. Ruth literally tells the men in his field drop extra pieces of grain for Ruth. Make it so easy so that she doesn't have to use her hands and actually pluck the grain. Drop things so that she can just pick them up. If we want to talk about favor, God sends us favor sometimes in the form of our partners and our husband. So that loss of protection for women again looks like a loss of connection to discernment, to intuition, to purity, righteousness, confidence. Those are just a few that I could think of. I do believe women have a stronger intuition than men. And that's not to say that as women are better than men, it's to say that we are the more vulnerable gender. God knew this and designed us this way. And so he gave our gut and our mind a strong connection to be able to pick up on certain things as a way of protecting ourselves. Our intuition acts as a spiritual strength where our physical strength doesn't quite match what men have. Okay, number one, do not flirt with sin. Number two, these are gonna be a bit polarizing, so just be ready. Do not share a bed with someone who isn't a yes from God or your husband. And I'm not just talking about an actual bed, yes, that too, but what I'm more talking about is access to you, access to your body, access to your secrets, to your vulnerability, and to your favor. The Bible says he who finds a wife finds a good thing and receives favor from the Lord. So many women are sacrificing their femininity, giving away their favor to men who have not found them as a wife. They're acting as a wife for a man who's not even ready to hold a wife. And so don't share a bed with someone who isn't a yes from God or your husband. And your husband, not or. But access to let's talk about access to your secrets and your vulnerability for a second. Something that I tell my clients and students a lot: your vulnerability must be earned in your dating life and in your relationship. I used to make the mistake of using vulnerability to connect. And so, very early on dates, this is when I was younger, I would always talk about my trauma. And then I would trauma bond, and that was not healthy. But also, it gave the wrong men access to a part of me that was very, very private and very, very precious. And access to that part in the hands of a wrong man is extremely dangerous when a man does not have the intention to protect your heart. And so this doesn't just go for men, this goes for women too. Spend time investing in the friendship before you share vulnerability in that friendship. I'm talking about deep vulnerability. Yes, you can always be an open book and be vulnerable, but I'm talking about your deepest secrets, your deepest vulnerability. I saw this quote that says journaling can save a lot of uh can save a lot of people from knowing what you never wanted them to know. Because as women, what do we love to do? Talk. And sometimes that can lead us into trouble. Have you ever shared something with someone, maybe in a friendship, and later realized I wish that I had never shared that. That's why it's so important to be careful about who you share a bed with, be careful about who you invite into that intimate space. The reason why it was even so easy for Samson to flirt with Sin is because Delilah was in his bedroom, in the part of him that was supposed to be the safest, the most relaxed, and the most free. He invited her in. His mistake was not having a boundary. So you must protect access to you, to your mind, to your body, to your favor, to your vulnerability. And this is so funny. I'm flipping through the Bible earlier, thinking about what should we talk about today? And I land on the story of Samson and I think, okay, that feels good. Let's talk about it. But the Holy Spirit was telling me there's something else. There's another part of the Bible. And I randomly flip to Psalm 101 and I see this part highlighted, and I think, yes, I've been wanting to share this on the podcast for so long, but it just hasn't been the right episode. So this is Psalm 101. We're going to actually read the whole thing because it's very short. And this is David writing. David says, I will sing of your love and justice, Lord. I will praise you with songs. I will be careful to live a blameless life. When will you come to help me? I will lead a life of integrity in my own home. I will refuse to look at anything vile and vulgar. I hate all who deal crookedly. I will have nothing to do with them. I will reject perverse ideas and stay away from every evil. I will not tolerate people who slander their neighbors. I will not endure conceit and pride. I will search for faithful people to be my companions. Only those who are above reproach will be allowed to serve me. I will not allow deceivers to serve in my house, and liars will not stay in my presence. My daily task will be to ferret out the wicked and free the city of the Lord from their grip. I love that. It goes so beautifully with the story of Samson. Verse 6: I will search for faithful people to be my companions. Only those who are above reproach will be allowed to serve me. You must have boundaries around the circle in your life. You must have boundaries around the people who are in your life by evaluating their integrity. I heard this quote last night that was just brilliant. And it said, The closer you want to get to me, the better your values have to be. And it's true. How you measure how close someone should get to you should be by their values. If you allow someone close to you who does not share the same values and you think, no, no, no, I'll be able to hold on to my own mind and my own beliefs. 1 Corinthians 10 12. If you think you're standing strong, be careful not to fall. Because Samson thought he would never lose his hair until he woke up and he was bald. So number two, do not share a bed with someone who isn't a yes from God and your husband. Number three, stay rooted in God. When you stay rooted in God, it keeps you connected to the vine. And there's that verse that says, Remain in me and I will remain in you, for no one can bear fruit unless he remains in me and I remain in him. And when you're bearing fruit of God because you're rooted in him, you're waking up, you're spending your time with him, you're devoting your life to him as Samson should have been doing as a Nazarite. When you're rooted in him, the fruits of the Holy Spirit sprout out from you. Love, patience, kindness, faithfulness. One of those fruits from the Holy Spirit is humility. And just like David was saying, I will not allow people near me who have pride. I will not entertain pride. Samson was entertaining pride. And he was entertaining arrogance. Remember when I was reading and I said, it may seem like Samson is so dumb. He was not only acting dumb, but he was acting dumb because he was arrogant. He was thinking, I know everything. This is my strength. It comes from me, so I'm in charge of it. And because he was arrogant, he lost his footing and slipped. This is the problem why uh things like laws of the universe and false teachings, false spiritual teachings, this is why they will never work. It's because when you are the source, you will always slip. You are trying to hold yourself up in a world that you did not build. Anything that you can stay up. You cannot. You must remain rooted in God if you want to live a life of peace. And that's not to say that you won't fall. We will fall. But when you're protected by God and you're connected to Him, He lifts you right back up. You never stay down. And so staying rooted in God allows you to bear the fruit of humility, not arrogance. Arrogance is a weed from the enemy. Samson's mistake again was forgetting that his strength came from God. Here's a key: here is maintain consistent connection with God every day. That is how you stay rooted in him. Have different habits or routines that keeps you rooted in him. A great episode for if you want to have the best, best habits that will just make your faith so strong. Listen to our episode called How to Fuel the Fire for Your Faith. I share all of the habits in there that made me feel a bit lukewarm in my faith to I cannot survive without you, God. I need you. You're filling me. I feel you, and I hear you. The difference was the way that I was seeking him and running after him. A few examples are reading the Bible every morning. It does not matter if I had a late night, it does not matter if I uh immediately have to get up and do something or I have an early morning. The first part of my morning is safe for God. And I read the Bible and spend time with him. And I just usually read a page, a two pages. It takes me about 20, 30 minutes. I'm just studying the word. I'm just highlighting, I'm just praying, studying, looking things up. And it's how I even know how to teach these stories. I could have never talked about these stories the way that we talk about them on this podcast years ago. Because I wasn't studying the Bible. I would wake up and I would scroll. And so imagine trying to live a life from brain rot versus scripture. When people ask, How are you so happy? Like, how do I tell them that the first thing I do literally changes my brain chemistry and gives me so much happiness and peace? Spending time with God. Having days to fast and pray, listening to worship music, just going for walks in nature, having a conversation with God. That's how you strengthen your connection, is remain consistent. And you may be tempted, uh, but I've read the Bible the last week, every day. I can skip today. You can skip today. Your spirit will feel it. Psalm 91. Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I love this Bible verse. If I ever have a nightmare or like during the war when I was just feeling pretty scared at some point, I slept with Psalm 91 open in my room and I would pray it before bed. And the first part is this part. When you spend time, whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high, it means spending time with God. And some translations say spending time in the secret place with God. There's so many great episodes on the secret place by other podcasters and um preachers. A great source would be the Girls Gone Bible podcast, The Secret Place episode. You can just type that on YouTube. They have a really great episode on that. Just how to create the secret place in your home, how to spend time in it, what it represents. When you spend time in the secret place or in this shelter of the Most High, it says you will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. And I just think about a mother bird with her huge wing pulling her children underneath her, and how the chicks stay nice and warm and protected under the shadow of her wing. That is how it is with God. When we spend time with him and we're we're running after him, we're seeking him, we're reading about him, he's putting us under his wing. And now we're under his protection. Because when you start off reading the Bible in the morning and then you go and you get bad news later, yeah, the bad news is still going to sting, but it's not going to completely devastate you. Because you just got filled up with life that morning. You just read scripture about how a gift of the Holy Spirit is peace. And that no matter what your circumstance is, you get to have the gift of peace. When that is planted in your subconscious, whatever you go through throughout the day, it's not going to sway you. And that is how you protect your femininity. It's by protecting your mind and your spirit. And how do you protect your mind and your spirit? You find shelter in the shadow of the Almighty by spending time with him. So number three, stay rooted in God. Number four, this will be the last one. Fear God. Proverbs 31:30, it says, Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting. But a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. And when I say fearing the Lord, it's not I'm scared of God. It's I love and respect and honor God so deeply. And what I'm scared of is life without Him. That's what it means to fear God. It's to understand His directions, or to not understand His directions, but to still follow them, even when they don't make sense. And that's gonna feel really hard for me to do. Not understanding how you're gonna have the strength to do it, not understanding even if you can, but trusting that there's a reason why God says this. When I was a teenager, I didn't fully understand it. But I would hear this in church growing up. My mom would tell me this growing up. And now what's crazy is how did I get understanding for what God was saying? Studying psychology. When I studied psychology and started to see how what happens when there is this exchange through sex, and I started reading personal development books, reading books on all topics, including spirituality, I started to see that saving your body for your husband, not for him, but saving your body by making it off-limits for any man that's not fully committed to you and fully deserving of you. It's the only area that religion, psychology, and spirituality all agree on. And I'm so glad that those moments where I'm like, God, I don't understand why this law or this rule is here. Uh, but I trust you more than I trust my own understanding. And that's why humility is so important. My friends and I, we're having a discussion about this this weekend. After church, we came over to my house and we have this discussion almost every time we see each other about opinions on the Bible versus facts from the Bible. And maybe one day we can do an episode and my friends can be here and speak on this a little bit. And there's certain scriptures where uh one of my friends will say, What do you guys think of this scripture? And what we used to do is we would all give our opinions, and then as our faith has started to mature even more this last year, what we do now is let's grab our Bibles and see what the word says. Not what does our own understanding, our own filter say, what does the word of God say? And that's where we get our truth from. And it's opened my eyes so much that now when I have a question about something or I want to understand something, the first place that I run to is scripture. What does the Bible say about it? That has become my filter, and it's so much better because the same author of scripture is the same creator of this entire world, and I would rather get guidance from them than my limited consciousness of 26 years sampling this earth that has no comparison to the wisdom of the actual creator, and so fearing God. Samson did not fear God. If he did, he wouldn't have flirted with sin. There's a common question in the world, well, many common questions, is X, just for um the place of an example, is X a sin? Is this a sin? Is Y a Sin? So many questions, like is drinking a sin? Um, all those things. And I used to always wonder, I don't know, like how do you determine that? How do you answer that? And I heard a quote that I'm sure you've heard. Someone goes, Does it bring God glory? Does it bring him glory? And does it bring you closer to him or further from him? When that's the determiner, it's pretty easy to figure out is this a sin? Because there's some things that are not explicitly mentioned in the Bible, and so that's been Compass, does this bring glory to God? Does this bring me closer to Him or further from Him? How do I feel after I do it? And so fearing God. When you fear God, you don't even want to come close to sin. There's so many things from my past that I regret flirting with sin or feeling, okay, I'm gonna go as close as I can to this, but I'm not going to actually do this. And I regret doing that because now when I look back, I think that was a waste of time. And it brought me closer to sin and further from God. The closer you get to sin from flirting with it, from not fearing God, from wanting to just entertain that idea or that action instead, the further you're gonna get from God. And that should be pretty scary. When you fear God, you are scared of life without Him. There's a common discussion that a lot of Christians have of how when you get to heaven, I think this is in the Bible, but I'm not sure where exactly it is. There's going to be some people that get to heaven and will go to God and God will say, Depart from me, I never knew you. And I never used to feel like that was something, oh, I'm scared of that happening until I became stronger in my faith. Now I think that is the scariest thing in the world. That I could have been doing what I thought was right and what I thought was uh being devoted to God, but actually it was all for myself. None of it was actually for God. And now I feel okay, that's not going to be my reality. Uh but before my life was not devoted to God. My way of making decisions, it was what does I want, what do I want to do? I did not fear God the way that I fear Him now. And life is so much better now than it used to be. My peace that I feel now is so much better than I used to be. I used to fear the thoughts in my mind, and now I've realized because I fear God so much, there's no room to fear the thoughts in my mind. Because I fear God, I believe what he has told me, and I'm actually scared of not following what he's told me. What he's told me and you is capture thoughts and make them obedient to Christ. Any thought that does not serve him, that is not rooted in truth, the anxious thoughts that I used to have, or the thoughts of um, I'm insecure, I'm unqualified. That thought, if when I feared that thought more than I feared God, that was a very scary place in my life. And I was constantly mentally tortured. How I changed that is fearing God more. And then when I see the thoughts, I'm like, you don't compare to my fear for God. So fear God. This is a bonus one. So kind of number five, you must fear God more than you fear man. Fearing man will steal your life force energy. It will steal your confidence, it will steal your energy, it will steal your passion. Because what the enemy does is he will come and plant a little seed of doubt, a little seed of shame, a little seed of fear. And fear is not even real. I love what the acronym stands for: false evidence appearing real. Fear is not real. It's a bodily reaction to an imagined vision that has not even happened. Or it's a bodily experience to a past experience that is no longer existing. So it's not real, it's not in the present. When you are fearing God more than you fear man, the enemy is stealing your life force energy. He is stealing the idea that God gave you, he is stealing the voice that God gave you, he is stealing the confidence that God gave you, he's stealing the positioning and the favor that God gave you. Get mad about that. So, fearing, when it comes to fearing God more than fearing man, I used to have this fear of man where I was so scared of being judged for my age. Many of you know this who have been with me for a while. And God kind of forced me to get out of this because I was filming a vlog one day on my 24th birthday. And whenever I uh whenever I have a birthday, my mom always says, whatever my age is, like 24 years ago, I remember going to the hospital and bringing you home, and she tells the story, and I included that in the vlog, not even thinking that my mom was saying 24 years ago, because at that time, I hate to say it, but I was purposely not saying my age online, my age was hidden because I was coaching and I didn't want people to think I was unqualified because of my age. And when that video posted, a lot of the comments, what you're 24? Oh my gosh, we thought you were late 20s, we had no idea, and I was paranoid, and then I realized, well, it's already out there. If I'm going to lose clients and subscribers, then nothing can be done at this point. And after that, my business became even stronger because the women that I was working with, they were like, we had no idea that this was your age, and we love it. We love that you have this um, these experiences and this gift that God has given you. And I didn't really understand what they were talking about at the time. Now I think age, it does not matter at all. If you feel I'm too young or I'm too old, do not listen to that because that is a weed of the enemy trying to keep you paralyzed and stuck in place when God wants to move you forward with something. The verse that really healed me was 1 Timothy 12, and it says, Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young. When I read that, I was like, Yes, that's when I first started reading the Bible like every morning, because I would read the scripture and I'm like, What am I doing? I didn't even know this was in the Bible. I just had to come back to truth, and then all of the fear of man disappeared. Whoever you fear will become your master. And what's so scary is the Bible says you cannot serve two masters. You will hate one and you will love the other. That's in Matthew 6, 24. If you fear man, you are serving man, and that means you are not serving God. And that also means you love one and hate the other. And the one that you love is not the one that you are supposed to love. God gets to be your master. And when men get to be your master, you will always be pulled left and right. I get questions like, um, how do I fit into the beauty standard? Uh, how do I how do I stop getting negative comments? How do I avoid this, that? How do I fit in here, there? I'm like, that's the wrong question. The correct question is, how do I stop serving the world? How do I stop serving men? And how do I get back to serving God? Because you will never be able to be a good quote-unquote servant for a master who is always changing. The enemy loves to dangle that carrot in front of you and make it so appealing to serve man. If you can just get validation, if you can just get the approval, if you can just get people to like you, if you can just get them to follow you, if you can just get them to understand your pricing and your business idea, then you'll be safe. You'll be accepted. And that's a lie. It will always be a dangling carrot. There's a verse that I love that says, Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies? Of the son of man who is made of grass. This is, I think this is in Isaiah 51, 12, maybe. Um I totally lost it. I just found this verse and highlighted it earlier. But I love that. Who are you? I love the way God humbles us. Who are you that you're afraid of, man? Like, I'm sorry. This is very similar to the verse. Don't say that. Who are you that you would say to the one who who created you, why have you made me like this? It's like when we're talking about our, I'm blanking on this podcast episode, but it was a really, really powerful one that we did on how to love the woman that you are, how to love your body. And I talked about how when you're reading that scripture, who are you to who are you, the thing that was created, to say to the one who created it, why have you made me like this? That's like a piece of clay jumping up in the middle of the artist forming it and saying, No, give me a give me a longer body, give me more curves here, paint me a different color. The artist would say, sit down, I'm painting you, and actually, I'm gonna take your lips away. I shouldn't have even painted a face on you, piece of clay. Not that God does that to us, that's an extreme, extreme visual. But who are we that we fear man who literally withers away like grass? You must fear God more than you fear men. My favorite verse, one of my favorite verses in the world is obviously I'm not trying to win the approval of people. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant. Galatians 1:10. It's just like that verse about you can't serve two masters. If you're trying to win the approval of people rather than God, you're serving the master of the world, which is actually serving the enemy. Because who has authority in the world right now? Not authority in eternity, not authority long term, but who has authority here right now is the enemy. It talks about this in the Bible. And so if you're serving the world, which is run by the enemy, guess who your master is? So this bonus one is you must fear God more than you fear men. To summarize these four points, number one, do not flirt with sin. You will stumble, you will lose protection. Number two, do not share a bed with someone who isn't a yes from God and your husband. Just meaning, don't give access to your body, your vulnerability, and your favor. Number three, stay rooted in God. This will keep you bearing the fruit of humility, not the weed of arrogance. Number four, fear God. Number five, fear God more than you fear man. Protecting your femininity, it looks like you protecting your mind, your body, and your soul. And it's so important to do this so that you can use the gifts that God has given you. Samson was gifted with that beautiful lock of hair. You are gifted with something that is going to serve your family, serve your relationship, serve the world, and serve God. Whether it's an idea that you create or just who you are, like you know those women who they are just the best friends, the best family members. Like they walk into a family gathering and they're they they just bring so much life and so much love. There's so many of you who are gifted with just your existence, serves God by uplifting other people. You need your light to shine, which means you need your femininity to be protected. It is so important that you can be the woman that God made you to be to protect your femininity. And I know that this episode could sound a bit scary, like I have to be on guard. We should always be on guard, number one, but not in a way that I have to uh be scared of the world. No, it's I fear God, therefore the enemy should fear me. I am protected, I am walking with God, I receive his favor, I am walking under the wings and I'm walking under his shadow of protection. And I get to hold myself confidently and with joy and receive peace and walk firmly, knowing that I am the woman that God created me to be. I hope that this episode has helped you. I love you so much. I'm gonna miss you next week. This is such a good time. If there's any episode that you wanted to catch up on, two that I would recommend is that one we talked about how to refuel or reignite the fire of your faith. And number two is the masculine energy man blueprint. That one was really, really fun. And it's the story of Ruth. So if you liked this reading like Samson, I think you'll really like that one. Don't forget, I have that cookbook for you. That's another great way to protect your femininity, feeling good in your body, taking care of the of the temple that is the home to the Holy Spirit. I love you so much. I hope that you have a beautiful and a blessed week. Thank you always for sharing your time and your energy with me, and I will see you in the next episode.