Hey girls! So I'm here backstage at the K-Love Fan Awards and we are about to
interview some of the different artists. And I have this awesome mirror over here.
It's a huge mirror and basically I'm asking each artist to write a word or
phrase on it: What they want you to know about how God sees you. So I'm asking
each of the artists that question and they're gonna write their answer in like
one word or one phrase on the mirror. So I can't wait to see what they all write!
So Tedashii, if you had a younger sister or a daughter, someone who was really
struggling with her self-worth, who didn't feel good enough, what would you
want to tell her? Yeah so I do have younger sisters. I grew up in a home with
all ladies. Oh wow! And yeah I was the only guy, and so I had the opportunity
often in life to to make somebody upset and also to love on them. So but if I had
something to say, man I would encourage people: Ladies, you are created in the
image of God. That very image is given to you so that you could reflect God's
goodness and glory. So that instantly gives you purpose and significance. With
that comes value. God values us enough to involve us in the things that He's
called us to do. And so worth, value, all of that, it's not just something that
people say. From God Himself, that's actually your birthright. And so I never
want people to forget the idea that God has given you your birthright of
significance, of value, and of worth. And so anytime you think less of yourself or
you feel down because you think other people think less of you, know that your
Creator in heaven, your Father in heaven, God Himself, sees your worth sees your
value, and He's intrinsically placed that in you because that's your birthright.
I would want to say that you are so valued. But not only are valued; you are so seen by God.
I feel like a lot of the time we struggle, especially in our walk with God, "God are
you seeing me? God are you seeing what I'm going through?
God are you seeing my gifts? God are you are you seeing me? Are you answering
my prayers?" And I just want to encourage you that you're so seen. You
are so seen. God sees every single moment, every sadness, every heartbreak.
The Bible says that He collects all your tears in a jar. And in those few years
that I really struggled with my calling and my identity and what I was going to
do, God just took everything out of me that was me and just filled it with
Him. And I cannot believe what He's done with my pain and heartache and
everything. And He was seeing me the whole time.
I would say the phrase: "Worth it."
Like a woman is worth it. Even in a
courtship way, like romantically, worth the effort, worth the respect, worthy of
honor. And then, you know, girls seeing themselves in that way where they
realize, "Are you trying to just take me to McDonald's? [Oh no you're not!] You better know
I'm worth it!" You know what I'm saying? Knowing your worth comes from God
exclusively. He has the exclusive copyright on your life. And always going back to
the Bible as the authority on who you are. You know guys and Instagram, all of
that, don't really have the right to tell you what you are - what you're worth.
Well I think you have to know that you're loved, you know?
I mean I have an adopted daughter, and she's 16. We adopted her at birth. And
I think like the most important thing to her is for her to know that she's loved
by her dad and she's loved by God. She's loved by her Heavenly Father and she's
loved by her daddy. So I make it a point every day when I wake her up and every night to tell her I love her.
And I think if you know you're loved, there's a lot of worth in that. So let me ask a followup question. For my girls who
don't have a dad who's been in the picture, how do they make that
connection to like seeing God as the Father who loves them when they've only
known rejection? I think to know God loves you, you have to listen to Him.
And the way you listen to God is by opening up the Word of God. There's so
much worth in that. The Father that created all calls himself your daddy and loves
you. I mean to me that's - that's more important than even an earthly dad.
The phrase that's coming to me is out of Psalm 139. It's just really been on my
heart lately. And the phrase is just "More than the sands of the sea." That's - that's
what His thoughts toward you are. It's not just all, "You're sweet yeah great
you're my daughter," no it's more than the sands of the sea. The way that He adores
you, the way that He thinks about you, the way that He spins wildly and sings over
you and dances over you, is more than the sands of the sea.
Well the neat thing about this is I do have an experience with this.
My daughter has dyslexia. She's just coming out of sixth grade, going into seventh.
She went from struggling earlier in her life to now she has all A's and one B.
Wow! And so she has worked hard and she has proved it to herself and one of the
things that did it for her, was she told people. She wrote it out: "This is how God
has made me. I'm okay with it" and all that. So like owning it. Yes owning it, and this is
this is- "Yeah I'm a little different, but this is how God made me."
I would say "You are enough." Mm, I love that. You are enough.
And that's something I've had to say to myself because there have been times where I felt like either I'm
too much [right, right], or maybe I should I say this? Maybe I shouldn't say this. And
you know it's like this battle where you go back and forth. And the Lord made us
just the way we should be. We don't have to anything extra,
we don't have to do anything less, all we have to be is who He made us to
be. You're enough. You know God made you on purpose for a purpose and He loves
you so much and He wants you to know that you do belong here on this earth.
That you're supposed to be here, that He has something so special for your life
and that is so unique as to why He made you that nobody else can do it. And
that's why you're needed and that's why you are here.
So I actually do have a daughter. I've got a ten-year-old named Hannah. And in a writer's room a
couple of years ago, I sat down with a guy named Benji Cowart, and Benji wrote a
song that a lot of people know called "Redeemed" by Big Daddy Weave. And so Benji
and I are sitting in this room and we were struggling going through different
ideas for songs, and finally I said, "Do you want to write a song that we hope we
never have to give to our daughters, but if they need it it's there?" Kind of a
break glass in case of emergency type song. And the opening line is:
Her arms are battlefields She draws the lines across to feel Like somehow she controls the pain
But deeper are the scars that run Through her broken heart
Scars you'll never see, she's so ashamed, but if she only knew how much He loves her
And how much He's for her And how His heart breaks every time that she thinks that He's not enough
It's so easy to forget. And it's boys too, it's everybody, we can forget because we can reason in
ourselves why - we can give all the reasons why the Lord would not love us.
But the thing is, He's already spoken enough through Calvary and through His just
complete passion for the world, the way He laid down his Son for our lives. It's - it's
something that we can always point back to the cross and realize that no matter the
times that we do forget, He hasn't forgotten us. He still loves us.
No woman - I believe this to be true - no woman would believe that she was worthless if
someone hadn't communicated that to her, right? You don't grow up -- you're like a princess, right?
You think you're amazing - yeah everybody does - but then somewhere along
the line, you hear from the outside. Either someone says you should - you
should be this thin or whatever it is. Yeah. And that's - I think it's more
like acknowledging and forgiving. I wrote "You be you." Oh I love that! I feel like I could
have written anything and you're like, "That's perfect." I would have said, "I like it. That's true. I would have."
I would just say, I really struggled with my self-worth for so long. I would say
know that God made you so unique, it's like there is no one like you.
And like what the game-changer was for me was Psalm 139. I'd never read it
before in eighth grade, and I was at my peak of insecureness, or whatever
And my pastor told me about that and I was like, "Wow!"
That's an amazing chapter of the Bible. It really is.
I would say, creation, you know. You are a unique creation. There's no one like you.
You're not alone in that struggle. You know, that's really important to know.
Two, of course there's so many voices in this world that are gonna try to tell you who
you are and what you're worth, but just know that that's not what it's about.
It's about who you are in here, and that so translates, you know? Now you
said you wrote a sister. Or, you wrote a sister! I wrote a sister! Impressive! You wrote a song for your little sister.
Yeah I did. My sister is 16 and I'm 18 so we're super close in
age, yeah. But watching her walk through challenges with accepting herself was so
difficult for me because all I could see was how beautiful and amazing she was. And that's all I
could see! And so I went to the studio one day and I wrote a song and it was
about telling her to remember who she is, who I see her asm who God sees her as,
who the people she loves see her as, which is what matters.
Remember who you are! Remember who you are, that's beautiful. Even on the bad days, remember who you are.
Girls I was just so blessed hearing whatall these artists had to say. This was just
like so beautiful. And just like all the things that they wrote, like they're all
different and they're unique and they're so true about who you are. So I just hope
that this can be an amazing encouragement and reminder to you wen
times get tough of who you are to Christ. So I love you girls and I'll see you soon. Bye.