Culture did not invent beauty. It is not a product of fashion, art, architecture or even genetics. God created physical beauty, and beautiful things have existed since the very beginning of time when God put Adam and Eve in the garden.

But also in existence since the garden is the Devil’s scheme to use physical beauty against us. He has a way of distorting beautiful things for ugly purposes. In Genesis alone, we find several examples of the dangers and distortions of physical beauty. Consider what went wrong with these beautiful things:

• Eating Place – The Tree of Knowledge
  Eve saw that the tree was beautiful and that its fruit looked delicious, so she took a bite. In a single instant, sin entered the world. (Gen. 3:6)

• Beautiful Face – Sarai, Abram’s wife
  Abram knew that his wife was beautiful, and he was afraid the Egyptians would kill him to get to her if they knew she was his wife. They told everyone she was his sister instead, which resulted in terrible plagues coming on Pharaoh and his household. (Gen. 12:10-20)

• Wide Open Space – The Jordon Valley
  When Abram and Lot separated, Lot chose the beautiful land near Sodom and Gomorrah for himself. Just a few verses later however, Lot is no longer living near Sodom, but in Sodom, and barely escapes when God destroys the city because of its wickedness. (Gen. 13-14; 18-19)

• Colorful Lace – Joseph’s Robe
  Isaac gave his favorite son, Joseph, a beautiful robe, which made Joseph’s brothers so jealous that they almost killed him. (Gen. 37)

These problems with physical beauty are not confined to the Old Testament. Satan uses the same perversions today that he used then, and sadly, we’re still falling for them.

So does that mean that physical beauty is wrong?

Of course not! It simply means that physical beauty can be used for wrong.

But thankfully, another beautiful thing has existed since the garden too. Only this thing of beauty is not physical at all. It’s eternal. What is it?

• Amazing Grace!
  Ever since Satan used physical beauty to cause mankind to sin, God has been using eternal beauty to restore our perfect relationship with Him through amazing grace!

Ah!  What a beautiful solution to such an ugly problem!

Email Emily

Beauty by The Book Online

It’s not too late to join us on the Glo Girl Blog for our online study of Beauty by the Book! If you’ve never participated in an online study before, here’s how it works. Basically you read, watch and comment.

• Read the appropriate pages in your Beauty by the Book or Beauty by the Book for Teens workbook as you do your homework each week.
• Watch the corresponding FREE online teaching video by Laurie.
• Then leave a comment on the blog in response to each week’s discussion question.

It’s that simple!

For more info, check out the following links:

• For complete details about the online Bible study.
• To preview Beauty by the Book (including the entire first week)
• To preview Beauty by the Book for Teens (including the entire first week)

Facelift Needed

A beautiful thing happened in 2011 – visits to the Priority website were 75% higher than they were in 2010! What an awesome reason to praise God for the glorious ways He’s using Priority Ministries to reach women! We couldn’t be happier!

But as our ministry continues to grow and expand, our current website is becoming outdated.  There are many things we’d like to do to continue to grow the online area of our ministry that our current technology just won’t support. (The current site is now five years old, and you know how quickly technology changes these days!)

So would you join us in praying for the funds to build a new website? We estimate the cost will be around $7,500-$9,000. But with a new site, we won’t have to outsource changes and updates like we do now. We’d be able to do more maintenance in-house, thereby saving us money in the future.

Thanks for your support, and if you’d like to support this project financially, you can do so here!

Glo Girl Goodbyes

This year starts off with two glo girl goodbyes as we sadly say goodbye to Priority staff members Nancy Campbell and Mary Burnett.

Nancy Campbell has been with Priority since the beginning serving as Priority’s Prayer Director for several years. She has faithfully been on her knees for this ministry and for all of the glo girls we’ve met along the way. In fact, there are many of you who have written to Priority with specific prayer needs, and Nancy has been the first one to pray, respond and share your request with the staff.

But, what many of you may not know is that Nancy lives several hours away from Priority’s Houston headquarters. This distance, along with the care that Nancy is now giving to her mother-in-law who lives with her and her husband, Jim, has made it increasingly difficult for her to keep up with the day-to-day prayer needs of the ministry. For this reason, though she will continue to be a prayer warrior for Priority, she feels that the time has come for her to resign from her official position as Prayer Director. We are so thankful for the hundreds of hours that Nancy has lifted us all up in prayer. We wish her well and hope that you will join us in praying for her as she has prayed for you.  

Mary Burnett has served as the Director of Priority Partners and Marketing for about a year, but what a dynamic year it has been! In the past year, she has put a career’s worth of contributions into Priority’s advertising, marketing, and public relations all the while streamlining the Priority Partner program along the way. Priority experienced many milestones and achievements under Mary’s help and leadership, including the Glo Girl Conference in September.

Mary’s husband, Jim, will be retiring from his own career in February, and together they have been seeking God’s will regarding Mary’s position with Priority. Ultimately, they believe God is leading them to experience retirement together in order to make the most of their time with each other and with their children and grandchildren. The office will not be nearly as fun without Mary’s enthusiastic personality to fill the air, but she promises to drop by often.

God always brings just the right people to Priority at just the right time, and He definitely did that with Nancy and with Mary. Join us in thanking God for the unique imprint that they left upon our ministry and pray that He continues to bless them in these next chapters of their lives.

Here's where Laurie will be going and glo-ing soon.  Please pray.  Thanks!

Priority Prayer Points

1. Pray for everyone participating in the online study of Beauty by the Book going on now on the Glo Girl Blog.
2. Pray for all of the women who are using Priority resources for their spring Bible studies.
3. Pray that God will provide the funds we need to give our current website a facelift.

Do you need prayer? It would be our privilege to pray for you. Please email your prayer request to us, and our Priority staff and Prayer Warriors will faithfully and confidentially pray for you.

Gotta Glo

Your Priority sisters,

Laurie Cole, Pam Henderson, Shanda Stiles, Jan Hart, Stephanie Cole, and Emily Ryan
Priority Ministries Staff