A Masterpiece Created by God

Claire Black: Welcome to True Girl, a podcast for girls and their moms. Together, we’ll explore God’s truth for us, one drive at a time. Buckle up! You’re about to grow closer to each other and closer to Jesus. 

In this, the first ever season of True Girl. You and I are going to explore what God has to say about true beauty, cool fashion, and dressing with dignity. Sometimes the pictures, movies, and messages we see in the world can make us feel pretty bad about ourselves. But we are about to look to our Creator to discover our truth worth and identity. 

Dannah Gresh is going to help us do that. She’s the author of a book called, 8 Great Dates for Moms and Daughters. At the end of this podcast, Dannah will invite the two of you to go on one of the dates from that book. 

Again, for complete instructions get a copy of, 8 Great Dates for Moms and Daughters. Let’s get moving for the first episode of our first season entitled, “The Masterpiece Created by God.” 

Here’s your co-host, Staci Rudolph.

Staci Rudolph: Hey true girls! It’s Staci here, and I’m here with True Girl founder, Dannah Gresh. Dannah, just how excited are you that this is the first episode of the first season of True Girl?

Dannah Gresh: You don’t even know. I got up at 5:30 this morning, Staci. 5:30! I am a night girl, so that doesn’t even make any sense. That’s how excited I am. I couldn’t wait to get into the studio today.

Staci: You were super excited.

Dannah: I was super excited. How excited are you?

Staci: I mean, you know I’m feeling it. I’m here for it. I think it’s going to be great. It’s going to be amazing.

Dannah: Well, you might not be excited because you’re just hearing us and about this for the first time. But the True Girl podcast, each of them is a mini-dive into God’s Word. And we’re going to talk about topics that matter to girls. Like what topics are we going to talk about Staci?

Staci: We’re going to talk about beauty, fashion …

Dannah: Friends . . .

Staci: Friends, oh my goodness, friendship drama is a thing. 

Dannah: It’s definitely a real thing. Well, we hope these little drive-time truth nuggets invite you to take deep dives into God’s Word. That’s our hope really, Staci. It’s not that they spend these few minutes with us just now, but that they get into God’s Word when they’re at home. 

Staci: Yes. We just want to get you guys diving into God’s Word together. We want you studying your devos, studying His Word, and just talking about whatever He’s put on your heart and introduce it in your lives.

Dannah: That is exactly what we’re looking for. Well, that is I guess our official welcome to the True Girl podcast. 

Staci: Yes. But okay, let’s be honest, they’re probably asking “what is a true girl?”

Dannah: Yeah. That would be a good question to ask. First and foremost, she’s a girl who uses the Bible, God’s Word to figure out what is truth, what is true for her life, and how she should live. 

Staci: See what we did there? True Girl? Yeah, we’re going to be pretty cheesy here. But the reason we use the Bible to figure out what is true is this: it’s because the world is full of so many lies. 

Dannah: Exactly. And some of those lies are about how we see ourselves—how we look at ourselves in the mirror. They’re lies about our beauty. If you spend too much time looking at the wrong pictures, listening to the wrong songs, watching the wrong movies, you could really start to feel bad about how you look, because those things are not telling us the truth, most of the time, about who we are and what it means to be a girl.

Staci: Definitely. You got that right. I remember being like twelve and just feeling like I did not fit in with my friends. I wasn’t popular enough. I didn’t look a certain way. And I just remember feeling like I didn’t have much worth. I just felt really worthless. 

Dannah: That makes me sad. Staci, you know why it makes me sad? Because it’s a lie. It’s not true. The Bible tells me that you, my friend Staci, you are a masterpiece, created by God. Let me read this Bible verse to you, it’s from Ephesians 2:10, and this is for all of us. It says, 

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Staci: Yes. That is actually in the Bible. We are masterpieces created by God. Now, I know that now, but I did not know that then. 

Maybe you’re feeling like me right now. You’re kind of like, “I don’t fit in, or I’m not popular enough. I don’t like the way I look.” Maybe it’s teeth, or you don’t like your hair, or how tall you are, or what size you are, that you don’t really like. There are lots of things that can make us feel like we are not a masterpiece. But we’re here to help you with that.

We want to get you thinking like a girl who knows the truth. 

Dannah: That’s right. Today, we want to make sure that you see yourself as a masterpiece created by God. You know, Staci, there are a lot of ways we can learn to see ourselves the way God does. Did you know one way to consider it is a teacup?

Staci: A teacup? What does that have to do with how we see ourselves? 

Dannah: Well, Staci, I don’t really want to answer that question directly. I’d rather just tell you a story. It’s a story that my mom used to tell me when I was young and I didn’t like what I saw in the mirror. 

It’s called The Teacup and the Potter. I remember the tattered little booklet that she read from. And I remember how much better my heart felt after she read this story. 

Now, no one knows who wrote this tale, but I sure do love it.

Staci: I’m pretty sure I feel a story coming on. 

Dannah: You better believe it. Here is The Teacup and the Potter told by dear friend Chizzy Anderson.

Chizzy Anderson: There once was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the finest of stores. Their favorite thing to collect was china. One day they walked into this little store, and they saw the most magnificent teacup they’d ever seen. And as the lady in the store handed it to them, she told them, “This is a very special teacup.” 

As they stood there admiring the cup’s beauty, suddenly it began to talk. “So you think I’m beautiful? 

Staci: I’m sorry, but do you mean to tell me the teacup is talking?

Dannah: Okay, come on Staci, just let Chizzy tell the story. 

Staci: Okay, okay go on.

Chizzy: Well as you can imagine, the couple was so shocked they almost dropped the little teacup. “Oh, oh my, let me explain. I haven’t always been this beautiful teacup. There was a time when I was just a big, mushy ball of red clay. My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over.

I yelled, “Let me alone!” 

But he only smiled and said, “Not yet.” 

Then I was placed on this spinning wheel. I was spun round and round and round. “Stop it! I’m getting dizzy!” I screamed. 

But the master only nodded, “Not yet.” 

Suddenly, he took me off of that spinning wheel and placed me in a terribly hot oven. I’ve never felt such discomfort. I wondered why he would want to burn me? I called for him, and I knocked on the door, and I asked him to open it. But I could see him through the opening, and I could read his lips as he shook his head, “Not yet.”

Finally, the door opened, and he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. “Ah, that’s better,” I said. But just as I began to feel the great relief, my master began to brush and paint all over me. Oh, the fumes were just horrible. 

“Oh, stop it, please!” I cried. “Please, please, please.” 

He shook his head, “Not yet.”

Suddenly, when I just thought it couldn’t get any worse, he put me back into an oven. But this one was hotter than the first. It was twice as hot. I just knew I would die. I begged this time. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried, knocking on the door all the time. 

I could see him through the opening, shaking his head and simply saying, “Not yet.”

There was no hope. I knew I would never make it. I was just about ready to give up when suddenly, the door opened, and he took me out. 

He held up a mirror in front of me saying, “Look at yourself.” 

I did. “That’s not me; it couldn’t possibly be me. Why, I’m . . . I’m beautiful.” 

My master began to explain, “I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I had just left you there, you would have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin round on that wheel, but if I had stopped you would have crumbled. I know it was hot in the oven, but if I hadn’t put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you, but if I hadn’t done that, you never would have hardened, and you would have had no color in your life. And if I hadn’t placed you into that second hotter oven, you would have never survived long enough because the hardness wouldn’t have held. But now, you are finished. Now, you are everything I’d ever dreamed you would be. Now, you are my masterpiece.”

Dannah: I have always loved that story. And can I just say, I am always so impressed at Chizzy’s reading talent?

Staci: I am too. Everyone give a round of applause to Chizzy Anderson. 

Dannah: True girl, you are like that teacup. I pray that you don’t have to go through the furnace. But there probably will be times in the years ahead that you feel like that teacup, being stuffed into a hot oven. And you’re going to think, Why, why is God turning up the heat in my life so high? When that happens, I hope you’ll remember, He’s doing it so that He can perfect you and make you into a wonderful masterpiece, for His glory. 

Staci: That reminds me of Isaiah 64:8. It says, “We are the clay, and you are our potter;

we are all the work of your hand.” That verse is just saying that you are like clay and God is our Master Craftsman, our Potter. He’s working on making you into the most perfect version of you. And He’s had a plan from the beginning.

Dannah: Yeah, exactly. In fact, did you know He’s been working on you since before the earth was even created? It says so in the book of Ephesians. Before the earth was created, He began to plan how perfect you would be when He was finished with you. 

Let me say this one more time, a true girl is a masterpiece created by God. No matter how old you are, no matter how tall you grow, no matter what color your skin is, no matter how popular you might become, no matter if your hair is straight or curly . . . Why do we girls get all caught up in that one? Straight or curly hair, whatever we have we want the other one. Isn’t that true?

Staci: Exactly.

Dannah: No matter what size you wear, no matter if you woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Mom, this would be a good time not to say anything. Girls, you are a masterpiece. God has created you. 

Staci: Absolutely, we want to just get this truth really deep into your heart today. And this is where True Girl gets really fun, because at the end of every episode, we’ll issue a challenge for you to create a little mom-daughter memory. 

Dannah: Yeah, mom-daughter memories are the best. Like how I remember my mother reading that story; it was so precious to me. At those times when I forgot that I was created by God and that He wasn’t finished with me yet, she would pull out that tattered booklet and read me that story. What a treasured memory.

Staci: I love that. It kind of reminds me of me and my mom. We just would kind of hang out. We’d run errands; we’d get tea together. And we just listened to the radio and things like that. So that’s why I’m so excited that we get make this.

Dannah: Just like the girls are doing right now?

Staci: Exactly.

Dannah: Listening to the podcast . . . Radio is a little old, Staci. Today we listen to podcasts. 

Staci: I know, I just dated myself. 

Dannah: Your True Girl challenge today is to experience the ultimate tea party together. And not just a typical tea party. We want you to be thoroughly pampered. We’re hoping you’ll have some tea in some really special cups. Maybe these are cups you have in your house, or maybe you need to go to a local tea house. We just want you to take some time to talk about this truth, you are a masterpiece created by God and He loves y-o-u. 

Claire: Wow, I don’t know about you but I’m ready to get this tea party started. As you get ready for your tea party, you’re welcome to wing it. But you can also get a complete step-by-step guide. You’ll find that in the book 8 Great Dates for Moms and Daughters, by Dannah Gresh. You can get a copy by visiting MyTrueGirl.com. You’ll also find resources there, for moms and daughters. Again, that’s TrueGirl.com.

Next time we’re going to address the question, “What is true beauty?” I’ll see you next time on the True Girl podcast. 

True Girl is a production of Revive Our Hearts calling women of all ages to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

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