Welcome to the official Girls to Pearls blog!

Hopefully, this blog will be the beginning of a beautiful relationship between you and me. I plan to use this blog as a tool to communicate with you, hear your thoughts, and inform you of any upcoming events, activities, or contests. You will also find exciting articles, easy recipes, fun crafts and inspiring messages. So to kick this blog entry off, I have posted below, an excerpt from Girls to Pearls: A Young Woman's Guide to Living Life Freely, Loving God Naturally, and Surviving Puberty Successfully. This excerpt is my letter of introduction to you, and will hopefully give you some insight about this book. Enjoy!



AN EXCERPT

To My Beautiful Young Sisters:


I am taking this time to let you know that I first dedicate this book to God. It is because of him that I am able to do any and all things. Girls to Pearls is also dedicated to you. The idea for Girls to Pearls came about when I sat in on the end of a “Girls to Pearls” meeting, which is a young women’s group at New Way of Life Church of God in Christ in North Chicago, Illinois. It was so encouraging to see young women participating in a positive environment where they could just be real with each other. I wish that I had a group like this when I was growing up.

I wrote Girls to Pearls to let all you pearls out there know that you are beautiful and were created in God’s image. You are the apple of God’s eye. He loves you, knows everything about you, and every solution to any problem that you might face will come from Him.

In Girls to Pearls we will talk about real life issues; everything ranging from dating, to puberty and even your self-image. In the Bible, Jesus shows us that although we live in this world, we are not of this world. “The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don't. I chose you to come out of the world, and so it hates you.” (John 15:19) This shows us that in life, we will encounter tough situations just like everyone else here on earth. We don’t have a choice about that. What we do have a choice about is how we react in those situations. Will we simply do what the world expects us to do, or will we do the right thing when we are challenged to do otherwise?

I would like to encourage you to take your time when reading Girls to Pearls, to be able to fully digest the contents of each chapter. There are 10 chapters and they can easily be spread out over the course of 10 weeks, if you so choose. Just be sure to leave yourself enough time to adequately think about what you read.

All of the scriptures unless otherwise noted, come from the New Living Translation because of its easy-to-understand language. It may be helpful to go through the book with a group of your friends, a parent or guardian, or even a Bible Study group. After each chapter there are a few extra resources for you including a space to journal about your experiences while reading the book and to document any insight you gain.

It is my prayer that reading Girls to Pearls will affect your life in a positive way, and that God allows you to store the lessons that are learned in your heart for you to share with others and to use when the time arises in your life.



With Love,



Your big sister Jackie

The Countdown Begins

The past few weeks have been pretty hectic: I've been in a car accident, planned a bridal shower for a close friend, traveled, worked, spent time with family, and finally put the finishing touches on Girls to Pearls. I am so excited now that I'm done writing the book, but the road getting to this point wasn't the easiest.

If you've ever had a big project, you know some of the frustrations that come along with completing a huge task. In your mind you see the finished product, but the process of getting to that point can sometimes feel burdensome. In writing Girls to Pearls I felt like I had so much that God had given me to tell young women, but getting it out of my heart and onto paper was the hardest part. Thanks to God, He has been faithful to allow me to finish.

"...Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed." (Habakkuk 2:3) NLT

You might have a project, dream, vision, or even a book that you've constantly been putting off working on. You may have even started a project, but just haven't gotten around to finishing it. There's no better time to start working on your ideas than today! Here are some tips that I've learned along the way:

• Just because a project is dropped into your lap, does not necessarily mean it's what you should be working on at this time. Many projects may seem "good" or like the right thing to do, but it doesn't mean you have to commit your time, energy, and creativity to it. When an opportunity comes your way, don't just automatically accept it, but use wisdom to determine if it matches your goals. Do you have enough time to do this project? Will you be able to put forth your best effort? Is this something you really want to do? If you do something just for the sake of doing something, your heart won't be in it.

• Work on one thing at a time, one day at a time. I can speak from recent experience that multi-tasking (doing more than one thing at a time) is probably one of the biggest killers of dreams. Not only can it be tiring, but it can cause you to be scatter-brained, unorganized, and inefficient. Don't get me wrong, some things require you to multi-task like balancing your school work with after-school activities, or balancing time with family and friends. No, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about having so many projects going on that you're not able to do any of them really well. If you're doing just enough to make each project acceptable, it means you're not doing your best. What's the point in doing anything at all if you're not doing your best? "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might...." (Ecclesiates 9:10) NIV

• Set realistic goals. When I first started writing Girls to Pearls, it was my plan to be done with the entire book in less than one month's time! No lie. Of course, that rather ambitious goal was pushed back further and further, and I began to feel unproductive. Nearly a year and a half later, I finally finished the book. (I now realize this was actually a reasonable amount of time.) You can save yourself so much stress just by setting more realistic goals and creating a step-by-step plan of how you're going to complete your project. This way you will keep your energy high, your motivation strong, and will feel a sense of accomplishment. Setting realistic goals and good planning is the best road map you can use to reach your ultimate destination of finishing your project.

• Remember that you're on God's time. Do not place unreasonable demands on yourself because you feel like you're running out of time, or as if you should be further along than where you are. Everything that God starts in you will be brought to completion; not in your timing, but in the right time--God's time. "And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again." (Philippians 1:6) NLT

So the count down begins. Girls to Pearls is complete and I'm gearing up for some new and exciting things coming to you soon at http://www.girlstopearls.com/. Please pray for me as I embark on this exciting journey and I pray that you accomplish everything that the Lord has for you in your life. Stay in touch!

An Organization You Should Know

Based in Prince George's County, Maryland, Project Destiny is an organiztion with the goal of empowering young people with self-love, mental, emotional and spiritual fitness, academic acheivement, social skills, and practical life skills that will help them to lead more healthy lives and reach their full potential.

I want to encourage everyone to pass along information about this group to anyone you know who could benefit from it. I know the leader of this organization personally and can vouch for all the important work she does with today's youth. As a school teacher in the public school system, Director Monica Green, sees first-hand the vices that our youth encounter.

There are many ways you can lend your support to Project Destiny. The first and best way is through your prayers. Next, if you know a young person who lives in Maryland who would like to connect with other likeminded young people, please pass along the below-listed information. Last, but not least, it takes financial support and a dedicated team of volunteers to help keep any successful organization up and running. Contact Project Destiny today to see how you can help!

For more information about Project Destiny visit: http://www.pdestiny.homestead.com/.