A million and a half thank you's

Here is a photo of me holding some juice. Because it's not a real blog post if there's not at least one picture, right? 

I don't even know what to say.
I'm absolutely astounded by the support I've received from all of you that read my post yesterday. I received the most genuine and encouraging comments, texts, emails... Oh, the emails. I'm so glad I decided to add my email address at the bottom of the post. Countless women took that opportunity to message me and so many of them poured their hearts out to me. They trusted ME with their stories of love and heartbreak, and of encouragement. I am in awe. I'm truly not worthy of this blessing. Your support means the world. Honestly.
It was an insane day, on Monday. As soon as I posted, I immediately began receiving messages and texts and comments on Facebook. Many people shared the blog post, and in the past 30-some odd hours, my blog has seen nearly 3,000 views. I can't even. (To some, this is not a lot... but compared to the 5,000 that I received in the entire month of December, it's kiiiiind of incredible.)

I'm just grateful that so many chose to tell me their stories, to offer encouragement. And thank you for simply agreeing that this message of purity needs to be revisited, shaken up a little bit, and spun a different way. That in itself reminds me (and reignites!) my passion for sexual purity integrity. I have such a love for the young women who commit themselves to Christ, heck - I have a love for the human race, in general. But my passion, my purpose is to inspire and encourage these young women in church today! I am continuously grateful for the platform that God has provided to me; the experiences, the sadness, the joy - all of it has been worth it if I can help one girl through her trials.

As I mentioned in my post, I've been working on rooting through my bookmarks and compiling a list of my favorite resources on this topic. I thought I'd share here a few of my favorites. Please read through some of them! They are so worth it.

-Unanimous Roar: a lot of these articles are a tad old (I mean, not ancient, but from early 2013), but man, they are good. I was going to link to just one, but couldn't pick. So here are two that I particularly enjoyed. (One & Two)
-Set Apart Girl: This isn't always directly related to the message of sexual purity, but I find this organization inspiring. This website is an online publication for young women, with bi-monthly magazines available online for free. I've read through a few lately, and I'm loving it! And I'm an old married woman! ;)
-Lauren Nicole Love: An oldie but a goody, I turn to Lauren's blog whenever I need advice on this sort of topic. Girl has been through it all, and has come out of it with so much wisdom! This one is one of my all time favorites, but digging through her archives is always a treat.
- This is a funny take on the general lesson Christianity teaches our youth. And it is exactly the message I was hearing over and over. I hope this lesson soon fades out and is replaced with a radical lesson in what we CAN do, instead of what we CAN'T do. What we need is a lesson of our undeniable worth no matter what we've done, where we've been, what we've gone through. The Church has a lot of work to do on this topic, if you ask me! ;)
- THIS, a million times over. I can't recommend this article enough.
- The Good Women Project: This is an all around great resource for any woman, any age. It is now defunct, I believe, but it was run by Lauren (of Lauren Nicole Love), and was an incredible resource for me early in college. I was actually a mentor for them at one time! I loved this project with my whole heart. Definitely check out the archives!


Again, thank you for your kindness and your support. I will never be able to thank you enough for this blessing.

xo Haley