She Was Still Beautiful, Matthew 19:14 - Personal blog of Trisha Rapley, Australian Author.

She was still beautiful in her wounds, in the grief that hollowed her chest, in the sadness that clung to her like a second skin. In the tears she cried privately, asking God questions she didn’t yet believe had answers.

She was still beautiful in her anger—the fire that rose when her voice had been ignored too long. In her sharp edges, her defensiveness, her walls built brick by brick out of disappointment and betrayal.

She was still beautiful even when her hands reached for love in the wrong places.

Even when she confused being wanted with being worthy.

Even when her body became a language for wounds she did not yet know how to name.

She was still beautiful through the nights, she numbed herself just to survive the silence, through addictions that were never about pleasure but about relief—relief from pain. She was too young, too tired, or too alone to carry sober.

She was still beautiful when trust fractured, when fidelity faltered, when she acted from fear instead of truth. Not because the choices were right, but because the heart beneath them was aching to be safe.

She was still beautiful even in her sin.

Not because sin is holy—but because she never stopped being human.

And then she met God not as a judge with a ledger, but as a Father with open arms.

In Him, she learned this truth: that forgiveness is not earned by perfection but received through surrender.

That grace does not wait until you are clean or pure of heart—it meets you in the dirt and lifts you anyway. Through Him, she discovered something radical: her past did not reduce her value. It revealed her capacity for transformation.

Each mistake did not subtract from her worth. Each failure did not erase her beauty.

Each sin, once confessed and released, became evidence of redemption—proof that she saw a way out and chose to change.

She did not remain who she was in survival.

She grew.

She learned.

She turned.

And that turning—that choosing light after darkness—added weight to her testimony, depth to her compassion, strength to her spirit.

She became a woman who knows mercy because she has needed it. A woman who offers grace because she has been given much. A woman whose beauty is no longer fragile or performative, but anchored in truth.

She is beautiful, not despite her past but because she faced it and did not let it define her future.

In God, she is forgiven.

In God, she is restored.

In God, she is not “less than”—she is redeemed, refined, and deeply loved.

She was always beautiful.

She just finally learned to see herself the way God always has, as a precious girl, then and a Godly woman in Christ, now.

 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Matthew 19:14

Lord, teach me to see myself the way You see a child—not through the lens of my past, not through the weight of my mistakes, but through the softness of Your mercy.

Hold every version of methat learned to survive before she learned to trust. Hold the girl who reached for love too quickly, the woman who numbed pain instead of naming it, the heart that broke and hardened and still kept beating.

Forgive me, Lord—not with disappointment, but with the same tenderness You give a child who is learning how to walk and sometimes falls.

Heal what I did not know how to protect. Restore what shame tried to take. Teach me that I am not defined by where I have been, but by Who walks with me now.

Let Your love rewrite my story. Let grace be louder than memory. Let compassion replace condemnation—especially toward myself.

And when I forget my worth, remind me that I am still Your child, still chosen, still held, still loved—completely.

Amen.

She Was Still Beautiful, Matthew 19:14 - Personal blog of Trisha Rapley, Australian Author.

She Was Still Beautiful, Matthew 19:14 - Personal blog of Trisha Rapley, Australian Author.