#NoFilter: Unmasking the Woman God Created You to Be
by Jodi Hendricks
Albuquerque, September 2024. Women spend hours and thousands to get just the right look on the outside — clothes, shoes, hair, nails. And Christian women care about their inner beauty too, careful to exhibit loving and mature Christian attitudes and behaviors.
To keep that perfect Christian look, many start layering filters, and masks, over who they really are, and what is actually happening in their lives.
It’s pretty exhausting, to be honest.
And it’s not what God intends, according to author Jodi Hendricks.
It was her own journey of unmasking that led Hendricks to write her newly released book, #NoFilter: Unmasking the Woman God Created You to Be. The book is the first in the Hashtag Bible Study Series that will explore aspects of women’s identities in Christ. Two additional books are now in development.
The workbook style book takes readers, whether in a group setting or on their own, through eight weekly chapters of Bible study, leading them to encounter the truth of God’s love for them, and allowing Him to peel back the layers and masks that hide their true selves.
Hendricks believes we all have a tendency to filter our true selves to present to the outside world, including our church relationships, what we believe is the correct, expected version of ourselves.
The graduate-level trained Christian counselor, women’s ministry leader and speaker learned these lessons the hard way, as God taught her she had no need to hide her true self.
Raised in a Christian home and educated at a Christian college, her faith has been central her whole life. And just after college, that life looked kind of perfect. Newly married, she was happy establishing her Christian home and having her first child.
Then reality set in, including the bumps of early motherhood, followed by two miscarriages in a row.
Piled on top of that came the years when precious relationships fractured, including not only her parents’ divorce but also betrayal and loss of friendships and fellowship in her home church where she and her husband had been actively involved as ministry leaders.
“It was during those years that I really put on the masks, trying to be that girl everyone knew to be smiling and happy. I donned mask upon mask, filter upon filter, burying my hurting self until I didn’t know who I was any more and lost confidence in myself.
“How badly I wanted approval and acceptance, and drew my worth from others’ opinions of me,” she continued. “In those unhealthy relationships I was trying to be enough in a world that will never say you are enough.”
“But God says we are enough, and that changes everything. When we truly grasp that, we can let go of the filters and unmask who God created us to be, imperfections and all. We need no filter.”
But to teach us that, first He has to get our attention.
For Jodi it came when one too many dreams were dashed. She fell to her knees seeking God’s direction, crying out in disappointment and sadness. That started her on a new path.
“Today I can attest that God changed my vision in ways I never expected, dreamed of, or even hoped for,” she writes, “and it is a process that continues daily.
“If we let Him, we will shatter the lenses created through lies, remove filters that distort understanding, and enlighten the heart’s eye to see with a vision that is formed, refined, and sharpened by God: no lies, no filters, just God’s intended point of view.”
#NoFilter: Unmasking the Woman God Created You to Be (ISBN 978-1649606952, $16.99 paper and $25.99 hardcover, Emerald House Group) is the first of the Hashtag Bible Study Series. The second book, #Thrive: Experiencing the Covenant Path to a Thriving Heart will release in 2025, and #Crowned: Embracing the Character of Your Crown is planned for 2026.
The book is available from selected bookstores and online retailers.
To connect with the author and learn more about her speaking ministry, visit her website (https://jodihendricks.com/
# # #
To interview her, contact Joni Sullivan Baker, Buoyancy PR,
at 513/319-3231 or jbaker@buoyancypr.com.