You are BEAUTIFUL...

This is something that everyone women struggles with BEAUTY. I recently found an articel in Brio&Beyona about "What is Beauty anyways?" by Kimberly Rae Thigpen. She talks about the different ways women around the world do to look beautiful.

Like in Bangladesh in order for a women to look beautiful she would go to a cooking fire, get some coal and color all her teeth black. Every women wants to look beautiful and we all have our own ways of looking pretty. Kimberly also explaned a few more countries in there ways of looking beautiful, "for some, beautiful is stretching your earlobes down to your shoulders. For others, it means slicing their faces or backs and then rubbing salt into the cuts so they bubble into designs." Ok, to me that does not sound fun!

"In some parts of Asia, girls smear bleach creams on their faces to make them look whiter. In Thailand, women stack gold rings around their necks more and more until their shoulders have squished down and their heads are stretched high above their bodies." That sounds painful! But all these women do this because it is considered beautiful in there country. The bigger the lip, the more jewels, the higher the head the more beautiful you are.

In Africa the Surma people start their beauty around the age of 20. The tribe will make a cut in the lower lip so that a little round clay piece will stretch the hole to make it bigger. The bigger the lip the more beautiful you are. If the women was to take the piece out her lip would hang past her chin.

But you may be thinking, "these women are crazy for doing this to them selves." When really we Americans do some really crazy things to our bodies our selves to look beautiful. How many Americans do you think have gotten skin cancer because they want to look tan all year around? According to the American Cancer Society Melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, will account for about 59,940 causes of skin cancer in 2007 and most of the 10,850 is deaths due to skin cancer each year. How many women have died from plastic surgery, being cut to change something they don't like about themselves? In America we have fake hair, fake face, fake body, fake smile, you can pretty much get anything you want done to you fake and that's how to be beautiful. Many women look through magazines and think they have to look like the women in the magazine to feel loved and beautiful. That's not true! The world is lying to you about what is beautiful. The world is telling you to NOT accept yourself and God made you to be. The world is saying you can't be who you are. God knew what he was doing when he made you.
You don't have to look like barbie to be pretty, by the way barbie was plastic. Everyone is going to get wrinkels someday, and you know what!?! That is beautiful!!!
I once came accross a photo on JpgMag.com of a women with stretch marks on her belly (I wish I could find it to share with you), as her caption she wrote "every mark is for every move you made, every mark is for every kick, every mark is for every breath you took within me..." That is beautiful!

Do you want to know the way of looking beautiful? Because I will tell you where you will find it...You will find in God's word, The Bible. God has a definition of beauty for every women no matter what her culture is in the world. It's a beauty that radiates from the inside out, and it delights the eyes of the Lord and the lives of people it touches.
The Bible says that Esther was a beautiful women, but had competition for the crown. What was it about Esther that made her different, a difference that caught the king's eye?
1. She loved the Lord
2. She took advice from her elders that she trusted. (Esther 2:20)
3. She wasn't all about her looks, Esther was herself. (Esther 2:15)
4. She was smart.
5. She cared more about doing what was right then being attractive and liked. She risked her own life to save the lives of her people. (Esther 4:11-16)
Esther's beauty is a true example of the verse in Proverbs 31:30 "Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised."

Don't let the world tell you your not beautiful. I had a friend once tell me when I was down on my self image that when we look at other people and think "Oh, she is really pretty I wish I could like her." there is other women thinking the same about you. Be Beautiful! Be who God made you to be, love yourself. Don't make the "beautiful" of our world what it's all about because that's not the true beauty, that's just temporary. Be God's definition of Beautiful! It's allot less painful. You need to be who YOU are. Are you following the crowd's definition of what it takes to be beautiful or are you following God's? Know that you ARE loved and you ARE beautiful. Be sure to read Psalm 139 and try to memorize it. Confidence gives you a beautiful glow! Just remember challenges are attractive to guys. If you're showing your body, you're advertising it, not accentuating your beauty.
You're not ment to blend in with everyone else, your ment to shine bright like the brightest start in the night sky. Your ment to be the brightest flower in the wild flowers. You're ment to be unique and original, in other words, being your self is the most beautiful thing.
It doesn't matter who has hurt you in the past or in the present, you are still loved by someone who loves you more then you will ever know and calls you beautiful! It doesn't matter what you have done, the Lord still calls you His beloved. It doesn't matter how big that scar is, the Lord kisses it with love and beauty! The Lord sees everything about you as beautiful! I'm starting to believe all the physical things I've complained about (my height, my weight, my scars) are all the things about me that the Lord loves.
Remember that Jesus loves you with an everlasting love! (Jeremiah 31:3) He has called you out from the darkness into freedom. (Psalm 107:4)

I'm going to dare all you women to be beautiful. Not in the way the world sees beauty but in the way God sees Beauty. I dare you to let the Lords love shine from your heart so bright! Be that brightest star in the night sky! Be the brightest colored flower in the field. You were originated in the mind of God; woven and spun into the living, beautiful masterpiece you are! Ladies YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!!! Let the World see the TRUE beauty!

Finding YOU...

     As soon as my son was born and he was placed on my chest; my whole identity was changed and I was given a whole new role. I was now a mama to a very special gift.
    As much as we give and continue to give of ourselves in this new role, we haven't lost who God made us to be. Sometimes we will lose track but after awhile we will look in the mirror and look past the saggy belly and into the eyes of a tired but blessed and still growing woman.  Being a mama doesn't mean you just disapper or matter anymore. Being a mama means growth, it will expand who you are. Think of yourself as a jewel. Being a jewel, in the beinning you have jagged edges but as you grow and learn the edges being to get polished and polished until you are shining in all ways.  No matter what, your still YOU! Just think, God treasures you. He finds you just the way you are, more beautiful then any jewel.
    As we go on this journey of raising our children, we learn where we ourselves are still needing work and where we still need growth.  But mama's, Oh how we've already grown so much! Huh??
    Motherhood is such an amazing gift, it has taught us to love, to really love, and for me most of all...to be loved unconditionally. It's also taught us a great amount of patience in our lives. I know motherhood not only has taught me patience but with also being a wife I've had to learn a lot of patience.
    As we continue to shape the little blessing's in our lives, we close our eyes, take a deep breath, look in the mirror, and discover something a little more about ourselves then we've every known before. At the end of the day we're still learning to grow. Think about when you plant a seed, it needs water to grow, right? That's the same for our lives. We need people, affection, laughter, and love to learn and grow. We go through things to break us and shape us. We are still so much like a child at times.

     I want to challenge you to something. Before I was married and had my children I would look in the mirror until I knew I was loved by God.
     If your struggling finding who you are and accepting love I want you to try this. I want you to stand in front of your mirror (with no make-up on) and look at who you are. Try to look at the beauty you hold within who you are. Don't pick what you dislike most about yourself. Look at yourself as a treasured jewel in the hands of the one who loves you most, think of how he sees you and feel his love for you. You will begin to feel a joy and love that you've never felt before. Press into His love for you and accept it!
     I want to challenge you to this for seven days, and be sure to tell a friend or comment how it's helped you.

    Be blessed mama

The New ME...

        As I watch Elijah play around the living room and Elisabeth sleep soundly on my chest I think about how much motherhood has changed my life and my definition of self. Motherhood changes us, it causes us to stretch beyond what we can often imagine and teaches us to take on new roles. Roles that may not even fit with "who we are".
       Before I was married and had my kids I had a carefree life. Living out of my car and couch surfing from friends house to friends house. I even learned to dumpster dive from a couple of friends I lived with and that's how we got most of our food (we even found some really niffty thing's).  I always wanted children growing up but never did I think motherhood would be so soon for me...(don't get me wrong, I love my role as wife and mama). I often dreamt of adventures, trips around the world, photographying my journeys, and outreach in Africa. I often thought about moving to Europe and even put in a application to YWAM in Norway. I wanted to travel, be creative, and live my life MY way.  Little did I know God had a different path for my life. 
         I was living in Indiana and found out I was pregnant at twenty-one and married my husband three weeks shortly after we found out. And just like that my life changed forever. I found myself being a stay-at-home mama and wife changing diapers, making meals and play dates. It was all so much more different then I ever imagined and harder, but yet I wouldn't change it for anything. A part of me still wanted to have a carefree life, the open road. But yet the idea of being away from my husband and son for even one week saddened me. As a mama, I gained a whole new meaning and definition of myself. My life became patience, love, and joy. And my adventures well, they became day trips with my son to the park or to a play date with friends.  Right now my adventure is my son trying to get to my bible as I type this. To be honest, I'm still learning motherhood and I'm sure even when my children are grown and have children of there own I will STILL be learning. I'm sure it will be years before I fully have peace in my new role and definition in myself.
        I often think about what I would be doing, what new adventure I would be embarking on, and where I would be in life. I used to wonder who I was, who I was becoming and how to identify with myself. But over time, I have slowly found new ways to define who I am. I have stretched beyound the boundaries of my old self and created a NEW idea of who I was that somewhat connected to my orginal self.
       I am creative through my photography and little crafty projects here and there in a schedual that fits for my family life so I can be "mama" first and foremost.
       I am adventurous in family trips, or mama get aways. I went to a Joyce Meyer Conference in Missouri with women from our church.
      I may not be on the path that I had for myself but yet I have found my cente and have finally met the dreams I held for myself through motherhood. Motherhood requires flexibility. You discover new things about yourself and rediscover old things that you thought you had to give up along the way. My babies are both under two years old and yet the adventures are only just beginning for us. I look forward to what the future holds and the journey it brings. I love the challenges they put before me. Are they hard? Of course they are! But it's only worth it and it will only make us so much stronger in the end.
     I get to experience life all over again as I go through life with my children. This new Me is a really good look on me and I embrace every moment I have with my two beautiful children. There smiles and laughter bring me so much joy. I so often watch my son play and just think how truly blessed I am to get to watch him learn and grow.

I AM blessed!