At the Playground

Sometimes in New England you get beautifully warm days. Days that are not hot, but certainly not the chill that makes you want to wrap a sweater snugly around your shoulders. These are the perfect days to enjoy the fall in New England; the perfect days to take in the changing leaves, to breathe in the smell of the season, and to enjoy what the fall has to offer.

Incidentally, this year my mom has arranged a lengthy visit that also coincides with the best season in New England - which allows us to bring her along to show her some of the cute places that we've discovered over the course of the summer. Yesterday I decided that after dropping Will off at preschool, my 2-year-old daughter and I would bring her Nana to Twin Bridge Park in Merrimack, NH. It's a small park with some smaller trails that are perfect for little ones and with this year's drought, the rocks that are normally covered in water from the brook that flows through there are exposed and lend to some simple rock climbing too. When I saw the weather for yesterday - sunny, high 60's, no rain - I knew it would be a good morning for a walk.

As it turns out, this park also includes a large, castle-like playground.

When we pulled into the parking lot, my 2-year-old daughter launched into her requests. "Mom, can we go to the playground?"

Not wanting to just stand around a playground wondering which turret my daughter had disappeared to in a given moment, I said "No, Sweetie not today. Mommy and Nana want to go for a walk and so we are going to go for a walk."

This back-and-forth continued into the first several minutes of the walk. Finally I realized I needed to make the woods a playground - and fast - or this wasn't going to let up and the walk was going to drive me crazy.

"Hey - did you know that God made these trees? And that water over there? And the rocks?"

"No..."

"Well, He did. He made all of the things in the woods. This is God's playground. We're in GOD'S PLAYGROUND. So see, we're already at the playground!"

Within 5 minutes my daughter was jumping off of railroad ties with Nana and chucking acorns and rocks into the brook. Not another word was spoken of the playground until we were leaving and it was back in sight again - and when I told her that we didn't have time because we needed to go get her big brother at school, she let it go.

Look, playgrounds are beautiful, wonderful things. I have many a memory of swinging high and jumping off, of trying to climb up hot metal slides and figuring out the best way to slide down without burning my legs, of pretending structures are forts and hiding out with my friends. I watch as my kids declare their favorite small play structure at a local playground their "Bucky" (it's a pirate ship from one of their cartoons), climb up slides, hang from bars, and laugh with joy as they swing on the swings. The advent of indoor playgrounds means my kids get to experience the joy of inflatable slides more regularly than my generation ever did. I love a good playground and my kids do too.

Sometimes, though, we need to take the time and look at what was created well before an engineer ever took pencil to paper and designed a set of monkey bars.

God created the heavens and the earth and everything that fills it - including us. For me, the place I have felt closest to God is when I am sitting at the side of the sea; the quiet whisper of the waves, the cool of the water, the gentle touch of the breeze, and the vastness of width and depth of the ocean. For those who love hiking, standing at the top of a mountain taking in all that God created below them is where they feel closest to Him. There are so many places in the world that show the beauty and wonder of the nature that God created, so many things to discover and explore. One of my kids' favorite shows is "Dinosaur Train", and at the end of every episode the paleontologist says "Get outside, get into nature, and make your own discoveries". I LOVE this - God has placed so many things in nature that even if you go to the same place every day there is always something new to see, explore, observe, and wonder at.

So this little girl who so desperately wanted to go to a playground stood at the edge of a little pool of water yesterday, tossing different sized rocks in with different forces. Some of the rocks created such a splash that droplets of water came up and tickled her face. Then Nana threw a REALLY BIG rock, and the splash was so big that a bit of mud got on Evie's face, Mommy's pants got a little wet, and everyone laughed. When the tossing of rocks got boring (briefly, it's actually amazing to me how long kids can just stand there throwing rocks into water), we paused and looked at the pool and saw some tiny fish swimming around. She climbed on rocks and picked up sticks bigger than she was and jumped off of boulders and looked down from bridges into the brook below.

We had so much fun together and experiences in nature are things that no manufactured playground can offer. We are wired to discover, to delight in the world, and to share in all that God created. There is joy to be had when we open our eyes, our hearts, and are willing to stretch ourselves to let God give us the gifts of His handiwork.

Get out into God's playground today, find where He pulls your heart, and enjoy all that He has created.

The Beauty in the Weeds

A few weeks ago I was having a rough day. The kids were going crazy,  I was overtired, and it was all I could do not to drown myself in a pile of chocolate and/or lock my kids in their playroom while borrowing my husband's noise cancelling headphones for an hour. Or even five minutes.

After dinner, my husband brought Will outside while I cleaned up the kitchen and gave Evie a bath. While I was doing the former, the doorbell rang. I opened the door to find a certain blond haired, blue eyed little boy standing there with a giant grin and a fistful of dead dandelions.

"Here, Mommy! I picked you some flowers!"

I looked down at that little face and its giant smile and bright eyes and all my frustrations of the day melted away. I then looked down at the fistful of dead dandelions and had an inner sigh - especially as I glimpsed the semi-apologetic look on Steve's face as he handed me a branch from our blossomed cherry tree and a length of phlox. The look that said "I tried to teach our son how to pick flowers for Mommy, and he decided that dead weeds were the way to go."

But I mean... that face on that little boy holding those browned stems with the seeds holding on waiting for a strong breeze... talk about a heart melt...

When this face hands you a fistful of dandelions, you love them.
Because you love this face, and the giving heart behind it.

My paternal grandfather died when I was just shy of 8 years old, but I have very clear memories with him in the few years before that. My parents divorced when I was 5, but my brother and I would still head to visit with my grandparents and father about once a month. My grandfather had a vegetable garden and several flower beds, and I would follow him around asking what things were and being a general 6 or 7 year old nuisance. I would sit beside him on his bed as he watched "The Victory Garden", hoping he would notice me and take the headphones out so I could hear too.

One day while I was out in the yard with him, I very clearly remember picking some dandelions and buttercups and little purple flowers and bringing them over to him. I wanted to share - very proudly - these beautiful yellow flowers that I even left enough stem to put in a cup of water.

He looked at me confused as I reached to hand him the flowers. "What are you giving me weeds for? Those aren't flowers!" 

This was the day that I learned the difference between weeds and wanted, purposeful plants. I also learned from my Papa that day that my Nana loved to get flowers from her grandkids, so I brought them to her from then on while Papa shook his head with a smile.

"Bena and Kenny" - Circa 1980-something in my grandparents' back yard.
Yep, that's a scan of a Polaroid.

Confession: To this day when our lawn gets cluttered with the yellow heads of dandelions every spring, even though I know that they can choke out the grass and deteriorate the health of our lawn - a part of me still sees the beauty of the yellow against the backdrop of green. When I see the weeds that sprout purple flowers start to take over the cracks coming out of our rock wall, I wait until the flowers have withered before I pull the weeds out.

I have fond memories of dandelions and purple flowers and the yellow buttercups of clover plants sitting in Dixie Cups on windowsills in my parents' kitchen that we picked. They were the first flowers I picked as a gift and the first flowers I taught my siblings to pick.

Image from RuthKassinger.com.
Check out this write-up about dandelions being used in tires.

Then there is the story of Jesus being anointed by the sinful woman while dining with the Pharisee.

"When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself , 'If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is - that she is a sinner.'" (Luke 7:36-39)

A sinner. A societal weed. A broken, unwanted person among those who are perceived to be beautiful and desired. Someone who is viewed as disposable, who will choke out the beauty.

But Jesus.

Jesus doesn't see the ugly that the Pharisee sees. He sees this woman's beauty, he sees her heart, sees more than her sin.

"Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, 'Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven - as her great love has shown.'" (Luke 7:44-47)

Wild violets - my favorite weeds. Yes, I have favorite weeds.

There is much beauty to be found in the weeds and it's more than the beauty of the yellow, purple, white, or whatever colored flowers that poke their heads out in the spring.

Last night while we were out playing with the kids, a baby bird just kicked out of the nest was trying to figure out how to fly and had flown itself right into the middle of our street. Steve ran into the basement, grabbed a box and some gloves, and rescued the baby bird from becoming road kill. "Mommy," Will asked me, "what's Daddy doing?"

"I am going to bring this baby bird back into the woods so it doesn't get run over by a car. Do you want to see it before I bring it back?"

My 13-month old daughter bounced excitedly and reached up for me to bring her to see the bird. My 3-year-old son said "Oh! Yes!" and ran up the sidewalk to see the tiny bird. On his way up, he passed a grouping of dandelions on the edge of the lawn. "Oh! I will bring it some flowers!" he said as he grabbed a fistful and ripped them away from their base.

Notice the dead dandelions on the right side of the box. 

The heart of a 3-year-old says to bring the scared little baby bird some flowers because that will make it feel better.

The beauty in the weeds isn't in the flowers. It's in the heart of those that pick the flowers to give to their Papa, their Nana, their Mommy, or the scared baby bird. Yes, weeds have undesirable qualities - but so do I. So do you.

The beauty lies in the heart.

Let your heart flowers bloom.

The Beautiful Series: Recap

Incase you missed it, I recently did a 4-part series called "Beautiful". I thought it might be good to summarize and put the links to all 4 posts in one place for quick reference.

Part One: The introduction to the series! I talk about how God created us as beautiful and start to touch the surface on the struggles a lot of us have with accepting our beauty. Why can't we accept ourselves as beautiful the way God created us to be? Link to Part One is here.

Part Two: Several women responded to an open-ended survey regarding their beauty. This post summarizes their thoughts on their struggles with beauty and the inspirations in their lives that help them feel beautiful. Link to Part Two is here.

Part Three: I share with you my "Top 5" beauty power songs. These are a few of the songs that I can sing or hear (usually sing) and start to feel my beauty emanate from my inside out. Link to Part Three is here.

Part Four: Similar to Part One in that I reiterate how beautiful we are in God's eyes. I close out with a reminder that we are all drop-dead gorgeous. Link to Part Four is here.

I'm by no means an expert on beauty or feeling beautiful or on knowing the magic solution to make all of our self-esteem problems go away. What I do know is that we all have our areas of struggle, and God knows ways to get to our core and help us to realize that He views us as gorgeous and wonderful.

I leave you with this note that I found in my gas log while Steve was away. God has blessed me with a husband who tries to remember that he is called to love me as God loves me. God thinks I'm beautiful, and Steve does too. I thank God every day for a husband who thinks I'm gorgeous and wonderful in spite of all the flaws I see for myself. Because of that, I am able to get a glimpse of how beautiful God thinks I am and understand at least a little of how much He loves me.

“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams." - Ashley Smith

Beautiful (Part 4)

Ephesians 2:10, "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

One week from today, I am tasked to teach that verse to a room full of 6-12th graders. A verse that is our constant reminder that we are a masterpiece. God’s beautiful, amazing masterpiece. We might get some dust on us sometimes, we might get a tear in our canvas - but we are still God’s masterpiece.

We are beautiful creatures. The word beautiful is self-defining: full of beauty. Just because we don’t feel beautiful sometimes doesn’t change the fact that we are. Our significant others, our parents, our grandparents, siblings, closest friends... they all see how beautiful we are. Why can’t we see this for ourselves? What is the block that stops us from seeing our own beauty?

How do we overcome that?


I think for all of us it’s different. First realizing that we are God’s beautiful masterpiece is a great start. In God’s eyes, we are the most beautiful thing in His creation. After God created man & woman He stepped back and said we were “very good”. Not “good” like everything else - but “very good”. 


There was a song that came out while I was in college that contained the lyrics “you’re an ocean”. I know how I feel while sitting at the seashore staring at the waves crashing along the coast line; in absolute awe of the beauty and majesty and strength that the ocean contains.


“You’re an ocean.”

Inside of me is a woman who can stand majestically tall (despite my 5’3” frame) and have abundant strength (despite my lack of effort in lifting weights) and unending beauty (despite the extra skin and facial hair). 


Let me repeat that a little differently.



Inside of me is a woman who can stand majestically tall and have abundant strength and unending beauty. 


Do you see the difference? We need to stop the self-deprecating talk and speak boldly about our beauty. When you say something enough, you begin to feel it as truth. That’s a place we can all start from. Once we put that foot forward, the rest is up to us. Is it a new outfit that flatters our figures? Is it exercising more often to feel our strength? Is it singing in the car to feel our voice and soul? Is it talking to ourselves in the mirror each morning to tell ourselves how incredibly gorgeous we are?


You are beautiful. Each one of us is drop-dead gorgeous, and we need to start embracing that. Start today; do one thing before you go to bed tonight to help make you feel beautiful. Find a friend who also struggles and strive together to reclaim your sense of beautiful. It’s yours.


Drop-dead gorgeous. 

Psalm 139:14, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."

Top 5 - Beauty Power Songs (Beautiful: Part 3)

When I'm in the middle of one of those "down, ugly, and useless" funks, I find that sometimes belting out a few select songs can really help me to stand a little taller, feel a little stronger, and increase that beauty-meter to a more reasonable notch. It's those subliminal messages in the lyrics coming through my speakers that remind me to look in my soul and find my God-given beauty. So without further ado... here are my

Top 5 Beauty Power Songs 

(in no particular order...)

Natalie Merchant - "Wonder": This song was a huge lifter for me when I was a teenager, and after a trip to the library where I found the "Tigerlily" CD its power to remind me of my own "Wonder" returned. All it took was one iteration of the lyrics "They say I must be one of the wonders, God's own creation..." to escape my lips and I could already predict the auto-renew of this one. Or at least purchasing the song on iTunes.

Natalie singing "Wonder" on Letterman circa 1996

Christina Aguilera - "Beautiful": Sometimes I look in the mirror and hate what I see. I think that others hate what they see (how couldn't they). I start to ask Steve if he's SURE he thinks I'm beautiful (which...wives, if you ever want a sure-fire way to drive your husband bananas - ask him that about 10 times in the same evening). Then I remember that this is just self-talk, words, and I remember the lyrics from this song: "I am beautiful, no matter what they say. Word's can't keep me down...". Granted, I am the "they" in this instance... but I think we're own own worst "they" (if you know what I mean).

Truthfully, this song should be an anthem for women everywhere

Sammy Kershaw - "She Don't Know (She's Beautiful)": Early on in our relationship Steve was honest with me about the times I wear make-up: he hates it. Why? Because he feels like it covers up my true beauty and unless I'm "all dolled up" only detracts from whatever I'm wearing that day and my naturally pretty-self . Then one day we were driving in the car and this song came on the radio; he looked at me and said "This is what I think of you. You have NO idea how gorgeous you are." That has stuck with me, and ever since this has been a constant reminder of how my husband (at the time boyfriend) views me. Ladies - ask your significant others: I bet they think the same thing.

The song is set to flowers in this "video". Why did I pick this version? Flowers are also beautiful.

Rascal Flatts - "Bless the Broken Road": Nothing makes a woman feel more beautiful than putting on a wedding dress, getting all dolled up, and having a man stare at her all day long admiring her beauty and loving the fact that he gets to spend the rest of his life with that hot, gorgeous, soulfully beautiful woman. As such, this song makes me feel beautiful because every time I hear it I'm brought back to my wedding day. Sometimes when it plays at home, I'll even get to relive that moment where that same man stares at me with a big smile while dancing in the middle of whatever room we're in.

Sometime pull up YOUR wedding song and make your husband dance with you too. Relive it.

"Amazing Grace": This simple reminder that I am loved for who I am by God no matter who else does or doesn't love me here on earth is one of those songs that helps my "inside beauty" shine through. If you remember from my first "Beautiful" post, one of the applications to work on is to try and see myself as God sees me. The truth is that He loves all of us, no matter what and even in our "ugliest" moments. We are His beautiful, amazing children and He would do anything for us. I'm not God, but I'd have to guess that His heart breaks when we talk down to ourselves and don't see our true beauty. "Unending love... amazing grace..."

If you want to see the "real" Chris Tomlin video, go here.

Feeling beautiful is not something that comes to us easily by any means. There are things that we can do to help ourselves feel more beautiful both on the outside and on the inside - probably starting on the inside. My mom always told me that's where your beauty starts; when you're feeling amazingly beautiful on the inside, it will shine through your outside. 

So sing a song of beauty and start working on your soul. Feel that beauty emanate from your core and work its way to shine out from the tips of your fingers. 

What songs do you sing to help you out of a beauty funk?

Beautiful (Part 2)

Knowing that sometimes it is comforting to hear that you are not alone in how you feel, I asked some of the women in my life a few questions about beauty. I thought that if I was able to gather some thoughts from various women in all walks of life, it could serve as a bit of encouragement to each other. Below is a summary of the answers I received from friends and family; hopefully they will serve to help you feel that you're not alone in your beauty struggles and offer you some new inspiration to realize in your heart that you are indeed gorgeous.

Question One: What areas do you struggle with your beauty?

I got a few mixed answers on this one, but the most common response seemed to be a struggle with weight. It's amazing how big of a role our weight plays in how we feel about ourselves and a large part of that can be attributed to how weight management and what weights are "pretty" are portrayed in our culture. Images of what is or is not acceptable - no matter how healthy or unhealthy - are emblazoned in our psyche. This ends up tying in to another common theme which was that we compare ourselves to others and don't feel like we measure up. We don't feel as pretty as the person in the next cubicle or as smart as the talking heads on TV or as funny as the person telling jokes at the table at dinner. We compare ourselves to famous people and our neighbors and our friends and our other family members. There were a few statements people shared with me that encompassed this feeling of comparison:

""I'm having a tough time dealing with having a 'mom's' body. Especially when your own mother is tinier than you are."

"I usually struggle in seeing those around me, and coveting their own beauty."

"There are days when I feel like I look good until I get to the office and someone smaller, prettier, smarter comes along.  Then I end up feeling frumpy and old."

Beyond the bigger answers are the little things that we notice about ourselves. Our nails are worn down from the jobs we perform. Our skin shows signs of aging. Our arms look terrible in dresses. Our skin is too pale. Our faces break out. When we're down, these small things can often become amplified and make us feel even worse about ourselves. We put ourselves under a magnifying glass and become our own worst critics, pointing out every way possible we could improve.

The saddest answer I got on this survey was this: "The answer to that, is simply that I struggle... I've never really felt beautiful, never really had it in me to believe other people if they tell me that." There are a few reasons I almost cried with this particular answer, but when it comes down to it - this answer is the most raw, all-encompassing response I received. I can't tell you how many days I've had where it hasn't matter who told me I was gorgeous; I could not bring myself to believe them. If we're honest with ourselves, this is probably a more common problem than we realize.

Ladies, I don't know why we all struggle with our beauty the way we do. I will say this: every woman who responded to this is incredibly beautiful and it saddens me that there are times we don't see this about ourselves. 

Question Two: What are some things you do for yourself to help you to feel more beautiful?

Man, do we all do some different things to help ourselves feel beautiful. I LOVE that we all know exactly what helps us to feel good about ourselves; if nothing else, it's an encouragement that we know somewhere in our souls that we are beautiful. Here is a list of the different things I heard that we do to make ourselves feel "purty":

• Sit in the sun
• Do our hair or go out and get it done for us. 
• Manicures/pedicures
• Exercise 
• Put on make-up
• Get dressed in clothes that boost our confidence
• Remind ourselves of our inner beauty

The most beautiful answer I received, however, is too good to not share with you. Please read this in its entirety; I hope that you are as inspired as I was when I read it the first time:

"If the first part of searching for beauty (both within and without) involves remembering that beauty is more than what sight has to offer, the second part involves using the sight of someone else.

My goddaughter is an amazing creature. Since the day she was born she's been filling me up with the best gifts life can offer, teaching me lessons that I've been unable to learn on my own. When she was born, I was underweight - and when I would hold her - I would have to put a pillow on my arm or she would cry, my bony arms much too uncomfortable for her. Instead of the context for my body being - "beauty is thin," it became "beauty is being able to hold this precious child."

My weight has gone all over the place in the five years she's been on this earth. Y'know what hasn't changed? The way this child looks at me - the way she lights up and wants to play. In her eyes, I am this amazing person - and that has so precious little to do with external beauty it is astounding. In her eyes, I am beautiful, because she sees through the eyes of Love. 

Having a bad day - feeling ugly and unsuccessful? Look at yourself through the eyes of a child who loves you. They should bottle it; it is that powerful."

Question 3: What quote/song lyric/Bible verse (etc.) do you feel you most relate to and fall back on in your life in regards to beauty? (If none, that's OK too.)

No answer repeated itself with this question, which was kind of fun because I was able to get a big variety of answers. Here are the answers I received to this question:

• The Serenity Prayer (God, please grant me the strength to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.)
• Christina Aguilera: "Beautiful"
• Jon McLaughlin: "Beautiful Disaster"
• Eric Hutchinson: "You Don't Have to Believe Me"
• Alanis Morrisette: "That I Would Be Good" 
• "Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear: Forget your people and your father's house. The king is enthralled with your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord." (Psalm 45:10-11, NIV)
• "For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul know it very well." (Psalm 139: 13-14, NASB)
• One I just remembered today - "But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'"" (Romans 9:20, NIV)
• Simply Red: "You're Beautiful"
• Mason Williams: "Classical Gas"
• Journey: "Girl can't help it"
• "I like myself more now than I ever did. I don't know why some things have happened to me, but somehow it has all worked out for the best. They all helped me in my search to become whole."  Anonymous 
• "Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye" 

And thus concludes this very long post about where we stand with our own beauty. I hope that you found it helpful; I know that reading the answers as I got them in certainly was an encouragement to me, and I've been excited to share these responses with you.

So now... what about you? Where do you struggle? What do you do to help yourself out of it? Any inspiration to share with us? 

**Note: I've decided this will be a four-part series. Parts 3 and 4 will be coming soon!

Beautiful (Part 1)

I don’t know any woman who hasn’t had one of those days. You know what I’m talking about. The fat days, ugly days, bad hair days, clothes aren’t working for me days. The days when you look in the mirror and feel worthless, awful, and disgusting - all because of how you look.


I know I struggle with this. I’m short. I spent the better part of my adult life and formative years overweight. Guys didn’t want to date me because I was “Yellie - the good friend” who liked football and was over-gregarious. I suffer from hirsutism. And now that I’ve lost weight, I have extra skin that flaps in places I would prefer it not flap. I have cellulite. Sometimes I get pimples. My eyebrows aren’t as neatly trimmed as everyone else’s.


Yeesh. I am so incredibly hard on myself. Does anyone else have this problem?

We are our own worst critics!

But I’m not ugly. I’m beautiful both inside and out. I have a husband who tells me this on a daily basis; he reminds me of how gorgeous I am several times a day. My family and closest friends have always reminded me of how beautiful I am and why and what makes me beautiful. But why is this never enough to make me think of myself as beautiful?

“There is certainly no absolute standard of beauty. That precisely is what makes its pursuit so interesting.” - John Kenneth Galbraith

Last year while sitting on a beach in Jamaica, I read a book called Captivating. The book is about how beautiful women are in the eyes of God, and how we are His precious creatures. Sitting in a place I feel most in touch with God (next to the ocean - how can you not feel God’s majesty near an ocean!) reading about how He thinks I’m beautiful really put things in perspective for me. When I got to the last page, I closed the book and looked around. There were other women around me that were just as beautiful as me in God’s eyes - and in His eyes we are all the most gorgeous woman in the world. I stood up from my chair and went looking for shells because I didn’t want people around me to see the tear in my eye that I had developed with that single, powerful realization.


It wasn’t like I hadn’t heard that beautiful reality before - it just came at one of those poignant moments that He tends to find and wriggle his way into our hearts. The moments when He knows it will impact us the most.


This same thing happened to me today.


I’ve been down this week. It started when I saw a picture of myself and realized that I need a haircut and that my wisdom teeth pushed my front teeth forward a bit. Then I wasn’t feeling confident in an outfit I was wearing this week. I didn’t exercise for three days purposefully and felt gross. Add to that some other outside frustrations I’ve been dealing with - and my inner workings were a recipe for disaster. It really could have gone either way.


This morning when I was packing my gym bag I pulled down an outfit I know I look good in. I call it one of my “confidence booster” outfits, one of those get-ups that makes you stand just a little bit taller. I got to work, opened my email, and looked at my Proverbs 31 Daily Devotional. Wouldn’t you know... it was about how beautiful we are in God’s eyes.


One of the application steps? When you find yourself in a funk, remember to define yourself through God's eyes.


He really does know our hearts, doesn’t He? I am more and more amazed at how He knows us, loves us, and hits home with the right impact at the right time.


I paused and thought about how God views me. I thought about the text from Steve that I got a while back telling me to go in the bathroom (at work), look in the mirror, and tell that person they’re the most beautiful woman in the world. I sat up a little straighter, I felt a LOT better, and thanked God for His love (and for my husband, who reminds me all the time of how beautiful I am).

"The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord." Psalm 45:11 (NIV)