Do You Want to Find Your Beautiful?

I’m free at last! Well, I’m working on it, and I’m so happy you’re with me! We are on the road to new things! And by the way, I once read that one shouldn’t use the word things while writing. It’s been said that a writer should arrive at their point using fitting words and grammatical perfection with sentence structure to make the best of the best green with envy…

Disclaimer: This blog will not be your greatest literary experience. And that leads me to today’s first post in Finding Our Beautiful. (The Beautiful Blog Series.)

Do you know that for as long as I’ve lived, I’ve been trying to please everyone and prove something. You too? Most of the time, I don’t even know what I’ve wanted to prove. I degrade and devalue myself because I always want to be thinner, prettier, better, smarter, and more. I’ve had the hardest time accepting who God made me.

Why in the world would I ever question the work of the Creator’s hands?

Do we undervalue beautiful sights around us? Do we question the beauty of the Grand Canyon or the turquoise water of the Caribbean Sea? No. We look at them with wonder as we respect their beauty. And, yet, God created us with the same hands and all we do is down ourselves. We think of everything we can’t do instead of what we can. We forget who made us…

Have you forgotten who made you?

There’s a big movement with many people talking about art in life. From what we cook, to how we dress, to everything we do… it’s now classified as art. And it is! God lives in us and He made us with gifts, callings, and purposes to fulfill.

We live in a day and age where we can Instagram a picture of burned macaroni and cheese and deem it art! That’s called grace, friend. Take it and run!

And in all this, we still have the hardest time in the whole world looking in the mirror and finding something we love about the work of His hands. He stroked our faces with His paintbrush and the shade He used is from the palette of beauty. It’s unique and begins somewhere deep on the inside before it overflows to the outside.

We have to learn how to connect with His brushstrokes. For some, it’s the difference between life and death. It’s enough to break my heart wide open for the women who can’t catch their breath over the word beautiful. We have to talk about this. We must.

Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel— rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.

-1 Peter 3:3-4

Gentle and quiet spirit? Hmmm. I’m still working to connect with those attributes on a deeper level, but I’m excited that the New King James translation uses the word merely. It’s okay to beautify (Praise God and pass the hair dye!) but it can’t only be outside beautification. We must look at our hearts and fix the not so beautiful. We all have gunk inside. Bitterness, anger, jealousy – pick your poison – not one of us doesn’t struggle with something. Regardless of that, God poured significant amounts of amazing inside each one of us. Yet, for some reason, most women refuse to acknowledge it.

Maybe we have a fear of sounding arrogant. Maybe we think it’s “unchristian.” And do you know something else? Maybe all that humility isn’t really humility. Do you know what I’m saying? Maybe in trying to be humble we are shaming who we are, and it’s leading us into a whole other prison, making us a sitting target for sin to entangle us. It’s easy to confuse humility and shame… Have you ever thought about that?

We need to break free, friend! It’s okay to look in the mirror and find something you like. You can do it! It’s okay to tap into a gift or talent and say, “Hey, I’m pretty good at that!” Because in all those things we can see the creator’s brushstrokes. We can give Him glory! It’s another opportunity to praise Him. And He deserves it ALL!!!

We are going to take a journey together. Are you in? It’s the journey of Finding our beautiful.

Here’s what we are going to do:

1. Every Monday and Wednesday I will write to you about this topic. (Sometimes I will feature guests who will share their hearts on the subject.) On Fridays, I will do a short vlog (A video blog under five minutes in length) sharing encouragement for the weekend.
2. Please join me over at my Facebook page where we will discuss questions about beauty. We will talk on twitter using the hashtag #beautifulblogseries. Invite your friends! Let’s be kind and build each other up as we dig to find the beauty we each possess. We are going to explore this in a brand new way.
3. Every Thursday, we are going to Instagram a picture pertaining to our topic. This week we’ll start silly since it’s our first one. What is your “Grace Art”? How can we applaud you? Burned Mac and Cheese? A Messy Kitchen? Bed Head? Hashtag it #findingherthursday and #beautifulblogseries. You can post them to Facebook, and twitter, too!
4. We are going to have a lot of fun with these hashtags! It will include prizes and amazing opportunities to share encouragement with women who need to hear YOUR voice, so stay connected to hear about that as well!

Friend, together we need to breakaway from the bondage that isn’t beautiful, and discover what true beauty is. We are going to find what’s been lost!

I sincerely hope you will join me. I would love for you to leave a comment here and tell me what you think of this topic.

I can’t wait until Thursday to see your “grace art” on Instagram and other social media outlets! I have so much planned for us.

Let’s see what God does in opening our eyes to finding beautiful!

Love,

Jennifer

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