Ask and you shall receive

If you are a first time visitor, welcome! I'm new to this blogging world, so let me begin by saying, I'm a work in process, though aren't we all. Interesting timing of this post... yesterday I was vacuuming my van as the kids took a much needed nap. I had a chance to write about the fourth of July, so I hadn't thought about posting again. I remember soaking in the beautiful sunshine and listening to some tunes when all of a sudden, some thoughts came to mind about my recent haircut. I couldn't get the thoughts out of my mind, so I decided to post them before they became lost in the spaghetti of my many thoughts.

Later last evening, I decided to grab my recent copy of Today's Christian Women as we headed out the door to drive to the east side and catch some more fireworks. Lo and behold, smack in the center is a 10 page article all about beauty - only God! Last post, I posed the question: What lessons has God taught you about beauty? Here are some points to ponder:

• Our Creator looks at the heart, but our culture tells us image is everything.
• How can we value biblical beauty in a body-obsessed world?
• In a 2004 global study on beauty commissioned by Dove, only 2 percent of surveyed women selected beautiful from a list of words to describe themselves.
• True beauty should reflect something greater than itself. God intends beauty - both internal and external - to reflect his brilliance and draw us closer to him.
• Our face, bodies, and outward appearance are icons or signs directing other people's attention beyond our own forms to God.
• Appropriate body care allows us to pay attention to ourselves, confident we're our healthiest, best selves so we can then forget about ourselves and be present to others.
• A woman is beautiful not because of who she is (her looks or roles), but because of Whose she is. As we learn to live in the midst of God's "wild about us" love, we're transformed. We become fully alive and impossibly beautiful.
• How we look is less important than how we think we look.

I also thought this quote from Angelina Jolie was interesting, she states, "I struggle with low-self esteem all the time. I think everyone does. I have so much wrong with me, it's unbelievable." Just me, or is their something a little backwards about this whole thing.

God has so much neat stuff to say about this topic, but time and time I find myself falling back on these truths the Lord shares in II Corinthians 5:15-20. This passage talks about how we are a new creation in Christ, and how we should see ourselves not as the world sees us but as Christ sees us. Let's face it, sometimes I simply need a daily reminder, not about who I am, but who I am in Christ.

Lord thank you for sharing with me today both the realities of this world and the reality of your truth. As negative and very believable thoughts enter my mind, help me to realize that these thoughts are not coming from you. I love you.