Beauty.

Let's talk about beauty.

I think there's such a skewed view of beauty these days, we don't really know what it is anymore. We see someone we pass in the mall, and we think, 'wow, they're hot.' That's not really BEAUTY though. I think there is a real 'beauty' that God gifted people with, and it's not what you see on the models in the fashion magazines doing their 'I'm so cool that I'm bored' poses.

Have you seen the Dove-Campaign for real beauty ads? Those are actually beautiful. They take regular looking women, and catch them in a joy-exuding moment. When I first saw one of those commercials on TV, I almost jumped up, and said, "YES! That's IT! NOW we're getting somewhere!"



Girls, it is okay to be beautiful. In fact, it's a gift... but the strongest and most stunning beauty is the kind that makes you almost not even notice what the person looks like externally. I'm thinking of someone I know... an older woman... Wendy Hardy. She has grey hair, smile wrinkles around her eyes and mouth, and every time I look at her, I think of beauty and warmth, and it makes me look forward to growing older. She hasn't done any plastic surgery to make herself look younger, or hotter, or sexier (I cringe even putting those words in the same paragraph as her). It's this pure, warm, loving, God-present joy in her.

I have also noticed the other kind of 'beauty'... when women dress to the nine, do up their make-up, wear as many accessories as possible, and seem every bit as unapproachable as Madonna. Everyone feels too intimidated to talk to them. Yet, I think it's not really the dressing up that does that. I like to dress up sometimes. I like to put on make-up, and I enjoy wearing jewellery. It's not these things that's wrong. It's something else that's going on inside them. It's the competitive act of dressing up to be the best and the most beautiful. It's a cover-up of insecurity that says: I'm perfect- and if I'm not, you're sure not going to see it. It's the need to be skinny, sexy, and the object of every man's fantasy. Why?-- to be loved.



I guess that's a really sad place to be (and I don't mean sad-pathetic. I mean sad in empathy). I guess the girls I feel intimidated by are probably longing for THE love-affair of their life to happen, and they haven't been satisified yet. I don't mean a husband, because that's not even it. Nope, that won't fill it. Sorry. It's God's love-affair with you, as cheesy as you may think that sounds.

My friend Jolie and I were talking on this beauty subject, and she related this story of another older woman she knows. Jolie dropped by her house one day, and this woman was still in her bathrobe and pajamas. They stood there in her living room joking and laughing together, Jolie in her clothes, and this woman in her PJ's. Jolie said it was the nicest, most beautiful thing she had seen.

So I guess it comes down to this... it's okay to be beautiful. It's a gift from God. If you like dressing up, that's fine, too. But another friend of mine (Jolie's husband Andy) said this once: If you like to dress up in front of people, that's good. But don't do it every time. Have some times where they see you in your pajamas, or in your grubs, or without any make-up on, or with your bed-head still matting up your hair. Be real. Because then, your friends won't feel like they always have to be done up in front of you, and it'll create a safety with them.

Okay, so Andy wasn't talking about beauty, he was talking about having your house clean all the time verses messy, but I think it applies to your body, too.

So that's a long blog, but it's how I feel.