Absolutely Terrifying Beauty

I'm part of a small group/Bible study for high school girls in my church, and as we were talking about having positive self-talk last night, my mom, one of our leaders, was responding to another comment that was made, and she said "Sometimes, faith is just having the courage to keep going." and for whatever reason, it has stuck with me.

Actually, I know the reason. It's because of how true it is. There are moments when the only two options that we have are to keep trying, or to quit, and in most of those situations, quitting would be so much easier. It's like life is some sort of maze, with wonders and terrors strewn through.

Sometimes it would be more fun, easier, to sit down right were we are in the maze and say, "Nope. Not anymore, God. I quit. I don't know what's coming next, and if it's anything like what's come before, I don't want it. It isn't worth it." We refuse to listen to God, and we sit stubbornly right in the middle of that maze. All we see when we look back at where we've been are the monsters that have tried to tear us apart, but what we're forgetting is that we've picked up those gorgeous gardens along the way, and keep them in our pocket right with us. So we quit. We've all been there before. I know that I sure have.

But then, there are times when we don't quit, when we trust God, and walk through this maze. We widen our eyes at ourselves, and shake our heads, in disbelief that we're actually choosing to continue on, but still we know that God has amazing things planned for us. This maze has twice as many wonders as terrors, and even more in disguise.

Sometimes it seems as though we're walking through the maze alone, or blindly, but truly, I tell you, both are lies. We are never alone, never. God does not leave our sides, not in the good times, and most definitely not in the bad times. He's no fair-weather-friend, this amazing God of ours. And best of all, not only is He with us, but God is leading us through it. If only we would let Him, He'll take our hands in His and lead us through the twists and turns. It's only when we stray from Him that we get lost and hit these dead ends, but eventually we'll find that He's following right behind us, just waiting for us to turn around and fall into His loving arms.

There's nothing more beautiful than the love of Jesus Christ, and there's nothing more terrifying than living the life that He has for you. But when you put it together you aren't left with monsters and horrors. What you're left with is absolutely terrifying beauty. And there isn't anything more amazing than that.

So, yeah, doing God's work in the world takes an explicit amount of faith, but sometimes just continuing on takes even more. You'll see, though, that He never fails, never ever, and if you just turn around in this maze, you'll see Jesus waiting with arms outstretched to hold you and love you. So answer me this, will you turn around and let Him carry you?

A Search for Truth

From a very early age we have the idea that each of us is a special individual pounded into our heads. The idea that we shouldn't let anyone treat us less then our supposed worth. But I've recently found that that is a truth that you need to discover for yourself, well, at least I did. I'm always hearing from the people around me "You're so special!" "You're such a wonderful person!" "Wait for the guy who knows he's lucky to have you!" "Forget about them, they obviously don't know what you're worth."

It's enough to make anyone believe it. But there was a day last week when I found myself wondering, what makes me worth so much? I'm really no different than the next person. Yeah, I have my quirks, and I have my qualities, but it isn't anything that couldn't be found somewhere else. So many people were saying the same thing for so long, though. For such a large amount of people to know and believe that each person is special, that each person is worth so much, there must be something that they're seeing that I'm not.

So I decided that I had to find my worth for myself, and stop letting other people tell me the same things over and over again. And guess where I found myself. The Bible. I read those verses that we've heard a hundred times, the verses about how special we each are, and how God loves all of us no matter what, and there shed some new light.

There are little side notes all through out my Bible, and one speaks about 2 Corinthians 10:12 (I'm not going to post what this verse actually says right now, and you'll see why in just a few moments, though I encourage you to look it up yourself. Biblegateway.com is a great online Bible to use if you'd prefer easier access). This side note gets inside the mind of a teenager. "Carol has nicer clothes. Jason is smarter. Carl can dunk a basketball. Karen has thick, wavy hair. Danny makes friends easily." I'm sorry to break it to you, but there's always going to be someone who's better at you at anything in particular, if you look at things that way.

Maybe you aren't as fashion forward as someone else, or you don't get as good of grades, but then you're forgetting about the calming effect that you have on people, or the way that you can make anyone laugh.

So there was my answer. It was actually really easy to find. Those people all around me were right. God created me as a masterpiece. God created you as a masterpiece. God created everyone as a masterpiece. The thing is that very often, we look at just parts of a whole, not the entire product. We see singly mediocre qualities, but God sees the whole, beautiful masterpiece. We focus on being the best in a world of billions, when we should really be focusing on being the best "us" we can be.

And there was my truth. No, when you look at one, or two, or even three or four qualities it's easy to find a replacement Abby, but it's when you put my whole being together that you have that special, worthy person that everyone is always telling me about. And I bet that you can find the same truth.

To help YOU find YOUR OWN truth, I've listed a few Bible verses (this is merely a starting point, my friends, you are not only allowed, but encouraged to stray from my suggestions, or go further in your search for truth)...

• 2 Corinthians 10:12


• 1 Corinthians 7:23


• 1 John 3:1


• Jeremiah 29:11


• Genesis 1:26-27


• Psalm 139:13-14


• John 3:16 (This is an easy one, heh heh, it's at the top of the screen)
  

Beauty 101: The Last Chapter

I don't have one specific thing to focus on today, or maybe I do. I suppose I'll find out as I write.

The Last Chapter

One big thing with beauty that I really want people to know, is that beauty is between you and God. God created you as this beautiful, amazing being, and He wants you to know that, to see what He sees, more than anything. There are a lot of people in this world who will try to tell us that we aren't beautiful, that we aren't anything special. But those people are lying. They are lying straight to our faces. And sometimes we're the ones lying to ourselves. How many times have you looked in the mirror and seen nothing but, well, what we like to describe as "ugly"? It's a lie. God doesn't see a single ounce of "ugly" in that beautiful face of yours, and if God, who sees everything about us and everything that we do, sees beauty in us, then it is most definitely true.

I guess some people may have expected a long list of directions on how to become beautiful when they first read the title to this series, but I don't have many directions. Other than what I've already said previously, I really only have one more tip. Let God's love shine through you. God's love is the only pure beauty that has and ever will existed, and therefore, the best, if not only, way to be truly beautiful. He loves us so, so much, and we need to show that to the world, that God sent is one and only begotten Son to the cross do die, in our place, so that one day, we will have eternal life with Him. If we let God's love and light shine through us into the world, people will most definitely see beauty. And the best part about that, is that this beauty doesn't come from ourselves, it comes from God, and therefore, we will always have it.

Beauty 101: Gray Hair and Wrinkles

So I didn't get right on writing that series on Beauty, but here's another one! :)

Gray Hair and Wrinkles

Not so long ago I overheard a girl about my age telling her friends that she would rather die young then get old and wrinkly. I stopped dead in my tracks and just stared for a few moments. How could someone rather their life be cut short than being old and wise? It doesn't make sense to me.

We have this viewpoint of it being a bad thing to get old. We're all trying to prevent wrinkles and gray hair from ages as young as fifteen years old, and once we reach a certain age, our birthdays are no longer something we look forward to, but rather, a day that we dread. But why? What's wrong with having experienced life?

I guess that this entry isn't necessarily only geared to girls my age, but women of all ages. Age is something to be proud of. No, I'm not wishing my life away, but I am excited to live those years. Those years where I've lived enough life to be considered wise, and where people are looking up towards me for advice. I want to be middle aged some day, and I want to be a grandmother. Wrinkles aren't a feature that we should spend hundreds to thousands of dollars trying to make disappear, gray hairs aren't things that we should spend hours a year dyeing.

Love the stage of life you're in. Love it. Whether you are a child, a pre-teen, a teenager, a young adult, an adult, middle aged, or a senior, love life! Yeah, of course every stage of life has it's difficulties, but each one comes with even more benefits. And guess what, you're beautiful in every single stage. The second part of the verses that we looked at in my last post, 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 4 says "Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight." The key part of that verse that I want to look at is where it says "the unfading beauty". That means that when you're looking at true beauty, it doesn't go away with age, it doesn't run and hide when wrinkles reveal themselves.

Beauty doesn't leave, and it doesn't hide. When you think about it, it's actually kind of silly to think that as you get older you lose your beauty, if anything, you only get more beautiful as you learn to understand the ways of the world. No matter how old you are, go out today, and embrace your beautiful self, and don't let anyone, not your best friend, your spouse, your worst enemy, your sibling, and especially not society, tell you that you aren't beautiful.

Beauty 101: It's True

I know that I have many opinions on many different things, who doesn’t? But I’m tired of people thinking bad things about themselves, girls in particular (simply because I am a girl and know the struggles, not because y’all with the Y chromosome aren’t awesome!). So it’s time that my thoughts on beauty pour outward. In the next few days or so, I’ll be writing a series of posts on beauty that will hopefully help each of you, even those of my male readers.

It's True.

A friend once told me that her boyfriend had called her beautiful. She said that it was a major confidence booster, even though it wasn't true. I looked at her and kind of cocked my head questioningly, saying of course it was true. We went back and forth for a few moments, and then I firmly said "All people are beautiful." And that is so unbelievably true, even though we don't always see it. No matter how many times we fight against compliments, no matter how many times we look in the mirror and think that there is no possible way that the mess we see could be beautiful, none of that is right. What is right is that all people are beautiful. You are beautiful.

Today's society tells us that in order to be beautiful we need to wear layers upon layers of makeup to hide blemishes, we need to wear a dress size zero, and if we don't, we need to squeeze into one anyway. According to society we need to have small feet and long fingers, and silky long hair. But that's not where actual beauty comes from. Actual beauty comes from the inside, not the outside. 1 Peter chapter 3 verses 3 and 4 say "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight."

God loves each and everyone of us, and we are each amazingly beautiful in His eyes. But God doesn't see what we as humans see. While we're looking at the outward appearance, God sees the inside. He sees our thoughts, and our motivations. And He absolutely loves us. Guess what, God created each of us in His own image, so of course we're beautiful.

Please believe people when they tell you that you are beautiful, because it's true! And also, today, I challenge you to work towards looking at the inward beauty of yourself and others, as opposed to the outward appearance. Try to see what our Heavenly Father see. He rejoices over us!