Hey pretty girl, I see you wishing that mirror showed a few things different. I see the way your shoulders drop just slightly when you think you’re not enough. I see those jeans that never zip, and a job that just won’t stick. I see you wishing your hair had a little more curl, and still loving a guy that wanted another girl. I see those eyes that have lost their pretty shine, and all the times you tell everyone that you’re doin fine. I see those dreams you think aren’t possible. I see you thinking they must be for another girl in another world. I see you pretty girl, and I’m asking you to stop wishing and waiting. Stop minimizing who you are, and forgetting how far you’ve come. Stop focusing on where you’ve been, and start walking towards where you’re going. Because if you could see what I see, you’d realize you’ve always been so much more than pretty, girl. You are beautiful.
I’ve been thinking about what being beautiful means to me. Where do I find beauty? What do I proclaim as beautiful?
See, I’m tired of living in a standardized beautiful box, tied up with a bow, waiting for someone else to open me up and say what’s inside. No, beauty is in our living, in our doing, and in our growing. Beauty is messing up, saying I’m sorry, learning, and going forward. Beauty is giving someone your time, your smile, your words, or your hand, and not expecting anything in return. Beauty is jumping off cliffs not knowing when you’re going to hit the water, but trusting the splash and the swim will be well worth your leap. Beauty is sometimes the ugliness you feel as you’re changing into the new person you’re called to be.
Beauty is being afraid of the plans God has for you, but marching on because THAT’S WHY WE’RE HERE. Beauty is loving, trusting, and living with your whole heart because there is no other way. Beauty is letting go of any thoughts, people, or lies that keep you from God, or tell you that you are anyone different than who God says you are. Beauty is listening to truth that sometimes hurts, and then adjusting accordingly. Beauty is still believing when everyone is telling you to quit. Beauty is then taking their hands and bringing them along with you, or raising them up above yourself.
Your beauty doesn’t fit in those jeans. It doesn’t need to. Your beauty doesn’t have a fancy title. It doesn’t need to. And your beauty does not get defined by another person. It doesn’t need to. It doesn’t need to because the truth was already spoken over our lives, even before we could think about living them. The truth is that we were created beautiful. He said we were created wonderfully because He created us in His own image.
“For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.”
Psalms 139:14
I want you to find beauty in so much more than faces and places. I want to dig down deep into hearts, see souls poured out, and live life with arms wide open ready to embrace whatever is in front of you. You are beautiful for more than anything you think you can see in that mirror.
“She was beautiful, but not like those girls in the magazines. She was beautiful, for the way she thought. She was beautiful, for the sparkle in her eyes when she talked about something she loved. She was beautiful, for her ability to make other people smile, even if she was sad. No, she wasn’t beautiful for something as temporary as her looks. She was beautiful, deep down to her soul. She is beautiful.”
-F Scott Fitzgerald
Fit Grit & Grace 