What makes a body beautiful.

After reading my last post, my beautiful, creative friend Linda in Chattanooga sent me a link to this article that I wanted to share with you.   The article says that real beauty is "a soul alive with love and transformed by grace," and that's what drew people to Mother Teresa, a woman who didn't even remotely resemble "model standards" of beauty but who was one of the most beautiful people you could ever see.

Remember when rumors started to fly about whether Mother Teresa's faith was authentic or not, and people began to criticize her?

I love how Anne Lamott says in her book, Help Thanks Wow, "Is it okay yet to love and admire Mother Teresa again?  Can we forget her detractors for long enough to remember that most mornings she was out there on the streets of Calcutta cleaning some person's butt the day before he died, without telling anyone about it?"

It's what Jesus would have done.  I'm sure if any of us had seen Jesus face-to-face we wouldn't have been able to take our eyes off of Him for the beauty that He posessed.  Yet Scriptures say there was nothing really attractive about His physical appearance.

The article goes on...

"[The body] makes visible the truths of our invisible soul, and it makes visible the truths about our invisible God. It communicates who we are to the world as it images the Creator of that world. What makes it beautiful is how well it does that, how perfectly it images the God who formed it."

In my study of the book Captivating by Stasi Eldredge years ago, I remember one phrase that struck me so hard: "What if you have a genuine and captivating beauty that is marred only by your striving?"  Because in the midst of striving, we lose that confidence that comes only through security in the Lord.  Complaining about being unattractive just shows ugliness and discontentment in our spirit, which surely reflects on the outside.

Now, back to twirling with my daughter who has been wearing the same "ballerina" dress for 3 days and has asked me several times a day if she looks beautiful.  It's inside every woman to want to be beautiful - may we all find, though, that the origination of our beauty is internal because of how we are being changed and transformed by grace and love.

You are beautiful.

Today, my eyes were still puffy from a good 'ole pregnancy cryfest last night, my hair was pulled messily into a clip, and the undercurrents of nausea churned in my stomach.  But early in the afternoon, my sweet daughter asked me to come into her playroom to play "hair salon."  In my weariness, I hesitated but then decided to sit down on the carpet and let her begin.  The first thing she said as she removed the clip and ran her fingers through my knotted hair? 

"You are soooo boooootiful, Mommy."

Yes, on a day when I felt the least beautiful, I was reminded quickly by a 3-year-old who, thankfully, does not yet have a knowledge of physical insecurities, what real beauty is.  I immediately felt remorse for thinking otherwise about myself and thankful that I hadn't voiced it outwardly so she could hear.  She was right.  In that moment, real beauty was being myself, being present, sitting on the floor playing hair salon, letting her make my knotty hair even frizzier.

I was recently mailed some stickers and a kind note from an Instagram friend, Rachel, also known as mightyviolet.  I remember receiving them on another day when I felt very not-beautiful, in the middle of my horrific first trimester sickness when I could barely get out of bed much less shower or wear anything that didn't resemble tattered pajamas.   Earlier that day, I had actually said aloud, "I don't think I could possibly feel more unattractive."   Yet, as I removed a sticker from the envelope and held it in my hand for a few moments, I was struck by the truth that I am beautiful despite all the lies I let myself believe.

I was created by God and am precious in His sight and that alone makes me beautiful indeed.

In the envelope were several "you are beautiful" stickers that I'm slowly going through, sending them to other women as I have the opportunity.  As I nestle each one inside a little note, I hope I'm passing on some love and encouragement to another woman who might also have a moment of pause and realize that she, too, is beautiful despite what she or anyone else thinks.

I dread the day my daughter first sees something about her own appearance and disapproves, but it is going to happen.  I remember the moment her perfect little body came out of mine, and it sickens me to think that she could ever see something so intricately created by God as anything less than beautiful.  Yet that's exactly what I do to God when I think or say something self-deprecating.  I imagine the disppointment He must have felt when Eve first expressed shame in the Garden of Eden, hiding her perfect body from the God who created her.  With all of my heart and soul, I do not want to pass on that legacy to my daughter.  I hope she always hears from me that she is beautiful - and that her beauty comes from what she has on the inside that shines outwardly.

Whoever you are, please know today that you are made in the image of God, you are loved, and you are valued for more than how you look.  The battle may start again tomorrow, but for today please remember that you are beautiful.  And that's the truth.