My Love Song

You are so beautiful and lovely.

You take my breath away.

I am captivated by who you are and what you are becoming.

My deepest longing is to be with you--always. I want to see you in the morning when you first awaken to greet a new day. I want to see you when you’re sweaty and your hair is falling off your shoulders in the midst of really living life. I want to see you when you are weary from a long day, and starting to fall asleep.

Did you know that I watch you as you sleep? It is the most beautiful sight. In that moment, your deepest beauty consumes me with a desire and passion to know you and be known by you more than you know any other person and are known by them.

Did you know that my heart breaks when you shed a single tear? I feel each one deeply and am troubled by the pain that you have faced and endured. But I want to wipe your tears. Listen. I call to you with a voice saying, “There, there, my love. I know this hurts. But I am here to hold you, to comfort you, to calm you. Here is my shoulder. Cry upon it for a time, but be prepared. I will give you joy to replace those tears.”

Don’t you know you’re beautiful? Did you think he wrote that song as an original idea? laughs No, I set upon his heart and his tongue those words that I say to you each day.

Why do you struggle so? Don’t try so hard. You cannot add to your beauty. Only I can do that. And rest assured that each day that you walk with me, that you look deeply into my eyes, my heart, my way I bless you with a greater beauty.

Do not hide from your beauty. Yes, they hurt you because you are beautiful. But they are the problem, not your beauty. Your beauty is a testimony to our love song. It is the way in which I reach others and touch them, even without you knowing that I have done it. Submit yourself, your beauty, your talent, your everything to me. I will fight for you. I will protect you. Be weak. Take risks. Know that I will keep you from falling.

Think of Elizababy. As she learns to walk, she takes risks. She risks falling and getting hurt. But still she makes the attempt. When she falls, she goes back to her first love--you--looking for healing and comforting. Does she give up and refuse to try again? No. Your love and comfort encourage her to take another risk and try again. Now, I am your first love. Come to me when you fall and get hurt. I will comfort you and heal your wounds. But do not be afraid to try again. I will protect you and encourage you. I am watching you, even when you do not know it. I love you.

Going too far

This morning, while my three kids at home were packing their lunches, I was watching the Today Show on NBC. I have to be honest: very few mornings go by that we don't watch the Today Show. Sometimes the media's view of life and the world is too liberal for me. My political and religious views are rarely reflected by the show. However, they often have interviews with celebrities that I enjoy, performances by groups I listen to (think Amy Grant on Christmas eve), and I do find value in hearing what the other side thinks or embraces.

Enter a segment today on young girls and cosmetics. Wait...let me rephrase that. I want this to be clear. The segment was about a trend in our country of marketing and selling hardcore make-up products (including fake eyelashes? ! ?) and spa treatments to young girls and preschoolers as young as 4! Yes, I did correctly type four.

Let me interject here a reminder: I am the mom to three children, stepmom to two more, and am expecting yet another. Among these six beautiful children are two girls--ages 11-1/2 and 10--and I would NEVER allow either of these girls to wear heavy makeup. The older one is allowed to wear body glitter (much to my disappointment, but it was a compromise) and clear lip gloss. She is encouraged to wear deodorant (ah, the joy of young pre-pubescent hormones!) and owns a bottle of modest body spray. I encourage her to use hair care products and to wash her face twice daily.

But I draw the line at colored makeup products for my almost 12 year old!

Perhaps I am getting old-fashioned and am losing touch. I mean, I suppose I am getting old. I'm almost (gasp) 32 years old now! LOL Yes, I do mean that in a very tongue-in-cheek sort of way! Perhaps we are sending a horrible message to our young girls. Perhaps both.

And I wonder.....
Are we surprised that the number of girls being treated for eating disorders continues to grow? Are we surprised that mothers are encouraging their young daughters to lie so that they can win tickets to see concerts that run over $200 per person? Are we surprised that there is a generation of teen girls who do not think twice about considering plastic surgery to "correct" the "imperfections" God created them with? Are we surprised that very few women in our society, even in our churches truly believe that they are beautiful?

It breaks my heart to see our girls sexualized and demoralized in the name of physical beauty. It is a sad day when five year old girls develop an eating disorder because they believe that they are fat (just as sad as the child who is obese because they are not encouraged to be physically active), when ten year old girls buy and wear thong underwear (I am still in shock that these are sold and marketed to girls that young!), and when we embrace and accept these practices as being "okay" or acceptable.

I am brought back to the root of what I feel is safe to believe:

Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised. --Proverbs 31:30

Beauty does not last. Physical beauty is fleeting. It mocks us at best. But God loves us so much that He has designed us as women to have something that lasts a lifetime that is far more attractive to the people who really matter--fear of the Lord.

It is my deepest prayer and hope that as I raise daughters that I am able to teach them to take pride in their appearance. I believe that God created us with a physical body that is unique to us so that we could take pride in it and be good stewards of it. But it is also my hope that they will know that what they look like will NEVER supercede the importance of who they are (PRINCESSES--daughters of the King of Kings!), and what their value is (bought with the blood of Christ). And I pray that I remember and embrace these values in the face of a society that is going to laugh at me and mock me and my girls.

Father, let me balance the importance of taking pride in and care of the body you have given us with the importance of raising up girls who know that true beauty is not physical, but spiritual and emotional. Let me model a healthy lifestyle and self-esteem for my girls and the girls around us, including modesty in dress and good health habits, so that I can remain relevant to them for you. In Jesus' name, AMEN.

Mirror, Mirror--Then Sings My Soul meme

After having a week of feeling generally off--off schedule, off my game, off balance, off kilter--I have been looking forward to the "Then Sings My Soul" Saturday meme. This really fits my niche, picking a song that speaks to me and writing about how it touches my life so that you can experience it too. But there was some pressure in my own mind to find just the right song...the one that really fit my mood and would allow the Spirit to speak through me, and not for me to just blab about. I think I found it...and after checking out many different versions of it as a video, I chose this one.

The song is "Mirror, Mirror" by Barlow Girl. If you have teenage or tween-aged daughters, you owe it to yourself to check these girls out! They are sisters, and they are the Christian alternative to girls like Britney and Lindsay. Now mind you, I'm 30+ and these girls have only been around a couple of years (okay...maybe 5), but I was drawn to their music because the first song that I heard of theirs on the radio had a mean guitar riff. (I hate to admit it, but I have a major rock streak running through me!) My daughter also fell in love with them, and that is a major plus for me.

Below is the YouTube video (not the band's original video) of "Mirror, Mirror". I like the pictures and the lyrics being present together, and this particular version makes me want to cry. I believe it must have been originally done for teen girls battling with body issues--cutting, eating disorders, mutilation, makeup issues, etc. If you have small children, you might watch the video before you let them watch it. None of the pictures are terribly graphic, although there are several of girls who are so thin you can count their vertebrae and ribs, and one showing a girl who is bleeding. But please, if you aren't familiar with the song, watch it all the same. The message of the song far outweighs these quick clips!



I can't speak for you, but I CAN and WILL speak for myself. I hate the mirror most days. I rarely have a day where I pass the mirror and feel good about myself. It just doesn't happen. The mirror reminds me of everything that I do not like about myself--my weight, my acne, my nose, my chest, etc. The mirror distorts what is real. (Okay, my self esteem or lack thereof partnered with Satan's jabs are what really distorts what is real, the mirror only makes all of that more tangible.)

It is so easy to spend too much time in front of the mirror in the morning trying to make the reflection into something that I'm happy with. But who is there telling me that what I see is not beautiful? How did it happen that the mirror became so powerful?

I don't know. But what I do know is this: I am NOT alone in my struggle to accept and like what I see in the mirror. I am not the only person who attempts to change what they see so that they can accept it. I am not the only woman who wants to cry when she sees herself in the mirror from time to time. I am not the only woman who criticizes herself when she looks at the reflection thinking: If only I could lose 15 pounds; if only I were three inches taller; if only my nose were thinner; if only, if only, if only....

But God has made each of us unique. In Psalm 139 it says:

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous-and how well I know it. (vs.13 & 14, NLT)

"And how well I know it?" Yes, the Psalm writer reflected on God's intimate knowledge and creation of him and was amazed, but better than that...he says he knows it! This is a person who is not looking in the mirror and questioning what they should change so that they like themselves. He is marvelling over the complexity of his being, created by God.

Today, do you know that God made you MAH-VELOUS? When you look at your reflection in the mirror, can you stop from criticizing what you see and instead embrace the wonder of what God made you to be? Can you love yourself the way that God made you?

Father, remind me gently and repeatedly just how beautiful I am, not because my hair is perfectly coiffed, my teeth are precisely straight and white, my skin is blemish-free, or my clothes are top name brand, but because You love me and created me. Each time I want to tear myself down in front of the mirror, Father, remind that physical beauty is fleeting and subjective, and instead give me deep reassurance that I'm becoming a woman of Your beauty from deep within. And as You reassure me of these things, give me the strength and the boldness to remind my sisters of their beauty and to encourage them to find eternal, internal beauty from their relationships with You. In Jesus' name, AMEN.

Verses to check out:
I Peter 3:1-6
Song of Solomon 4:7
Isaiah 60:15

Seeking quotes about beauty!

It's amazing to me just how God works! Five days ago, almost tongue in cheek, I wrote the blog "She Don't Know She's Beautiful" in attempt to share my struggle with accepting that I could be physically beautiful and to embrace the knowledge that I'm beautiful in ways that go much deeper. This has been a journey for me for a very long time, trying to shed the negativities of the world and see myself as a beautiful woman, a child of God.



But clearly, from friends and fellow bloggers, I'm finding that I'm not alone at all. Gorgeous (I mean, drop dead gorgeous!) women are telling me just how much they related to what I wrote. And I feel as though God is telling me loudly, clearly---this is what YOU are supposed to do. This is your goal. Seek me and I will make you beautiful. And then, you're supposed to go out and encourage, uplift and remind your sisters that they are beautiful too!



So now, I need your help! I'm begging you to help me find quotes and songs about beauty. There's no prize, unfortunately, as I'm still very new to the blogging thing...and the only book I have in large quantity at my house right now is more for single Christian women than married or moms.



Please, bless me with your beauty quotes!