Dandelions

I am beautiful.

Not for what i see, but for who i am despite myself.  Every day i look in the mirror and see my imperfections: my funny hairline, ugly moles, and the fact that my acne still hasn't acknowledged the fact that i'm no longer a teenager.  i know i'm in good company because there is not one girl out there that hasn't looked in the mirror and wished it was a different face staring back.

My roommate and i recently did a bible study and decided to fast from mirrors, specifically the ones in our dorm room.  i had a heyday covering our mirrors with newspapers and funny magazine pictures.  we kept a space so that we could still see ourselves from the neck up, somewhat due to the aforementioned acne problem; no one wants to see that.  during those 12 weeks, i didn't feel like it made that much of a difference, i still felt mediocre looking and part of me felt like covering up the mirrors was an effort to forget, deny, pretend that i was something i'm not.  i was afraid of what i'd be reminded of when they were removed.

Fortunately, God used this opportunity to remind me of who i am and to whom i belong.  yeah, i have acne, my head is small, and my fingers may be alien-ishly long...  but that is what makes me beautiful.  i am beautiful because i was handmade by the creator of beauty.

Lord search my heart
Create in me something clean
Dandelions
You see flowers in these weeds

Everywhere I Go

Important decisions have been made. I AM MOVING TO ALASKA. I’ve been talking with a friend of mine and she has lined me up for a job in Administration for UPS Alaska and has found me a place to live. I’ll be driving up there (apparently companies pay people to drive cars from the contiguous 48 up to Alaska) but more because I just want to. Another girl from USF is also thinking about moving up to Alaska too, so perhaps we’ll live together – and one of my friends is seriously debating moving up there after she graduates next year. I wish all of you could see the excitement exploding out of me. I am so ready.

I leave you with a quote I've recently rediscovered.

An ordinary woman, she serves an extraordinary God. In her moments of greatest weakness, God reveals Himself through her. She has chosen to allow God to use the broken pieces of her life to create something beautiful. She is a pillar of strength, a woman whose faith remains unshaken in the face of change. The Holy Spirit whispers, “Speak what you see.”

I see beauty.

She leans against her Savior, and she finds grace. Knowing that only God can sustain her, she stands in the face of fear and resolves not to give up. She recognizes that the things of God are the only things that matter. Seeking after the things of Christ, she lives a life of integrity. She is a fighter, a survivor, a woman of strength. She is beauty.

– Regina Franklin ‘Who Calls Me Beautiful?’