Do You Think I'm Beautiful?

A few years ago my son and his wife lived in California, Leah and their 7 month old daughter came to Florida for a conference, leaving TJ & Mckenna behind. So he and 3-year-old McKenna went camping in Yosemite.  It was a great father/daughter bonding time, with TJ carrying McKenna in a backpack most of the way. People in the park would stop & ask if he would like their photo taken together or they would just talk to McKenna.  That prompted this conversation:

McKenna: Daddy why do people talk to me?

TJ: Because you are beautiful 
McKenna: Oh Daddy, I'm not beautiful - 
                woodpeckers are beautiful.

What do you consider beautiful? 

Is it the majestic mountains in the west or 

the turquoise waters surrounding the Florida Keyes? 

You can see God’s hand creates beauty all around us.

I remember having a blue dress with a striped full skirt attached when I was about 8 years old.  As I would twirl in a circle the full skirt would fill with air, I felt like a dancer that I had seen on television.  I remember asking my Mom- “Do I Look pretty?”  She probably said yes, but stop doing that in the house before you break something, I was a little clumsy back then too.

Most of us suffer with self-image issues at some point, more women than men, probably due to media bombarding us with images of “perfection”. Maybe it is not an image issue with you; perhaps it is self-worth.   I am guilty of it; I have been most of my life; but we need to remember that God has created us in His idea of “perfection” not ours.  The Bible tells us our lives are just a vapor… a mist in some versions….  Just a little psst…. Why do we waste our precious little time on these thoughts?   Self pity is not from God but is from the enemy, do not forget Satan tries to break us in anyway he can. 

Like McKenna we should look outside of ourselves, beauty in all of us, is created from the inside out… If we will put our sights on helping others we can break the bonds of self-pity. It is impossible to think only of yourself while serving others.   Oh how nice it would be to sometimes see the world with child like innocence and honesty. 

I do not want to waste any more of my little (Psst) vapor on anything else.  I have promised myself  to do my best to always see the beauty in circumstances…. and creatures, even the sort of odd looking woodpeckers that keep making holes in the trees all over my yard. I am not sure I can do that with spiders & snakes… but I will try….