“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye.” ~Miss Piggy

The concept of beauty has been ever on my mind the last few months.  I would imagine that if I were to poll a group of folks they would all have something slightly different to say.  I've thought a lot about this in regards to finding the love of your life since I've been on the journey for umpteenth years!  What causes two people to mutually fall in love?  What makes a man decide that a woman is special enough that he can't let her go?  I long to be that for someone some day and to have that in return.  To find the one person God has designed for me exclusively to share forever with...though my forever is getting a bit small at this point!

Obviously, the world says beauty is many things...physical appearance being at the center of most of that.  I've certainly bought into this image over the years.  Specifically where it comes to my weight.  I struggled with my appearance briefly in elementary school but did okay the rest of my schooling.  Then the freshmen 15 hit in College and then by my mid 20s my thyroid broke though I didn't find out until my early 30s.  This dramatically changed my appearance.  My weight served me for awhile, kept me hidden.  I ended up going back on an eating program in August  that cost lots of $ (knowing it had failed for me before and contributed to my kidney stone issues) and it gave little results AGAIN.  I was on so many herbs and supplements they were their own meal!  I did it, I bought into a quick fix and the promises of new options opening up to me romantically and job wise if I could just get a handle on food.  The reality is I don't struggle with food!  Well, I have my weaknesses but this is what the world says.  It spouts that people who are overweight are there by poor choices, overeating, etc.  What society needs to wrap their arms around is that obesity is full of many factors and we can't cure one piece without looking at the whole of a person.  I'm now meeting with a nutritionist (again, *Cha Ching* a bunch of $) but she is helping to educate me on food/nutrients and getting my adrenal/endocrine issues under control.  This should really help heal the internal reasons I'm fat but at the same time keep me accountable to understand food as energy and not just pleasure.

The word of God has a different take on beauty that I would like to close out with:

1 Timothy 4:8

1 Peter 3:3-4

Proverbs 31:3

Psalm 139:14

To Ponder:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Used by Nelson Mandela in his 1994 inaugural speech