My friend Rachel, the beautiful writer at FindingJoy.net shared this video this morning. When I watched it, and felt that familiar tightness in the chest, and the welling of the tears, I knew I needed to share it as well. More people need to see it.
The message is just so important.
As christian women, I think that we tend to shy away from saying, even thinking, that we’re beautiful, inside and/or out. We don’t want to be vain, and we certainly don’t want other people to see us as vain. But in our efforts to avoid vanity, we often go to the other extreme.
We dismiss compliments.
We point out our flaws.
We focus on our imperfections.
And for many of us, we live in fear. Afraid we won’t measure up. Afraid of what others think of us.
I know this, because I’ve lived in that fear most of my life. I know that fear has kept me from walking through some doors that could’ve been some great opportunities for me. That fear has kept me from reaching out and connecting with friends, both old and new. That fear has kept me from growing, and left me stunted and crippled in ways that I never want to see in my children. I have to fight that fear every day…
As a mother of 6 beautiful girls, I cheered with delight when the mother pushed and pulled her daughter over to the Beautiful door! I wanted to jump up and find a Beautiful door to lead my girls through.
Not because of what they look like, BUT BECAUSE OF WHO THEY ARE! Beautiful daughters of the King!
It tears me up inside to think that my girls might hesitate when faced with the choice between walking through the Beautiful door or the Average door, knowing that that hesitation comes from the many voices in this world shouting at them, telling them that they don’t measure up, that they don’t count, that they aren’t good enough, that they aren’t beautiful.
This afternoon, I gathered my girls around me and I had them watch the video. I watched their faces…
And then we talked.
I told them that if they ever come to a place where there is a choice between a Beautiful door and an Average door, that I hope they have it in them to hold their head up and walk through that Beautiful door. Because they ARE beautiful, inside and out, just the way He made them.
So am I. (Golly, that was hard to type!)
So are you.
Sweet sisters, there is a world of difference between having a healthy sense of self-confidence and being self-centered!
You can feel secure in who you are, even feel good about yourself, without being haughty. You can acknowledge your worth, even your beauty, without lifting yourself up above others. In fact, I think that the more secure we are in who He made us to be, beautiful inside and out, the more we see the true beauty in others.
This video didn’t feature runway models. It didn’t feature the bodies and faces that taunt us from the covers of magazines.
In reality, this video featured average women. Average women who were beautiful!! Because the average woman IS beautiful! Simply because of who they are. Mothers. Daughters. Sisters. Wives. Friends.
And today, my hope and prayer is that each of us, myself included (again, hard to type), would have it in us to walk through that Beautiful door!
You’re beautiful!
And so are you!
Thank you, my beautiful baby sister! Love you!
Ali,
This was an awesome post! Thank you!! I felt convicted when I watched it. I would normally choose average. Have a blessed day!
It’s challenging, isn’t it? That intention to walk in humility so often keeps up from stepping out and walking in the fullness of who He created us to be, but there is so much freedom in grabbing hold of exactly that beauty!
And, believe me, I would normally choose average as well! I mean, look at the name of my blog! But the idea put forth in the video was so convicting, like you said. It made me think, a lot, and I love things that make me think.