Blue-Eyed Beauty

What characteristics do you share with your mother?  Did you get her nose, her long legs, her quick temper?  I have a quick temper, but I got that from my dad!  Thankfully, I got my mom's eyes.  Then I passed them to my son, Tanner, so he has my mom's eyes, too.  This is my mom, Cindy, and those are 'our' eyes!
  My mom has many more important good characteristics that I didn't get.  She's creative, she has been a floral designer for many years and she makes the most fabulous cards I've ever seen.  Her creativity skipped over my generation and went straight to my daughter, Aubrianah, who is just as creative as her 'Nina'. They spend a lot of time together creating.  My mom is also content in all circumstances, something else she didn't pass on to me!  She's lived in many different places in diverse, sometimes difficult situations, but she always made the best of where she landed.  I'm jealous of the way she quickly makes friends, makes any type of house into a beautiful home, and makes time to serve others.
  There are characteristics that my mom did pass to me besides her eyes, though.  We're both organized, we have the same body type (even though I am 4 inches taller!), we share the same faith, and we both love our family fiercely!
  How are you like your mom?  What things do you see in yourself that remind you of her?  Think it over and tell us, we'd love to know!  My mom is a blue-eyed beauty, and as I get older I strive to be more like her.

Teeny-Bopper Beauty

 Mariah is 12, right on the edge of her teen years.  She is about to start middle school.  I can't believe it, it seems like only yesterday she was a baby.  Mariah is just like any other tween, she's giggly, she goes silly for Justin Bieber, she loves to talk, and text, and dance, and go to the mall, and try out new styles.
  One thing that is a little different about Mariah than most of her peers is her size.  She's teeny-tiny, the smallest in her class, and you remember what it's like to be a little bit different from everyone else in school.  She gets teased.   Kids in school can be relentless and they can be nasty, and being teased in school can make a person strong or it can make a person break.  Guess which one Mariah has chosen.
  Well, she's our Beautiful Girl today, and strength is beautiful, so I'm sure you can guess.  Mariah is strong and brave.  Even though it hurts her feelings, she doesn't let teasing from kids who are not being beautiful break her!
  One little phrase that has always annoyed me is 'Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me'.  It's not true!  It hurts to be teased, and I hope you younger girls don't do it, and I hope you moms will not tolerate it from your children.  Mariah is spunky, scrappy, and smart, and she has turned teasing into strength.  But she shouldn't have had to.  Being a little different from one another is one of the things that makes us beautiful, and we should be celebrating that fact!  That's what Just the Girls: Real Beauty is all about!

Found: Fun Beauty!

Are you a Facebook-hating holdout? One of those people who think it's a waste of time and no good can come of knowing everything about everyone?  If you are, consider this Real Beauty, Kim.

  I knew Kim before Facebook, but not well.  Then one day, she friend requested me or I friend requested her, and we started learning about each other.  I scrolled through her pictures, I 'met' her family, I learned about her love of running, of animals, and of all things FUN.  We interacted, we joked with one another, we opened our lives to one another. Kim often posts pictures of herself and her family that crack me up, and some that are so beautiful that I get choked up. I always look forward to a new status update or a 'share' from this one.  She is fabulously funny and her spirit is so sweet.  I LOVE Kim, and I consider her a close friend, even though we do not see one another physically very often.

Basically, what I am trying to say is: Kim was always beautiful, I just didn't know how extraordinarily beautiful she is until I got to know her.

Get to know other women!  You will be blessed by so many, and we all have stories and circumstances to share in order to bless others.  Even if you still don't want to use Facebook, find some other way to foster relationships with other women.  Find the beauty, it's out there in places you weren't looking.  And get ready to have some FUN!

The Worth of Beauty

  I just recently heard the story of Johnny Lingo and his 8-cow wife.  It was written in 1965 for Women’s Day magazine by Patricia McGerr.  You’ve probably heard it, but indulge me for a moment.

   Johnny Lingo wanted to marry Sarita, she was the love of his life.  In the village where Johnny met Sarita, 2 or 3 cows paid to the maiden’s father would buy a decent wife, and 4 or 5 would buy a very good one.   But Johnny Lingo offered and paid Sarita’s father 8 cows for her. 

  Everyone in the village made fun of Johnny, because Sarita was no beauty.  “It would have been kind to call her plain.  She was skinny, she walked with her shoulders hunched and her head ducked.  She was scared of her own shadow.”  The people mocked and said that Sarita’s father had swindled Johnny. He would have even taken only 1 cow for her, because he was afraid he'd be stuck with her forever. 

  Johnny took his bride home, to another village.  The narrator went to meet Johnny for the first time, and while there he saw a woman.  This couldn’t be Sarita, he thought.  “She was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. The lift of her shoulders, the tilt of her chin, the sparkle of her eyes all spelled a pride to which no one could deny her the right.”  The narrator describes her as “glorious”. 

  Of course it was Sarita, and Johnny explained, “Do you ever think," he asked, "what it must mean to a woman to know that her husband has settled on the lowest price for which she can be bought? And then later, when the women talk, they boast of what their husbands paid for them. One says four cows, another maybe six. How does she feel, the woman who was sold for one or two? This could not happen to my Sarita."

  I love this story, because it shows that beauty comes from within.  When Sarita thought she was worth 1 cow, she was plain.  When she thought she was worth 8, she was a gloriously beautiful girl.  The encouragement came from her husband, yes, and maybe you don’t have a husband who would pay 8 cows for you.  If that is so, that is his mistake, because you are worth it.  Either way, there is Someone who paid much more than 8 cows for you.  He paid it all, everything He had, and He had everything.  He thinks you are worth it, so act like it!  Don’t walk around in fear and self-loathing. Hold your head up, Beautiful Girl!  You are GLORIOUS!

Photo Credit: FA-Tography by Faith and Aubrianah

Read the whole story here:  http://www.talkjesus.com/lounge/31412-eight-cow-wife.html  (I do not endorse the  site, I don’t know anything about it, it’s just one place where you can read the story of Johnny Lingo and his 8-cow wife.)

While I'm Waiting...a Beautiful Military Family

Today is a special day for Just the Girls: Real Beauty, because we have a guest featured photographer!  Jessica is one of our favorite beautiful girls, because she has been so helpful and encouraging to Faith and Aubrianah.  Jessica is WAY pregnant, due with her second boy any time now.  Her husband, Bryan, is serving in Afghanistan as an Army chaplain.  Jessica is in Hawaii, away from extended family, taking care of her young and rowdy (and beautiful) son Josiah, and anxiously awaiting the day her baby arrives and the day her husband comes home.  She knows what it’s like to be a beautiful girl immersed in the worry and wait of military families, so she asked me if she could include a couple of guys in her Just the Girls post.  “Only if they’re beautiful!” was my answer.  Are they?  Meet them and see for yourselves……

"I feel so honored that I was asked to be a guest photographer (that makes me sound official and I am not sure I am ready for that haha!) on my sweet friends’ blog that honors beautiful women…seeing as how I have been pregnant and my camera has been collecting dust for the past few months, I wasn’t sure who I wanted to nominate for this special post and wasn’t even sure if I had any photos that I could use.  But then the Lord reminded me of a fun session that I did back in March.  I know that the blog is meant to honor beautiful women, but I thought it might be nice to honor a beautiful family instead. 

This is the Guyett family.  We have the pleasure of knowing them from my husband’s unit and have enjoyed getting to know them while we are all stationed in Hawaii.  Shawna’s husband, Trint, is currently deployed with my husband in Afghanistan.  They have 3 beautiful children, Tristan, Shaylee, and Sydnee, and I love them to bits.  Their family loves the Lord and they serve Him in so many different ways…it is refreshing to see young families that make God a priority in their house!  They are always serving others, even in the midst of a deployment, and I am grateful for their example.  

The military life is not an easy one, and definitely not something that many have the insight to understand, unless you are a part of it.  I don’t fault others for this, but am so thankful that I am able to see, on a daily basis, the sacrifices that are made by less than one percent of our nation, in order that we are able to maintain our freedom.  This doesn’t stop with our service members.  We need to be reminded of spouses and children that are left behind while our service members are on the front lines.  Military families have one of the toughest jobs in the world and, yet, I think that they are some of the strongest and most resilient people I know.   The Guyett family is no exception. 

I am thankful for the Guyett family and so many others that are willing to put everything on the line for our country.  I am even more thankful that they know and love the Lord, and serve Him with their lives!"
~Jessica