Beautiful Baby!

We’d like to take today to congratulate this Beautiful Girl, Kristy, who spent all day yesterday doing something amazing…having a baby!  Her new little guy is already living a blessed life, because he has a fabulous mom, an adoring big brother, and one of those beautiful dads I wrote about earlier this month.  Kristy wrote the word ‘Swollen’ on her beauty board as a joke, but let me tell you that she was the most beautiful swollen girl I have ever seen!  Congratulations, Kristy, and welcome to the world, sweet little boy!  

Gimme a 'B'! Gimme a 'E'!........

Oh, great, here’s one of those cheerleader types.  Remember high school, when cheerleaders and football hunks ruled the school?  When every teen movie had an evil cheerleader trying to ruin the life of the heroine?  Our collective thoughts about cheerleaders, if we weren’t one, were that they were air-headed, vain, mean, selfish, and boy-crazy.  Of course we grew up, and we realized that stereotyping people based on our own shallow thinking, peer evaluations, and media influence is lame. 

  Krista was a cheerleader, and I hope the feelings high-schoolers had about them were only in my generation and not hers, because I hate to think that anyone ever stereotyped this beautiful girl.  Krista’s ‘beauty board’ word was ‘Compassion’, and that fits her perfectly.  She volunteers with Big Brothers/Big Sisters because she has a heart for children, especially ones who are hurting.  She is also a school teacher, and she delights in seeing the brightness on a student’s face when he learns something new.  She is newly married and will make you sick with how sweetly she speaks of her new husband, but I think it’s going to continue many years into their marriage; Krista isn’t just sweet with her husband because they are newly married…she’s sweet with him because she’s a loving person. 

  Oh there are several stereotypical cheerleader-type characteristics Krista possesses, too, but they aren’t the bad ones the evil cheerleaders in the movies possess.  She’s fun-loving, spirited, athletic, full of energy, friendly, and she looks great in a short skirt!  And just look at that jumping skill!

  Is there a beautiful girl you haven’t gotten to know because you have stereotyped her?  Maybe she’s a cheerleader type, or a math-geek type, or a pet person, a pastor’s wife, a professor, a waitress, a single mom, or a librarian.  Try an experiment. Think of a woman you think you know because you know her ‘type’.  Tell her about the Just the Girls: Real Beauty project, and then ask her what she would write on her ‘beauty board’, and why.  Then let us know what happened by telling us on our facebook page!

A Beautiful Day

Aubrianah and Faith recently spent a day in the cemetery.  It was late afternoon, it was smoldering hot, it was muggy, the gnats were vicious, and they spent the whole day walking, walking, walking up and down hills and stone steps, and over fields of gravestones.  Around and around that hot, muggy cemetery they walked, swatting gnats the whole time, and when they were done their faces were glowing from the heat, but also from the happiness, because it was one of the most fun days they'd ever had!

  What made it so great?  Aubrianah and Faith love the Real Beauty project.  They love shooting at that location, they love working together (something they don't get to do as often as they'd like), they were getting interviewed and photographed for the newspaper that day (VERY exciting!), and they were particularly excited about the 4 Beautiful Girls they were photographing that day.

  And then, to round out that fabulous day, the girls got to hang out with one of their favorite professional photographers, Sara.  They met her shyly, like she was a celebrity, and I could see the nervousness in their faces as we moms decided to just let them go off with her....they wouldn't have us as a buffer because we needed a few air-conditioner minutes in the car.  But those three became fast friends and by the time we saw them again, they were talking and laughing like they'd known one another forever.  Sara put the girls at ease, she gave them tips, she encouraged them, she posed in any way they asked her, and she acted like she had all day to spend with them.  They walked all around that cemetery again, all three swatting gnats, all three snapping pictures of each other between swats.  They had a blast.  Although they were nervous to meet her,  Sara quickly showed them that she is regular beautiful girl, just like them.  Thanks, Sara, for taking the time to encourage our beautiful girls!  You helped make a beautiful day even more so!

Broken....to Beautiful

Young, happy, in love.  Then, less than 2 years into a fantastic marriage, your husband passes away from a massive heart attack….and just like that, your world has come to a screeching halt.  This was Jennifer's life.  29 years old and a widow.  She writes:

“That experience really defines me and who I am today: a woman who had to be completely broken and brought through hell on earth in order to realize and truly believe in God's providence for my life. As a result, I am a woman committed to living according to God's plan and purpose. It's because of my faith in a loving, sovereign God that I have complete joy and hope in my future!”

God had plans for her life!!  She has re-married and has four precious boys.  What an awesome testimony of how God can take a heart-breaking, devastating situation and turn it around.  Her lesson is so important.  God knows what we need and will provide.  Even when our situation seems so dark and bleak, God is there.  I am truly blessed to know Jennifer – she radiates inner and outer beauty every time I see her.  

Isaiah 55:8-9: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

(Writing credit: Cindi)

Peek-A-Beauty

When Aubrianah does her Just the Girls: Real Beauty photo shoots, she brings what we like to call the ‘beauty board’.  On it, beautiful girls write what is beautiful about them.  Want to guess what has been mentioned the most?   Not a fair question since I gave you a hint with Madeline’s picture, huh?  We women tend to love our eyes. 

  So why do women put so much of our beauty ‘stock’ in our eyes?  Maybe it’s because our eyes don’t change as much as the rest of our bodies.  We don’t gain weight in our eyes, our eye color doesn’t wrinkle, our eyelashes don’t usually turn grey with age (or do they?)   We can pretty much count on our eyes staying the same, so maybe it’s safe to love our eyes the best.

  Of course that guess doesn’t work with Madeline here, she’s young and beautiful and doesn’t have any worries about weight, wrinkles, OR gray hair. 

  I think Madeline’s mom has the answer.  She says Madeline has a sensitive heart, a desire to live her life pleasing to the Lord, and that her friendships are true, deep, and forever.  Then she mentions her daughter’s amazing grey/blue/green eyes. But it’s not just about the way her eye color changes from one beautiful shade to another beautiful shade depending on her outfit, even though that is really cool!     It’s more about that old saying, ‘the eyes are the window to the soul’.  I believe it.  When I look into Madeline’s eyes, I can see all the things her mother says about her are true.  Some girls have beautiful eyes that mirror their beautiful hearts, and Madeline is definitely one of those girls!