Feeling beautiful

This post is mainly for the girls. I mean, I guess the boys can read this too, if they have an issue with feeling beautiful. (:

I'm not sure what exactly sparked me to write about this.  I know part of it was my boyfriend, Abe, who told

me to write about the significance of being yourself.  Then, I just kind of thought about the whole topic of loving yourself and feeling worthy of being called beautiful.  I know I struggle with this quite often.  I compare myself to other girls a lot of the time, though it has gone down since I've been in college.  It's not just

comparing myself though- sometimes, it's just not liking what I look like.  I have been dealing with pretty bad blemishes on my face for about six months now, and they are just now starting to go away.  During this time, I've felt pretty low.  I was going to give up make-up for Lent so that I could see that I don't need it in order to feel beautiful.  However, I only lasted one day.  I felt like a failure. 

While that may seem silly, I didn't think it was.  I don't think a girl should have to put a bunch of makeup on

her face to think that she is beautiful, yet I was being a hypocrite.  I didn't think that I could go forty days without a little makeup because I thought I would look ugly without it.  And I simply did not want to feel ugly.  I mean, does anyone?

So....I decided to give up buying makeup for Lent.  I know, what does giving up that have to do with Lent?  Well, in my mind, it makes sense.  Every time I thought I needed to spend some of my money on a makeup product, I reminded myself that I already have quite a bit of it, and that God made me perfect just the way I am. I don't think He wants me to waste tons of money on makeup when He already thinks I am beautiful. 

But it's fun, right?  Makeup is fun.  I'm a real girly girl, I guess.  Some of my friends never really wear makeup, and I think that's great.  But I just simply love it.  I don't love it because I think I need it to feel pretty, but I love it because, to me, it is like art.  It's kind of like painting my face?  Haha, that sounds silly and some of you may not get what I'm trying to say.  I guess that by not allowing myself to buy makeup for awhile has made me believe that I don't need it.  It's made me see that it is something I enjoy, and something that I can enjoy minimally.  I don't have to put ten products on my face like I used to.  Now, I feel confident with three.  And...I would probably feel okay with none.

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that YOU are beautiful.  Beauty comes from within, so if you want others to think you're beautiful you have to show it from the inside out.  Who cares about the outside?  External beauty will fade, but internal beauty will only grow as time goes on.  Sure, it is fun to learn a new

way to style your hair and to put some makeup on to enhance your already great features.  Of course it will make you feel confident and beautiful if you do some of those things.  However, you have to realize that it is not by doing those things that make you beautiful.  It's how you act and how you show love to everyone.  

Thanks for reading. I hope you feel beautiful today. 

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
-Matthew 23.27

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
-1 Samuel 16.7