Just Another Day In Paradise

Merry Christmas.

We hope that you awoke this morning and experienced the magic of Christmas morning......We hope that you took the time to ponder the wonder of a Savior who loved us enough to leave His place in Heaven to become a man.....And we hope that you are surrounded by love ones to share the spirit of Christmas with.

 

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas. And Happy Birthday to our risen King, who was humble enough to arrive in a stable full of animals instead of a palace fit for royalty. It's where Christmas first began.

 

As this post goes live, I'll be gathered with my family, watching the joy on my children's faces, and reminding them the real reason we celebrate this day. We hope that your celebration is filled with happiness on this Christmas morning.

 

 

Au Naturel

 

I've been thinking about something lately.....bear with me as I ramble.

 

If you look around the world today, you'll see product upon product that entices people to "make themselves look better." There are products that claim to make you look younger, smooth out your wrinkles, clear up your pimples, change the color of your hair, give yourself curly hair if it is straight, and straight hair if it is curly. We are bombarded by advertisements on the TV, in magazines, and on the internet essentially informing us that if we don't use some sort of product or buy certain clothing, we just do not look good enough.

 

My thought is this....Does God make mistakes?

 

I cannot speak for other nations, but I know that America, as a whole, is on a constant quest to make themselves look better, younger, more appealing to the eye. Are looks everything?

 

Women will spend countless hours putting on make up, fixing their hair, shaving their legs, applying cream to their faces, coloring their hair, and waxing their eyebrows. Some even go as far as elective surgery to "correct" what God has naturally given them.

 

News flash: People get old. It happens. It will happen to each person living upon this earth and has happened to each person who has gone before us. You grow older, you get wrinkles, your hair turns gray, and your skin coloring may not be completely even, upon countless other things that occur as we age.

 

Honestly, I just don't get it. What's wrong with how God created us? So your skin has some oil? So you have some wrinkles? So your boobs are not filling up your bra? So what? Are people really that shallow? You can't leave your house unless you have make up on? Really? Why? Will the world end? Will someone think that you are :::gasp::: not pretty enough? Not pretty enough for what?

 

Not pretty enough for God? Because honestly, who else are we trying to impress?

 

I'm not saying that we should walk around with unkempt hair, sloppy clothes, lacking a shower, and wearing 3 day old underwear. No, common sense tells us to be presentable and decent....after all, we are representing God. But trying to delay the aging process? Choosing surgery to "improve" on what God gave you? You may as well be telling God that he made a dreadful mistake in the way that he chose to create you.

 

Yes, I put on a very thin layer of foundation and apply a clear layer of ever so slightly tinted lip gloss. I brush my hair daily. I shave my legs (and despise doing so). But will I go out and about if I don't do those things? Sure....the people of Publix will surely not run away screaming if they see a pimple on my face.

 

The Bible tells us that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. Instead of focusing on the outside, we need to turn that focus inward and make sure that our bodies are good enough for the Holy Spirit to dwell. Are our hearts spiritually sound? Do we spend as much time in the Word as we do improving our looks? Do we try to remain healthy, attempting to keep our bodies as pure as possible in this sin tarnished world?  Or do we fill them with smoke, gluttonous eating, mind altering drugs, or the plethora of other things that this world has to offer? The Bible doesn't tell us that our bodies are a temple for nothing. We're to keep them as pure and as unaltered as possible. God created us in *His* image and there's no mistakes in that.

 

My Lord doesn't make mistakes.

 

That's something that I stress to my girls over and over. It doesn't matter what they, or anyone else, looks like.....God doesn't make mistakes. He creates people just as he wants them to look. I stress to them that it is *never* okay to chastise a person based on their looks. You see that kid with red hair and freckles all over his face? God put each freckle exactly where he wanted it to be. See that man with the his arm ending in a stump at the elbow? God saw fit to make him special. While everyone else has two hands, he's special and only uses one. The woman in the wheelchair? God wanted her to have a special set of wheels for some reason. God just doesn't make mistakes....ever.

 

I never want my girls to wonder if they are pretty enough. Good looking enough. Thin enough. Fashionable enough. I do, however, want them to wonder whether they are reading the Bible enough.....and praying for people enough.....or reaching out to others enough. Outside appearances are so fleeting. We are who God made us. We get old. We get pimples. We get saggy everywhere after birthing children. It is what it is. I just don't see the point in working so hard to change what God put so obviously put into place.

 

I want my girls....all three of my beautiful girls....to see themselves differently than that. They are all beautiful simply because God made them.

 

 

**Disclaimer: This post is referring to elective changes only. If there's a medical condition, by all means, surgery may be the way to go. But to simply be dissatisfied with the way God created you....that's where my disagreement comes in.**

 

God knew.

 

In my wildest dreams, I never thought I'd be the mother of girls. Ten years ago, if you would have asked my 21-year-old self to envision my future family, I probably would have mentioned the fact that I was sure to be the mother of boys.

 

Growing up, I was a complete and total tomboy. Forget Barbies and baby dolls; my prized possesions consisted of Ninja Turtles, G.I. Joes, and hockey cards. My mother managed to wrangle me into a dress on Sunday mornings to attend church, but other than that, I wanted nothing to do with those itchy, frilly garments that caused me to sit all lady-like in an effort to stop my undies from showing. I was much more comfortable in jean shorts and a t-shirt, often chosen from the boys department. The girls deparment of clothing stores were filled with pink blouses, Hello Kitty t-shirts, and necklaces to match. For me, the boys department was much more intriguing. There were t-shirts of my favorite character, the tasmanian devil, hockey team logos, and shorts that didn't give me wedgies.

 

During my teenage years, while other girls spent their time doing their nails and gazing at the boys, I actually spent my time *with* the boys, strapping on my skates, manuevering the street hockey puck down the street, side checking those boys into the grass, and occasionally bloodying my knees in the process.

 

I was completely sure that God would see fit to give me a house full of sports minded, rambunctious little boys.

 

But God had better plans in store.

 

Instead, he's overly blessed me with two little girls and another on the way.

 

Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that I would one day be googling the term "how to french braid" and implementing my findings. But God knew.

 

Never did I think that our house would be inundated with all things pink, all things princess, and all things frilly and twirly. But God knew.

 

I never imagined that I'd love every moment of choosing the cutest, pinkest outfit for my daughter while referring to her as a princess. My ten-year-old self probably would have had a heart attack. But God knew.

 

God knew that three little girls was exactly what this tomboy needed. He knew way back then as he watched me pretending to be a ninja, stealthily working my way up a tree. He always knows.

 

Three girls. Sisters. There's nothing greater.

 

I pray that the bond between them will always be unbreakable, that they will always be there for each other, even long after Mr. Incredible and I are gone, and that they turn to Jesus in all things....because He knows. He always knows.