Apr
08
2011Julia and I are exploring the meaning of Beauty, intersecting Beauty with the word of God, and letting Beauty live in our lives. Inspired by a joint feeling of just not measuring up in the beauty category, we’re tackling some hard questions:
- What is Beauty? And does it reside in me?
- And when my husband says that I’m beautiful, how can I receive those words as truth in a culture that says the opposite?
- What am I going to teach my daughters about Beauty?
- And most importantly, what does the Word of God say about Beauty?
Join us as we converse about a topic that touches the heart of all women.
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Dearest Julia,
Modesty
It’s such a buzz word in the Christian community. Yet the word means such different things to each person. Some think modesty means flowing dresses and head coverings. Others believe modesty means women should only wear skirts and dresses. There a new movement for modesty coupled with modern dress. Finally, there are those who feel that bikini’s can be modest because they cover all the important bits.
But I’m going to consult Dictionary.com and go back to the definition of the word itself.
- The quality of being modest; freedom from vanity, boastfulness
- Regard for decency of behavior, dress, speech
- Simplicity; Moderation
- Having or showing a moderate or humble estimate of one’s merits, importance, etc; free from vanity, egotism, boastfulness or great pretensions.
- Free from ostentation or showy extravagance
- Having or showing regard for the decencies of behavior, speech, dress, etc.
- Limited or moderate in amount, extent, etc
It seems to me that the quality of modesty might just go a bit deeper than convictions on what clothing we should or should not wear.
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Jump on over to Julia’s blog to read the rest!
Apr
01
2011Julia and I are exploring the meaning of Beauty, intersecting Beauty with the word of God, and letting Beauty live in our lives. Inspired by a joint feeling of just not measuring up in the beauty category, we’re tackling some hard questions:
- What is Beauty? And does it reside in me?
- And when my husband says that I’m beautiful, how can I receive those words as truth in a culture that says the opposite?
- What am I going to teach my daughters about Beauty?
- And most importantly, what does the Word of God say about Beauty?
Join us as we converse about a topic that touches the heart of all women.
________________________________________________________
Dearest Melissa,
As I was preparing to write my response, I reread your letter. Tears pricked my eyes as I read through your scars: your sister teasing you, your friends abandoning you when you were 10–ugh! I ache that you had to endure that.
We all have them. Scars.
I bet every woman reading this could share deep, painful, scars from her youth. I know I can.
I wrote before about physical scars. But these scars, emotional scars, they run deeper.
Scars. Even the word is ugly, isn’t it?
Scars become part of us.
We carry them around.
They are part of what makes us who we are.
And, for better or worse, scars influence the way we parent our daughters.
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Before Brad and I knew the gender of our girls, I remember thinking:
I’m not sure I can mother girls. (I think I might have even prayed for boys).
I have three sisters–I know girls, yet I wasn’t sure I wanted one of my own. My reason?
Fear.
Fear that I would irrevocably screw up a girl (or two) with my “issues”, my scars.
I think the heavens laughed at me.
Clearly, God had different plans, as my arms and heart are full with two 20 pound lovelies.
It strikes me as I type this–I haven’t really been gripped with that fear lately. A huge blessing, to be sure.
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I’ve kept a journal for my girls since before they were born. I noticed, as I read back through it today, I’ve been battling fear since the second I found out I was pregnant–I wrote about it often. This was the verse I put on the first page each of their journals:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ~Philippians 4:6-8
Oh my goodness, do you see?!
Anyone who reads our blogs, knows that you and I pour out our thanks weekly.
It’s just as Ann’s book says: thanksgiving and fear cannot co-mingle!
The thanksgiving brings peace–a peace that me and my scarred, broken self cannot understand, but it’s there!
Perfect peace.
Peace that, daily, allows me to enjoy the gift of my girls, rather than living gripped with the fear of messing them up.
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Of course, I can’t just wallow in peace without action. The gift of my peace comes a responsibility to my daughters teach and model True Beauty for them.
The rich word, pregnant with meaning, that you and I emailed about last week sums up much of what we must teach. Modesty.
Modesty in dress. Modesty in speech. Modesty in behavior.
Mar
31
2011I don’t know about you, but in my house dinners get unpredictable spontaneously creative at the end of the month. The grocery budget is short, two little piglets have eaten far more than I have planned for them to eat, and I’m digging around my cabinets for something that looks like it could blend itself into a semblance of a meal. And I thought, why not celebrate the unexpected meals (that are sometimes startlingly good)? We’ll call tonight’s meal:
Baked Chicken Fingers with Pass the Pasta Peas 😉
Pasta Dressing
- 1/4 C Olive Oil
- 2-3 Tbs Balsamic Vinegar
- 1 Tbs Brown Sugar
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- a big shake of the following
- onion powder
- Italian seasoning
- oregano
- sesame seeds (trust me)
- salt
- a grinding of fresh pepper
Mix ahead of time so flavors can meld.
Baked Chicken Fingers
- Chicken cut into fingers
- Bread Crumbs
- 4 eggs
- water
- a greased baking sheet
Preheat the oven to 350. Beat eggs with water. Dip chicken in egg mixture and then in breadcrumbs. Repeat once and then place on the baking sheet. Bake for 12-17 minutes depending on the thickness of your chicken pieces.
Pass the Pasta Peas
- 1 package angel hair (or whatever you got!) pasta
- 1/2 bag of frozen peas
- The dressing you made above
- grated Parmesan cheese
Cook pasta according to package direction with the peas tossed in the pot. Drain in a colander. In the same pasta pot, pour your dressing, cook over med-low heat for 2-3 minutes to take some of the sharpness out of the raw garlic. Dump pasta and peas back in the pan and stir until the dressing is soaking the noodles. Dump tons of yummy cheese on the pasta while stirring.
Serve hot and enjoy! The girls just ate this up 🙂
Mar
28
2011I’m not sure where last week went. It must have flow off silently and beautifully like the one single thing that I managed to record in my gratitude journal:
Mar
25
2011Julia and I are exploring the meaning of Beauty, intersecting Beauty with the word of God, and letting Beauty live in our lives. Inspired by a joint feeling of just not measuring up in the beauty category, we’re tackling some hard questions:
- What is Beauty? And does it reside in me?
- And when my husband says that I’m beautiful, how can I receive those words as truth in a culture that says the opposite?
- What am I going to teach my daughters about Beauty?
- And most importantly, what does the Word of God say about Beauty?
Join us as we converse about a topic that touches the heart of all women.
__________________________________________________
Dearest Julia,
Let me be honest: your last letter provoked an intial reaction from me that was extremely negative. I sat down and tried to justify why I did not want to hear your message. I even made a list of excuses:
- one bottle of fancy wrinkle cream + one tube of mascara + one box of permanent hair dye= enough money to feed, clothe, and give a Compassion Child the gift of hearing the gospel for a whole month!
- I’m a bit of an
hippieoutdoorsy type who somewhat shun beauty products. I wash my hair with baking soda and vinegar. I moisturize and protect my body from sunburn with coconut oil. I’ve never had a pedicure or manicure in my life. - I want my daughters to be little girls for as long as possible. I want them to be smearing lipstick around their whole mouth while prancing around in dress up clothes and mommy’s heels at eight or even 10 years of age. I want them turning cartwheels and climbing trees in their “princess dresses” while hosting a tea party with friends.
- I want to talk to them more about the beauty of a heart filled with the Fruits of the Spirit than about how to shave their legs, or what styles flatter their shape.
But the truth is: the reason I reacted so violently toward your post is because I’m so sinfully prideful that I should weep in repentance.
Because, if I’m truly honest, I reacted the way I did because of my own scars:
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Hop on over to Julia’s to read the rest of this post
