Worry and Beauty

Today I was outside, just wandering around, thinking about what was I going to blog about. I actually started to worry about it a little bit. And then I stopped and looked around and thought "wow, I am surrounded by beauty". Now some people might have just seen "weeds", and some people might have just walked on past, but when you looked really, really close, you could see small wildflowers everywhere. Immediately I knew I had to take some pictures and share them, and share this message:



Dogwood flowers

Weeds or beautiful purple flowers?




More weeds?

flower of the field



blooms on a peach tree

blooms on a plum tree

blooms on a red bud tree

teeny tiny wild purple flowers

Beauty is all around us. What others see is not important. What is important is that we recognize that even among the so-called weeds there is always beauty if you just look for it. That even means that among the weeds of our lives there is always some beauty to be found. Sometimes the tiniest things are the most beautiful.

At this time of year, in the beginning of Spring, let us remember that in this early stage of new life things are small, fragile, delicate, and beautiful. Yet they will only last a short time and die off, only to bring in a new stage of life. Every stage has it's own beauty. Every stage has it's own strength. If you are in your Spring don't strive for your Summer, Fall, or even Winter. Don't worry. Everything comes in it's own season.

Sometimes I find myself at 51 looking in the mirror and feeling sad that I'm "not as beautiful" as I used to be. But then I have to remind myself that I am not in my Spring, or even my Summer, anymore. I am in my Fall. In Fall we see a different type of beauty than in Spring or Summer...but still a beauty. So, if you are like me, and you don't think you are as beautiful as you once were....look again! Look very closely. Look for the beautiful things about you that were not there in your earlier seasons. Don't look for those seasons that have passed. What some people see as wrinkles you know were earned through life experiences, joy, sadness...whatever...but they were earned! What some people see as age spots you know came from those times when you were younger and playing in the sun. You have been blessed to go through those experiences and now you get to share your beauty of wisdom and your beauty of a different age.

Don't use your makeup to try to cover what you think is a flaw or to try to make yourself look like what you used to. Use your makeup to enhance what you currently have. Bring out the sparkle in your eyes, or flatter your smile. No amount of makeup will make you beautiful if you are not bringing forth that inner beauty. And whatever you do....don't worry about it. You are what you are and you are blessed to be here. Embrace it! Believe me, this lesson is as much for me as it is for you.

My challenge to you this day....find something in nature that you feel is beautiful and try to match that color out of your collection and wear it once or twice during the week. Each time you wear it you will have that small, hidden secret that can bring a smile to your face...today I'm wearing the color of my daisies, or today my eyeshadow is the same shade as those wildflowers. In God's eyes you are way more beautiful and important than those things. Remember that! Be Blessed.

²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[a]?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

 

Matthew 6:27-29New International Version (NIV)