~ Stacie Stories ~ Getting to Know the Author of The Faith Journals ~ If I'm Being Honest !!! ~

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~ If I'm Being Honest ~

 

When I first read this pinterest pic I automatically went back in time. Back to a time when myself along with one of my besties worked at the same university. Opposite sides of campus, but still close enough to go grab lunch or stop by one another's office while running errands. You may find this incredibly vain or you may take it in the ways it is intended, funny and uplifting. My bestie and I would randomly meet up while walking errands around the university so that we could not only do our work, but have fun doing it. I know that's not how everyone rolls, but it is how we did. It is a true gift to get the opportunity to work with your best friends. I have had the opportunity in one way or another to work with a lot of my friends. It helps to make work not feel so much like work.

 

Well, anyway, we would meet up to walk our papers, signatures, etc. around campus and every now and then we would stop to check ourselves out in the reflection of the window doors. Not just "is my shirt on backwards" or "is there lipstick on my teeth", but full on "dang, I am hot today!!". If you could see our poses you would totally be laughing. Especially at the thought of the times that we got so focused on looking at our own reflections in the glass doors that we totally did not notice the person about to walk through it until it was too late and they had just received some unsolicited modeling visuals. AHHAHAHAHAH!!!! I'm sure the people who saw us doing these crazy things thought we were certifiable, but it never failed to end in laughter and feeling better about myself.

I don't think it is just a woman thing to always be in battle with your insecurities, how you've been made and who you wish you could be. Guys have these struggles too. However todays post may hit more with the females....ya know, because I am one so that is where my experience comes from. LOL!! I may have felt like my appearance that particular day when gazing our reflections was rough, but after goofing off with my friend and complimenting one another's reflections I always felt better. More confident. People don't see you the way you see you. Most folks are baffled by our insecurities when they hear them. It is one of the many reasons genuinely complimenting people out loud can be so important. You never know what's going on inside them. You never know what someone NEEDS to hear. I once had a Sonic worker compliment me in the drive-thru. She out of nowhere as we handed payment and receipts back and forth, stopped and said "You look really pretty.". I was taken aback. I said thank you, got my food and went on my way, but years later I still remember that random compliment. I didn't know her. I wasn't related to her and I don't know that I have ever seen her again. Yet, that random compliment from a stranger is still in my mind and heart.

 

I miss working in a space with friends. I miss being able to stop by a friends office just for a quick hell-o. I miss stopping to check myself out in the reflection of something with my equally goofy bestie. I also miss a time when my insecurities where weaker than my confidence. I truly believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What one person finds beautiful another may not. That is part of the reason it is so important to decide for yourself, to find yourself beautiful before caring if anyone else does. I know, I know, easier said than done. The Lord who created you finds you beautiful. He created every star in the sky and every grain of sand and still felt the world needed you. When we find contentment in ourselves it makes those random compliments easier to believe and be encouraged by.

What's all this about? Why am I babbling on and on about such shallow things as appearances? Because we need a reminder now and then that we are beautiful in our Creators eyes, if no one else's. We have the right to feel good about how we look no matter how we look. We have the right and sometimes we even have the need to check our reflections out in a windowed door or mirrored store front and say, "Dang, I am hot today!!!". I challenge you the next time you set down to do your hair or make up, or start sifting through your outfits and accessories, to take a moment and tell yourself something that is beautiful about yourself. If you and your bestie where standing in front of a mirror what would you like to be complimented on?

I hope you know that you are beautiful. I hope you realize that every inch of you has been created for a reason. I hope you know that others find you beautiful, especially when you are distinctly you. There is a newer country artist that I have become such a fan of. Starting with her style. She hasn't hit radio big yet, but she is touring and has had some media attention. She has a big tattoo on her outer thigh, she says her nose is shaped the way it is because it was once broken, she wears a cowboy hat now and then and doesn't fear rocking a romper with cowboy boots and braids. A DJ once called her ugly and she found the strength and confidence to not care and to instead of being brought down by it, to be fueled by it. I honestly find her beautiful. Her style is so her own that it makes her beautiful. Her confidence in the face of a extremely rude person, is beautiful. It encourages me to feel beautiful and to embrace my "flaws" as my perfections. Her definition of beauty and confidence helps me to define mine. I saw a post on FB the other day about how in China when a piece of pottery is broken they fill in the cracks from the repairs with gold. They don't repair it in a way that you can never see that it was broken or flawed. They find the "flaws" from the brokenness to be what is
beautiful about that piece of pottery.


What makes you distinctly beautifully you? What have you or will you fill with gold?!

Go check yourself out doll!! You look gorgeous today.