This photo was taken at a competition in June 2006. The competition was between 9 women for best makeover. They had every possible beauty treatment available to them over a period of 12 hours before the contest.Conclusion - there are no ugly women * (see below), only poor women.... If you had the money....Good Grief!!! The woman 2nd from the left won the contest.
click on the picture to enlarge.
***** Added later
I am like most of you and go for the natural look myself....but the reason I liked this so much is because you can see that ordinary people can look like movie stars after all the make up and air brushing..... Remember not all what we "see" is real and we must not let ourselves be influenced by these images. Our self esteem and worth are based on other things......
(Translation: I delight in simplicty In the fullness of God´s love And I face each day with serenity and trust. Simplicity)
I read this story in an old 1990's Readers Digest that I have in the bathroom.....hahaha! I just had to share it with you:
"Working at a College with a preponderance of non-English speaking students, my sister sometimes had difficulty in communicating with the newly arrived.
Once as she was enrolling a young man, she reached a standstill at the question of birth date. No matter what words or motions she used, the young man remained puzzled. Finally, a Chinese student standing nearby asked my sister, "What do you need to know?" After my sister explained, the Chinese woman turned to the young man and hummed the first few bars of "Happy Birthday to You."
His eyes lit up in recognition as he exclaimed, "May 12, 1955" The helpful student shrugged and said, "Same song, every country.""
Isn't it true that we complicate things that could be so simple? I know I do. Often I find myself trying to solve something using the most difficult approach.....like the girl trying to find out the birth date of the student. After trying all she knew to do she was at a loss...who knows what she tried before she gave up? The student who helped solve an apparently unsolvable problem, did it by singing the classic Happy Birthday to You song. So simple.
I am sure there are lots of moments when we think that there is no other way to deal with a certain difficulty and God comes along and sings "Happy Birthday to You!"
As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness. ~Henry David Thoreau
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. ~Leonardo DaVinci
The greatest truths are the simplest: so likewise are the greatest men. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. ~Hans Hofmann, Introduction to the Bootstrap, 1993
It´s no secret to to the child of God that the "truth shall set you free" rather the secret lies in believing that truth when everything around you SCREAMS the opposite.
This song I am sure is known to most, if not all of you, and God gave me the grace to be able to translate it into Spanish and we have be able to share it on many occasions.
This past Sunday we were invited to lead worship for two services.
As you know, this is not my best moment or finest hour! To lead out when one is totally weak and hanging on by a thread is both a challenge and a blessing. A blessing you say? Yes, precisely because you have no energy left in you to worry if it will work out, or if you can do a good job! I had just gotten my voice back after the flu, so confidence in my capacity was zilge. I had no fight left in me. Whatever happened was going to be God. It was up to God.
Anyway, my DH wanted to sing this song and I knew I was going to be singing it to myself. Yes in capital letters and in red ink. I needed so badly to hear this song, more than anyone sitting there.
As I presented the song, I shared my own struggles and my desperate need to chose to believe the voice of truth rather than the screaming lies that were raging through my head. I felt naked before each one of them as I weakly pointed the way to a God who desperatly wants me and them to believe that what we are living right now is not a definition of who we are or His truth about us.
I felt nothing magical, no trumpets resounding or angels singing. I just obeyed. I just chose to sing the truth that I was not feeling. I am just hanging on ... The rubber meets the road right here and inspite of myself, God is with me. I have to stand firm in what I know to be true. This is a battle and I have to use my armour , my belt of truth to STAND FIRM. Obedience is a strong weapon in this fight.
Eph 6:13
Therefore, put on the whole armor of God,
that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and,
Our pastor shared this quote on Sunday. One thing that I really enjoy about him is that his preachings are very down to earth. Not hairy fairy or pie in the sky unattainable spirituality. Yesterday he shared a practical piece or reality but one which I felt was very spiritually powered!
Of course Samuel Smiles didn't hit upon this great principle on his own did he? We all know that the bible teaches what we sow, we reap. (Gal 6:7) But I was especially moved by the truth behind this quote and the challenge it presents us with. a Question of the heart.The reality of this principle is not only life changing, but it´s ramifications are beyond comprehension.
Today's message is that all roads,with varying types of moral and value, lead to Rome. They would like us to believe that each walk of life each with it's individual expression is equally valid and all of which ends in peace and happiness!!
Although this philosophy is wide spread and very much rampant amongst our youth, would you not agree with me that it is blatantly evident that certain choices embarked upon today propose nothing but disaster and destruction for the future? Is it not true that there are roads that lead to anywhere but the proverbial Rome, peace or happiness?
God´s word clearly teaches us that there are decisions we make that have the ability to convisgate a future of hope and peace. There are choices I can make which will not give me a happy end, which the philosophy of, "Everything goes...it will all come out in the wash anyway?" so eagerly promises.
Yesterday I was challenged to weigh my choices and decisions 0f today. As Ps 90:12 says, "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. "
How desperately I need the Holy Spirit to lead me into all truth and not to trust my every so wandering heart which is is wicked above all things. (Jeremiah 17:9) It´s in the heart that the seads of thought are sown. Only God can test the heart (Ps 26:2) and only He is able to give me a pure heart (Ps 51:10)
I can help my heart from being deceived if I hide His word in my heart(Ps 119.11) I need to guard it because it's the wellspring of life! (Prov 4:23)
P.S. Click on title of this post to link to the blog where More of Him on Mondays was originated.
You know, we may run around all over the world, meet a universe full of new people, have a milky way of experience but in the end when the rubber meets the road; it´s those faithful basics in God´s word that help us through. I received this in an email and thought it was worth reminding ourselves of these truths....
HANDY LITTLE CHART
God has a positive answer:
YOU SAY .............GOD SAYS
"It's impossible" ------All things are possible Luke 18:27)
"I'm too tired" ------I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28-30)
"Nobody really loves me" -----I love you (John 3:1 6 & John 3:34)
"I can't go on" ------My grace is sufficient(II Corinthians 12:9 & Psalm 91:15)
"I can't figure things out"----- I will direct your steps (Proverbs 3:5- 6)
"I can't do it" ------You can do all things(Philippians 4:13)
"I'm not able" ------I am able (II Corinthians 9:8)
"It's not worth it"------- It will be worth it (Roman 8:28 )
"I can't forgive myself"------ I Forgive you (I John 1:9 & Romans 8:1)
"I can't manage"------- I will supply all your needs (Philippians 4:19)
"I'm afraid" -------I have not given you a spirit of fear (II Timothy 1:7)
"I'm always worried and frustrated" -----Cast all your cares on ME (I Peter 5:7)
"I'm not smart enough" ------I give you wisdom (I Corinthians 1:30)
"I feel all alone"------ I will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5)
Now isn´t that a great reminder for whatever "ails" you?????
We all know the importance of eating well, exercising and laughing from the "gut" on a regular basis, to be the ingredients for a Healthy life.
Well, like you, I do try to pass on what I have learned to my little angels (haha). Just the other day though, a little humorous truth came to me out of the mouths of one of my babes!
Let me shed a little light on the circumstances!
Two of my wonderful 3 children are good eaters and one remaining is a "I don´t like anything remotely healthy looking" battlefield at meal times champion!
Life being as it is...contradictory..... The two "good eaters" were given to:
a) the flu and following throat infection- thus missing school for more than a week
b) twisted his ankle and suffered a 2nd degree sprain - hence condemned to using crutches and missing school one day.
The one day that these two coincided in missing school, my junk food junkie was therefore the only child in the household to attend school. As I walked down the stairs to accompany him to the gate he said,
"I´m the only one who doesn´t eat his vegetables and look, I am the only kid healthy! "
Hmm.... what can you say to that? On the contrary my dear Watson!
It always seem to catch me by surprize....God cares about me? Well yes, like any other Christian in my head that is a truth that has been clear to me for years...I have even told others that He cares for them....what could be more natural????
But somehow, deep down, it´s always easier to believe that God cares and loves others more than he does me..... And even if you know this is a lie...it seems easier to live with the lie than the truth. What a heracy, but if I am honest .....that´s what I really felt.
Well, God had bigger & better ideas...(am I glad that God is bigger & better than me!!!!) and decided that today would be a good day for me to deal with this lie and pull it out by the roots! I guess I will still need to work myself out of the habit of devaluing myself...but I do desperatly want to walk in truth!
During one of our prayer times in my group of friends, God nailed me to the floor with the question, why do you feel you are not valueable?Where did that lie come in? I experienced in a depth that I didn´t know existed, in the very "guts" of my being, that God touched this insecurity in me and said...it is done.....this isn´t going to hinder you anymore.
What can I say? It was one of those moments when time and space stop still and you are alone with God and He speaks and you listen. He speaks and you realize you can´t make it better on your own...that you´ve been trying and struggling; not willing to give in; that no one else is going to do it for you; or that you don't deserve to be valued.......................
And then with a "peace that passes ALL understanding" you surrender and God meets you. You are caught by surprize: Jesus loves me? ....yes, JESUS loves even me!!! (anyone out there remember that hymn?)
It ´s one of those kind of experiences that cannot be explained very well with words, they fall so desperately short. But in me, where I didn´t believe, I KNOW that God has done ametamorphasis. Time will show me, just how deep and final the experience of today has been. I only wish I could somehow transmit this whole experience to you....
I guess this feeling I have could be compared to the story in Luke 13:10 about the crippled woman...
She was bent over and could not straighten up and he (Jesus) called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." ...........and she straightened up and praised God.
I was "bent over "with a lie and could not straighten up , but Jesus has told me that I am set free... I straightened up and praised God!!!When JESUS speaks.....things change....always for the better!
Sometimes we walk around with these things for many years...but as the saying goes...there is a time for everything, and God in his tenderness doesn't overwhelm us and "fix"us all at once.... (if he did, we would probably decombust!!!)
It´s in these moments when I realize I have to WANT to change and WANT to no longer live with my infirmity... to be willing to step out of my comfort zone, into the unknown ...where Jesus is.........
Ally who has just seen another part of the puzzle of my life put in the proper place.And it feels GRRRRRRRRRREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!
I'm so glad you dropped by and hope what you find here is an encouragment to you. Pull up a chair and have a nice cup of tea and together we shall share a part of this road we call life...
When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Look at a stone cutter hammering at his rock........
.......perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before. ~Jacob A. Riis
Don't be discouraged. It's often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock. ~Author Unknown
When I am weak....He is strong!!!
VISITORS
Youth is like spring, an over praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes. Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits. ~Samuel Butler
I enjoy writing and sharing experiences, especially if they have a hint of humour! The added bonus is if you actually learn something as well. I write... therefore I am!!
click on the picture to enlarge.
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