Day 1- The Real Me

 

This is the real me, well sorta you can't see all my freckles, and there are a lot. No make up. Hah! As real as it gets for me since this was taken at 6 this morning. Imagine! I didn't break the camera after all!  

Today I helped a friend by watching her boys while she borrowed my car to take her daughter to the doctor since her car is in the shop. Funny how kids don't care about makeup. I had my four plus two and none of them seemed to notice. Even my 5 year old daughter who loves it when I let her have "sparkly eyes" didn't really care if I had makeup on or not. We played in the sprinkler and I jumped through with abandon, unafraid of smearing my mascara. I literally cannot remember the last time I didn't have mascara on. Putting mascara on is as normal for me as brushing my teeth every morning. It's just what happens, sometimes I reapply it later in the day. I very rarely even wash it off before I go to bed (don't judge). Several times today when I was tired or my eyes watered I had to remind myself that it was ok to just go ahead and full on rub my eye. No dabbing. It sounds so silly when I reread it but it's been so normal for me. One thing I realized today is that I'm going to for sure occasionally go without mascara. It's as freeing as not wearing shackles (ok that may be a bit dramatic but it has been a burden).

Wearing makeup makes me feel feminine and beautiful and I don't think that's a bad thing as long as it's not the source of my beauty. I decided to do something else to help me feel beautiful. I wore perfume. The expensive kind I save for very special occasions. I loved it. All through out the day when I got a whiff of it, it made me feel really good. I want my spirit to be as sweet as that perfume to God. I want Him to delight in me and I'm slowly starting to see how important obedience is to Him. Yes, He loves me anyway, no matter what but is there a measure of joy or satisfaction He gets when I obey? I think so because there is definitely a measure of joy that I feel when I do follow Him. It's a beautiful thing and it makes me feel beautiful.

What's up for tomorrow? Well more babysitting, visiting with family, and a piano lesson. Stay tuned, I know you can barely contain your excitement.

50 First Dates

I have to tell you an amazing thing that happened at church yesterday. Before church started I noticed a young woman, my age sit a few seats away from me. I immediately knew God wanted to tell her something but I didn't know what or if it was for me to tell her. All through Praise & Worship I was really trying to listen for Him and prepare myself. Believe it or not when it comes to speaking to someone on God's behalf I'm not real brave. (Why is that? Thank you Father for not giving up on me.) Then I had an unusual thought cross my mind. The movie 50 First Dates. You can google it if you haven't seen it but to sum it up it's about a woman who had an accident. She wakes up each morning thinking its the day of her accident and doesn't remember anything up until then. This guy meets her and falls in love with her each day but of course she doesn't remember him. Anyway it's not really a "christian" movie so you can understand my hesitance. But I really felt it strongly so during a break in worship before the message I introduced myself and asked her if she had ever seen the movie 50 First Dates. She looked at me kind of strange but said that she had seen it. I reminded her that even though the woman in the movie forgot that she was in love with this man each morning, that didn't stop him from pursuing her each day until she fell in love with him all over again. There were days she pushed him away or ignored him but it didn't stop him. He would just try again in the morning. I told her that's how God felt about her. How He pursued her each day no matter how the day before went. That she didn't even have to do anything or make any effort that all she had to do was respond. She wept and it was a very beautiful thing. I found out later that she was a visitor and that in the car on her way to church she was praying something like this "Please God I know you can't possibly love me with the way I've been acting but, please forgive me." So no wonder she started weeping!! Praise God! Oh how He loves us! It's a beautiful thing for us all to hear. He's in constant pursuit of us.