My sister, Amy, is a cosmetologist.  She once had a boss at a barber shop who daily criticized the women who worked there.  “You should wear more make-up,” he’d tell one.  “You really need to dye your hair,” he’d tell another.

Venting, one of Amy’s coworkers said, “He thinks his opinion is fact!”

With that comment, all the dust fell away.  The rays of truth broke free!  Amy no longer gave his criticisms power over her.

Let’s give that broken boss a new name:  “The World.”  His words are harsh.  His breath is foul, yet daily I let him whisper in my ear, “You aren’t acceptable!”  Often he lingers until I want to hide, or cry, or both.

I asked God to give me wisdom on this issue, and He has been answering!

• First, my sister told me the above story. She reminded me that there are as many definitions of beauty as there are people in the world.
• Next, God spoke to me as I happened to be reading through I Peter. I scribbled these words on my bathroom mirror:  I began to think . . . a quiet spirit is one who finds identity in God’s love!  “He leads me beside quiet waters” Psalm 23:2.  All the noisy opinions of the world are hushed when I look only to Him.  I want to let God be the mirroring waters I gaze into for validation.  I can picture my Shepherd’s face, looking at me with fatherly love and understanding.
• Then, I just stumbled upon the movie Penelope, and I watched it for the first time.  It has a powerful message.  (Penelope was dropped by two studios.  Disheartened, I’m sure producer, Reese Witherspoon, doubted her work, but I’m so thankful she persevered! I needed this modern-day fairy tale!)
• Soon afterwards, my husband gazed at me with love overflowing on a night I felt so unworthy.
• A few days later, just as my rowdy boys ran upstairs and the kitchen grew quiet, “Beautiful” by MercyMe played on the radio. It was as if God had sent me a Valentine.

• Most recently, the children’s devotional we read to the boys after dinner said, “He sees you and he loves you–just as you are, not as you should be.”  From Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing by Sally Lloyd Jones, p. 113

I trust that more wisdom is on the horizon.  “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”  I John 3: 14-15