What Is Beautiful?Sample

PERSONALLY / OUR MOTHER’S

Our perceptions of beauty are related to a multiplicity of things, one of which is our mothers. For better, or for worse, our moms’ engagements with beauty (toward herself and us) have an incomparable influence on us.

My earliest “beauty memories” date back to my mom’s bathroom mirror, watching her get ready for an evening out with my dad. I can easily access images of every shade and shape of her body—to me, she was the definition of beauty. But that means her perceptions of beauty, particularly regarding her own, shaped mine. And in part because my mother admittedly didn’t find herself beautiful, that mirror was never going to invite me there either.

What if we grew-up hearing our mother’s say to themselves, and to us, “How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful!” How might this shape one’s marriage, mothering and household of beauty stories!

DO THIS:

What comes to mind when you think about your mother’s relationship with beauty? (Such a question may take you fifteen minutes, or fifteen weeks to unpack. Be gracious on yourself here—we’re simply trying to know ourselves and God more clearly.)

God cannot find you more precious than He does in this moment. Darling, He finds you (and the beautiful image you are bearing of Him!) BEAUTY-FULL. How does this strike you today?