Real Female Beauty:

I’ve been thinking a lot about female beauty lately, mainly as my body begins to (slowly, but surely) change—becoming vegan, doing a 3 month detox, as well as bikram yoga is NOT FOR NOTHING YA’LL. Nevertheless, my standards for female beauty are changing as well. I was never told I was beautiful growing up so I had to base what I thought beauty was on external factors such as peers, movies, TV and magazines. No wonder I had an eating disorder and low self esteem. However, as God heals my heart and restores my spirit from the hurts of my past he is showing me what real female beauty is.

Real beauty is my 72 year old yoga instructor Georgia, with salt and pepper hair who smiles with her eyes and talks with a laugh. When doing the spinal twist yoga pose she sings “Let’s Twist Again” by Chubby Checker while dancing –which makes everyone laugh and forget they are doing ridiculously hot yoga. She is captivating, glowing and beautiful.

Real beauty is my Professor friend Kara with her buzz haircut and bright, mismatched thrift-shop clothes, who laughs with her belly and who challenges her students to think for themselves. When she talks with you, she looks you straight in the eyes and makes you feel like the only person on the planet. She is luminous, charming and beautiful.

Real beauty is Elaine, the vibrant secretary with the spunky earrings at my college who always asked how I was doing, and then stopped whatever she was doing to listen to my response. It was never a stalk question for her, she genuinely wanted to know. She would always have a stash of snacks available so that the students would never go hungry. That kind of motherly, unselfish love is beautiful.

Real beauty is a God who delights in his daughters and brings into fruition our long-ago forgotten secret dreams.

After a lifetime of stumbling in the dark, confused, lost and feeling anything but beautiful—I am humbled, grateful and in awe of a God who turned on the light in my spirit, so that I may recognize real beauty, not only in myself, but in other women, people and the world around me.

Yes, Sarena is right, 2008 is the year of total restoration indeed.