With bathing suit season fastly approaching, I have to admit that I have begun thinking about losing weight and getting into better shape.  If you let it, it can be depressing.

I was reminded today that our beauty shouldn’t be measured by how tone our arms are or how flat our stomach is.  A truly beautiful woman is one that seeks to look like Christ.  So instead of looking to the latest and greatest diet pill to make you more beautiful, look to God’s Word.

For attractive lips,

speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes,

seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure,

share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair,

let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.

For poise,

walk with the knowledge you’ll never walk alone.

Audrey Hepburn

EPH 4:29  Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only
what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it
may benefit those who listen.

by Heather Sargent
8/10/2008 / Womens Interest

When did it become an ‘every mother for herself’ world? Didn’t it used to be a sisterhood of women raising their children together once upon a time?

I think often of what that would be like. To have the women in your life around you supporting you and befriending you. And how you would do the same for them. I imagine children playing while their moms sit together giggling about what silly thing their husband said to them this morning. Or how little Johnny got in trouble again but always gets caught in the most unusual ways where you can’t help but laugh. After you have disciplined him of course.

What would it be like to have the women closest to you understand that you too are just a mere human and are incapable of perfection? How you really do have the best of intentions but sometimes that hand basket from hell comes to take it all away. What if they understood that those things that appear to be bad parenting have a broken heart behind them that may just need a friend? Maybe there is an interesting story there of why things went the way they did.

A world where these sisters did not have one arm wrapped around you in a friendly hug with a knife in the other. A smile and friendly word to you, then biting, angry words at your back. A place where life was so simple that the person you saw in front of you, was the person you saw in front of you.

I long for the sisterhood of the days of old. This catty back-biting that women of today do just leaves me standing there scratching my head, wounds and all as I slowly drop the knife I hold at my sisters’ backs.

Heather Sargent - 2008
A down-to-earth wife and mother of four, Heather Sargent has more than enough to write about. From the insanity of daily life to the quiet, magical moments which include sleeping children, she finds humor and joy in her chaotic life.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

Let God take your ordinary life and transform it into something bright and beautiful!

The Master Decorator
by Patty Wysong

How is it that some people can take a room, fill it with spare parts, old parts, new parts, odd parts, and all kinds of other things and make it beautiful? I have never been able to understand it. I could take the same parts and pieces, arrange them, and have a…garage sale. It just doesn’t work for me.

I’ve studied Better Homes & Gardens for years, dreamed, schemed, plotted and planned, and my house still looks like a collection of yard sale and auction finds, which it is. What’s the missing link? If I hang a curtain like the masters do in BH&G, it’d look like a sheet hung with strips of rags instead of the cool curtains they end up with. What am I doing wrong?

I just don’t have that magical touch of a decorating master’s hand. Some hands create beauty out of chaos, mine create more chaos out of chaos. How I wish I could create an environment that invited people to enter, relax, visit and unwind, but I struggle with keeping the living room presentable enough so my husband doesn’t groan when he walks in the door at night!

But just because I don’t have a decorator’s touch in my home doesn’t mean I’m not touched by the Master Decorator. He’s willing to decorate my soul if I just give Him access to it. Am I willing for Him to dig through the attic of my life, looking for antique treasures I had tucked away and buried? What about those basement corners in my life? Just because I think something is junk and have it hidden in my basement, doesn’t mean He doesn’t want to pull it out, touch it up, and add it to my living room, that ‘public’ part of my life.

God, the Master Decorator, is able to pull all the parts and pieces of my life together, even the seemingly ugly parts, and create a place of comfort, a haven from life’s storms. But I need to give Him access to my hiding places. Am I willing to have Him pull out the ‘uglies’ hidden in my life and create beauty from those? Am I willing to invite people in to see how He has decorated my soul? It means exposure. It means allowing them to see the uglies. But those uglies, once touched by the Master’s hand, are not ugly any more, they’re worked into the whole and they create a picture and a place of His beauty. If I allow Him access and invite Him to decorate my soul.

Please, Lord, be the Master Decorator in my life and soul. I give You the keys to my attic, basement, closets, shed, and garage–every hiding place in my life. Take these parts, even the ugly ones, and touch them and arrange them to create a place of beauty in me–a place of refreshment and peace. Be the Master Decorator in me.

Patty Wysong is a Christian wife and homeschool mom of 5 who is passionate about wrapping lessons in pretty packages that will point others to God.

Blog: http://pattywysong.blogspot.com/

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

An incredible video about the relationship between a father and son…. and God’s relationship with us.

A son asked his father, ‘Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?’ The father who, despite having a heart condition, says ‘Yes’. They went on to complete the marathon together. Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying ‘Yes’ to his son’s request of going through the race together. One day, the son asked his father, ‘Dad, let’s join the Ironman together.’

To which, his father said ‘Yes’ .

For those who didn’t know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island .

Father and son went on to complete the race together. View this……

Philippians 4:13  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I remember the words of a very wise pastor’s wife who spoke at a MOPS meeting I attended. She was getting ready for church on a Sunday morning and they were running late. Her little boy came to her with a toy of his and was crying because the leg was broken. As usual, she told him that she didn’t have time to look at it right then and he began to walk away. Then she realized that this was something that was really important to him, so she called him back and helped him. It only took a few seconds to reconnect the leg and he was a happy little fellow again.

I love my kids, but often times - more than I would like to admit - I don’t listen when they go on and on about something or when they have a concern I will just give them very general advice like, “well, go look for it” or “you’ll be fine”. They have hopes and dreams, problems and frustrations just like us. Because their problems don’t seem as big we ignore them or worse, get mad that they are upset about something. I just pray that the next time they come to me I will remember that they are precious to God and that He has entrusted them in my care to protect, guide and love even when it is “inconvenient”.

My precious boys - Braeden, Ben, and Blake.

photography by Erin Raycroft