Feeling Beautiful

By Miss Adventure

Yesterday while I was waiting to meet up with my roommate at Target, I decided to walk by the clothing. That was a mistake since I wasn't planning to spend any money on clothes (why do we tempt ourselves like that?). While scanning the racks, the prettiest purple dress jumped out and begged me to try it on, so I did. After all, maybe it wouldn't look good or fit right and then I wouldn't have to wonder how it would look anymore. So I looked at the sizes - there were only three, and the first two were too small...but the last one was in my size. I pulled it off and took it to the dressing room and started to put it on and it did not fit! Much much too big! I looked at the size again and managed to miss the added number in front of my size - I had accidentally taken one that was 10 sizes too big!

My roommate came in and offered to go get my size, which I knew wasn't there, but she brought me the next size down. I was pretty sure it would not fit (after all, I'd eaten a lot this summer and my stomach and hips were on the larger size of normal so no chance of being a size smaller). It did fit though - it fit PERFECTLY. In fact, not only was it a size smaller than what I normally wear, it was very slimming and the perfect proportions and shape for my body type. How could I not buy it? I felt like a beautiful woman who had just stepped out of the 1950's (it was a retro style) - all I needed was a pearl necklace and high heels to make it absolutely perfect. Though not a necessity and not exactly what I had planned for in my budget, I had to buy it.

Sometimes we need to do things as women that are going to make us feel beautiful - whatever that is - a new pair of shoes, a dress, a new haircut, toning up a bit, wearing beautiful jewelry... We don't need to do this to make us beautiful - because we already are! Each of us have beauty unique and special all our own, but there's something about feeling beautiful that makes us glow a little more and gives us enough of that boost of confidence that helps us hold our heads a little higher and causes people to take a second look. I've learned that really beauty comes from the inside - not the outside. Yes, the outside can be beautiful but haven't you ever noticed that people grow prettier or uglier depending on their personality and character? They do for me at least. There's almost nothing more beautiful than a women who knows who she was created to be, rejoices in that, holds her head high and makes the most of what she was given - physically, spiritually, and in her personality.

Growing up, I certainly did not feel beautiful on the outside and I think because of that I didn't always allow people to see my inner beauty either. I remember this story I was told at camp -it was a great story about a woman who was not attractive and no one in the village ever thought she would get a husband who would pay anything for her (in this village the man had to pay the father for her hand). No one thought that until Johnny Lingo came along and paid eight cows for her! That was unheard of and no one understood it. He took her as his wife and moved her away from the village. Later, when story teller went to visit Johnny, he didn't recognize Johnny's wife - it wasn't the same woman from the village. It couldn't be, this woman was beautiful! But it was the same woman, it was just that being loved and treasured had given her a reason to feel beautiful. She began to show the beauty that was always there but just masked by her self-doubt. I think that's really true for us too. When we realize we are special and treasured and start to act that way, we begin to show our true beauty.