Fearfully & wonderfully made

After many years of avoiding the little things in life, I've recently started to (kind of) learn how to slow down. Taking a deep breath every once in awhile, and reminding myself that "everything is going to be okay" have become part of my daily activity. When I feel too much stress; like the world is on my shoulders, I stop wherever I am (and mind you, this can often be the quad, a classroom, or even in the bathroom..kidding), take a breath and remind myself of all the beautiful people in my life.

Which leads me to ask myself a question that I hear from a friend a few weeks ago. How do I know that I'm not just surrounded by ordinary people whom I've found the beauty in? A simple enough question, right? Wrong. Insert obnoxious buzzer noise here. I've taken this all into much consideration and come to a fairly sufficient conclusion: we all have something beautiful about us. And not the stereotypical, Hollywood-esque idea of beauty, but the beauty that the Lord truly intended for us to possess. I like to look to Proverbs for this idea of beauty (as most people do) and one of my favorite scriptures comes to mind:

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Proverbs 31:30

True enough a statement, it can be translated to any gender. Man or woman, you can be charming, yet completely deceitful, beautiful on the outside, but hideous on the inside, but if you are a man or woman of the Lord, you are to be praised. 

Finding the beauty in people is like that itch that you can't scratch. I wish I could come up with a prettier-sounding metaphor, but for now, this is the best that I've got. You know that it's there, and you're dying to find it, but searching for it is taking so long that you feel like it might be a waste of time. Needless to say, giving up on someone's beauty is never an option.

It took awhile, but I was able to find the beauty in a few very important people in my life. But in all honesty, I don't think that I even started searching for it until they found the beauty in me.

So maybe you can be fooled by a smile, or even the occasional moment of chivalry offered by the cute guy in your bio class. Or maybe it's even that nice Christian girl who you met at your youth group who invited you church and never talked to you again. Flawed, we are all still built to be perfectly imperfect.

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. Psalm 139:14

So stop for a minute and take that deep breath of fresh air. Take a look around because the beauty that God created is everywhere.

-M