This post is for all you ladies.... :)

I had two similar conversation in the last 24 hours, and totally think the content is worth jotting down to pass on to other women. :)  Both of these conversations were with women in their early 50's.  One of them was my dear, dear friend Sheila.  Oh how I just adore Sheila!  Talk about a woman I admire...she is not only stunningly beautiful, but she just radiates joy everywhere she goes.  And, wow, is she faithful!  The other was with a total stranger, at the store.  I actually never did learn her name.  But we got chatting and (surprise, surprise) we got into a pretty deep conversation. haha!  Anyhow, they both shared with me the same thought......a thought that I think us "younger" women can take note of.

"Enjoy how you look right now in life.  Don't wish you were thinner or any different...just enjoy being young and vibrant.  Trust me, when you are older, you will have wished you had just enjoyed it."  Hmmmmm.... :)  Good advice. 

I know, from working in the beauty industry, how so many women focus on the one fault in their appearance.  And it seems like more women, then not, are simply striving for perfection...which there really isn't such thing as perfection.  This has got me thinking.

I did not realize and appreciate how I looked in high school.  If only I knew that it was true that metabolisms do change and all of a sudden clothes, that I could pull off before, suddenly don't look quite right!  And over the years, I have gone up and down in sizes.  And even at my smallest, I still wanted to be smaller!  I wish I had just enjoyed being how I was, instead of wishing I was different.  At my age now, I already realize the truth in what these two women have advised me. 

It is important to enjoy being me, each day...not focusing on vanity.

So where should our confidence lie?  What should be our approach to achieving this goal?

That is where Sheila comes in...she is such a great example!  I just love her!  She is a picture to me of true beauty.  Like I said, she is in her early 50's and just became a Zumba instructor this year.  That takes guts!  But she is so great at it, and all the women have so much fun with her.  I have seen this woman in the last two years completely transform her body.  I have no clue how much weight she has lost, but I only dream of looking like her at my age now!! :)  But she shared with me something that she herself has been learning.  She said it is so important not to look at losing weight, or at working out, in a vain way.  It is important to take care of yourself.  But she said whenever she starts thinking a vain thought, she thinks to herself right away the word "absorbed".  She has been warning herself this year, as she has worked on becoming fit, not to become absorbed in herself.  I think that is why she draws so many women to herself, and why she is thriving so much.  It isn't just that she is more trim, but that she radiates Jesus...because she is not focused on herself, but on living a joyful life in Him.  That is true beauty right there.  It makes me think of the passage in Psalm 34 that speaks of those who look to Him are radiant.  I love that.  It is so true that those who are joyful in Him are just stunningly radiant!  I can see evidence of that in Sheila.  That is the place where our confidence should lie.

So I say we should all just enjoy WHO we are and enjoy today.  I say we should stop focusing on the flaws OR perfections too much (both are being self-absorbed) and instead be confident in who God made us to be. 

I hope that I am a woman who radiates the joy of Christ, and who does not place my confidence in my appearance, but in who God made me today......

Sheila and I :)