All Glorious: September 2008

My daughter Sarah showed me a picture she drew the other day. In it was a portrait of herself and next to her was standing her friend. He is the son of our friends here in Florida who are also from NY. Since we get together with them regularly, Sarah has played with Alex much. More than any other little boy lol:) So, I guess it is just natural that she has chosen Alex to marry LOL! Yes, she told me that she is getting married to Alex.

Back to the picture. In it she is giving Alex a leaf. That is a sign of love for my children. They give me leaves, and other natural treasures such as rocks, all the time. Cute, I thought. But then Sarah told me something else regarding this photo which I found intriguing. In a sort of wavy bubble, she also drew a picture of herself dancing. She told me that bubble is Alex daydreaming of her ballet dancing and that Alex thinks she is pretty. WOW! This coming from a SIX year old!!!!

You see, I NEVER told Sarah about the dream I had when I was a teenager. This was THE most wonderful dream I ever had! And I am not ashamed to admit it. In my dream, I was gracefully dancing in a beautiful long dress, and some boy was watching me dance. Not a boy I knew. All of a sudden my feet lifted off the ground and I began to slowly float up into the air, sort of dancing gracefully through air. That boy's gaze never left me. He was in awe of me. In awe of my beauty. I felt more beautiful than words can describe.

It is so funny how I never told Sarah about that dream, and yet her feminine heart, her young heart, has the same desires.

Now I dance for God:) And I know that He delights in me.

The thing is, women want to be beautiful. Think of how much time most women spend on makeup and searching for lovely hairstyles, beautiful or attractive fashion, dieting, etc. Do men care as much about those sort of things? Nope. This is the way God made men and women. The Bible says that woman is the "glory" of man.

There is a song that says:

I want to be beautiful
Make you stand in awe
Look inside my heart,
and be amazed.

I want to hear you say
Who I am is quite enough
Just want to be worthy of love
And beautiful.

Then she cries out [to God]:

Won't you help me back to glory

Yes we women have a deep desire within us, one which we may have hidden, to be brought back to glory. To be brought back into our original place in God's magnificent creation. One of glory. One of captivating beauty.

Later the song proclaims:

You make me beautiful
You make me stand in awe
You step inside my heart, and I am amazed
I love to hear You say
Who I am is quite enough
You make me worthy of love and beautiful

I love to hear You say who I am is quite enough. Yes, God finds me "quite enough"...He is pleased and delights in me. I am amazed. Yet, He makes me beautiful. His love gives me an inner beauty that is captivating:)

I have been reading a book entitled: Captivating. It is about the soul of a woman and it has been, for me, a life changing book. The authors write about some of the deepest desires of a woman, and one of them is to be beautiful. Yet not only on the outside, but to possess an inner beauty that is captivating.

"Ruth may have been a lovely, strong woman, but it is to her unrelenting courage and vulnerability and faith in God that Boaz is drawn. Esther is the most beautiful woman in the land, but it is her bravery and her cunning, good heart that moves the king to spare her people." (from the book Captivating)

More from the book:

"Many of us have hardened our hearts to this desire, the desire to be the Beauty. We have been hurt so deeply in this area that we no longer identify with, perhaps even resent, the longing. But it's there...A woman yearns to be seen, and to be thought of as captivating...we desire to possess a beauty that is worth pursuing, worth fighting for, a beauty that is core to who we truly are."

"Why is the notion of a hidden princess (and a prince who comes to find her) so enduring? Is there something in our hearts that is trying to speak to us? Is it just fantasy, escapism? Or is there something more? The desire of a woman's heart and the realities of a woman's life seem an ocean apart. Oh, we long for romance and an irreplaceable role in a great story; we long for beauty. But that's not the life we *have*. "

"We are reminded of Pascal's metaphor, that our unmet longings and unrequited desires are in fact "the miseries of a dethroned monarch." Mankind is like a king or queen in exile, and we cannot be happy until we have recovered our true self...A woman's struggle...points to something glorious she was designed to be. The great emptiness we feel points to the great place we *were* created for. It's true. All those legends and fairy tales of the undiscovered Princess and the Beauty hidden as a maid are more accurate than we thought. There's a *reason* little girls resonate with them so."

"Beauty is the essence of a woman. We want to be perfectly clear that we mean both physical beauty and a soulful/spiritual beauty...the world cheapens and prostitutes beauty, making it all about a perfect figure few women can attain, but christians minimize it too, or overspiritualize it, making it all about "character"...God gave Eve a beautiful form and a beautiful spirit. She expresses beauty in both."

They share a story about a little girl (friend of theirs) who was walking around the offices, stopping by each door and singing for all who would listen, expecting to be delighted in. "A little girl in her glory, unashamed in her desire to delight, and be delighted in."

Another little girl of 6, like my Sarah, shared with her mother about a dream she had. In it she was a queen and wearing a long beautiful dress. She said it was the most wonderful dream she had ever had. Her mother asked her why. Her answer? ""I just love feeling that way!" "What way?" "Beauty."

Woman, in the core of her soul, wants to be breathtaking. God planned it that way.

Two things that really make me feel feminine are my long hair and my dresses/skirts.

I personally just love long hair, and I am trying to grow mine longer. I think there is something very womanly and beautiful about long hair. Just look at the art I have chosen on my sidebar here and you would know that:) In fact the Bible says that a woman's long hair is her glory. I do feel "glorious" with long hair. These are recent photos of me as I grow my hair:

I also personally love to wear dresses and skirts. It is not that I feel these are required of me, or that they are the only modest way for a woman to dress. No, it is just that I love to wear them! Long, flowing dresses and skirts make me feel beautiful and feminine and lovely. I love when the wind gently blows them. And I just think that these are more comfortable than tight jeans, for instance.