Christian the Lion

I saw this video and thought, "What a perfect illustration of God's love for us." Even when we abandon God and leave Him out in the wilderness somewhere so far from where we are, He always remembers us. He always loves us. We can leave God behind and put Him out of our sight, out of our mind. But He is always waiting for us when we return, and He wants to run to us and wrap His arms around us. No matter where we go without Him or how far we push Him away, He is still standing right there with us and loves us unconditionally. I love this video because it puts a visual to such a great truth. That is exactly how I envision God runs to us and wraps His arms around us when we return to Him, even if we feel like we have been gone so long and so far that we will be unrecognizable to Him. We are still His. He knows every hurt, every disappointment, every failure, every sin. We can never move so far from God that He will not know us anymore or that He will not want us back. What a relief that is.     :)

Deuteronomy 4: 29-31

"But even there, if you seek God, your God, you'll be able to find him if you're serious, looking for him with your whole heart and soul. When troubles come and all these awful things happen to you, in future days you will come back to God, your God, and listen obediently to what he says. God, your God, is above all a compassionate God. In the end he will not abandon you..."

All that's left...

...of the Oreo Cookies after Reagan got into them.

I left her alone with the cookies for a few minutes and returned to find this. There is not a TRACE of the middle of any of these cookies! She literally licked them clean. Now if I could have just gotten a picture of that!

Beautiful

beau ti ful:

–adjective

1.	having beauty; having qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind: a beautiful dress; a beautiful speech.

2.	excellent of its kind: a beautiful putt on the seventh hole; The chef served us a beautiful roast of beef.

3.	wonderful; very pleasing or satisfying.

–noun

4.	(used with a plural verb) beautiful things or people collectively (usually prec. bythe): the good and the beautiful.

5.  the ideal of beauty (usually prec. by the): to strive to attain the beautiful. Even if you have seen this, it is worth watching again...

Why? Why is this the standard by which women must live? Why is it ok to sell a lie to us and to everyone, for that matter? It is a lie. Nothing is true about the billboard they end up with at the end of that video. It makes me exhausted just thinking about the long, harrowing journey I have ahead of me raising two girls. I feel like one of the most important things my girls must have growing up is a healthy self image. They must feel loved and beautiful but they must also know beauty is not only about how they appear on the outside. How in the world am I going to explain that to them where they will get it!? How am I going to explain to them that how our world thinks of beauty is skewed and twisted? So twisted that it has become completely artificial. Not only is our world worshiping outward beauty in a disgusting and perverted way, but it is worshiping a beauty that doesn't even exist. IT IS NOT REAL! I want to scream it at the top of my lungs. My girls will be like the two girls at the end of that video someday...casually walking by a billboard like that and wondering why they don't measure up. Wondering why God didn't make them as beautiful as the girl on that giant sign. And it saddens me. It makes me frustrated and angry that they may doubt God and they may feel inadequate because they don't look like something that is simply unattainable. My prayer is that I can somehow make them understand that they are beyond beautiful. That they are God's creation and made in His image. I pray that they will "get it." I pray that they will feel beautiful and unique and loved no matter what. And I will show them this video...many times as they grow up. Me and my girls...going through this journey together. It will be good for me to watch it regularly too. At least I can relate, since I am a woman and know what it's like. Maybe that will give me an edge in getting the point across to them. Maybe it's not about telling them, but about living it. Maybe it's about feeling great about myself and about the way I look, not because I am perfect (perfect doesn't exist by the way) but because I am God's beautiful creature. Maybe I shouldn't spend so much time in the mirror in the mornings while my girls watch me intently. I don't know. What I do know is this video has affected me. I first saw it a long time ago and it has stayed with me. So thank you to Dove for making this film and for putting it out there and for showing me and my girls. It sure makes me want to go out and buy Dove products! Hopefully I can live my life in a way that tells my girls what I want them to know. They are BEAUTIFUL!

Sugar & Spice...

What are little girls made of?

Sugar and spice,

And everything nice,

Girls are ruffles, bonnets, and bows,

Dimpled smiles and dancing toes,

They're tears and giggles, dolls and curls,

That's what little girls are made of.

Not these girls today...

My name is Lindsay, and I am addicted to changing my blog!

If you visit my blog somewhat regularly, than you may have noticed a trend beginning to develop. The look of my blog changes almost monthly! I can't seem to stop myself! First I was changing the look using the different templates blogger provides. Then I was using free templates from other sites to make it look different. Now I have gone off the deep end. I learned more in depth html coding to do all kinds of changes and tweaks manually in the code of the blog! What is wrong with me? Well I am definitely one of those people who if I don't know how to do something, it actually bugs me until I can figure it out. Yes, I read all manuals I receive with electronics from cover to cover. I MUST know how to use every feature and every button on every electronic I own. I have a problem. With all that said, I have changed the look of my blog yet again. I did EVERY change manually in the html coding and even created my own background in Photoshop. Go me! I am somewhat content with this latest "facelift" so I am sure I will stick with this look at least for a little while. But I give no guarantee that I will not get the itch to try something new again, so stay tuned...