A Different Kind of Beautiful

“Beautiful things don’t ask for attention.”

This is one of my favorite quotes from the movie, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It whispers to my heart in ways that I cannot even begin to explain. As you know, my blog was created to find for myself the true meaning of beauty, and to take my readers (you guys) along for the ride.

One of the most important things that we can do in life is to walk alongside one another and listen, learn and grow from each individual experience. For a long time, my view of what I was searching for in true beauty was quite narrow minded. I wanted to feel beautiful, to know that the Lord made me beautiful on the inside and out.

Today I was convicted.

I was convicted that I was missing out on the bigger picture. You see, we oftentimes search so hard to find beauty within ourselves, that we forget to open our eyes to the beauty around us.

The Lord created beauty around us, everywhere. I am going to take a challenge starting today, throughout the rest of the school year. I am going to open my eyes and find the beauty that Christ places around me, ever so intentionally, every single day. I will be posting a photograph of something I found beautiful, and it will never be something that I find beautiful about myself/ my appearance.

I believe in my heart that I will never see the beauty in me, that God created, until I truly learn to appreciate the beauty that He has so graciously and lovingly put around me. I think that is where I will ultimately find what I am searching for in recreating my definition of beauty. I invite you to do the same. Even if it is just making a mental note of something beautiful in the world around you.

I will start this challenge today, with a picture that my mother captured yesterday. I also took a picture, but it was on my iPhone, so I stole my mother’s photograph.

The look on that big sister’s face. That is the kind of beauty I am talking about. The beauty of visible love and pure happiness. These are the moments that make my heart burst full of joy and happiness. These are the little reminders of the love Christ has for us, what He values in this world that He has created.

Photograph by Suzie Jane Photography