Beauty

Recently I put my senior picture on Facebook for #throwbackThursday.  It was beautiful!  I couldn’t believe it, really.  I remember getting that picture and thinking that it turned out good, but NEVER at that time would I have labeled it, or ME for that matter, beautiful.   

But it is….nearly 30 years later I look at the picture with different eyes and a different heart.  And she is beautiful…I was beautiful....I am beautiful.

As I thought about this, it occurred to me that I may not be the ONLY young woman who wondered if, or didn’t believe she was, beautiful.  If only I could have seen myself then with the eyes I have now…with the eyes that my mother had, or my young women leaders, or teachers, or maybe even others.  Hence, even before this little realization of MY senior pic, I have started a little crusade to help young women feel GOOD about themselves, their beauty, their bodies, and THEMSELVES!

They are beautiful!  I start with Kelsey.  SHE is beautiful.  Hopefully she learning to believe that.  Well, truthfully, she probably did but is coming to the years where she WON’T believe it for anything.  THIS is the time I want to continually instill it in her mind (and her heart) that she is BEAUTIFUL!  That beauty comes from the inside and sparkles out the eyes.  Beauty comes from a genuine smile and through happiness. 

And I continued this crusade this morning at the Temple.  Three YOUNG adults were working. They were BEAUTIFUL!  There eyes shone.  Their smiles warmed my heart.  So I needed to make sure I told them.  We, as women, are not told enough.  They smiled and I sincerely hope they will remember it.  THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL!

And I am beautiful....hard to say that, but as I look at my senior picture....I really wish I knew it more THEN!