beauty

When you’re tempted to say “Go play” to your children, choose to say, “Come here.”
When your long and lanky almost 10 year old wants to sit in your lap – you let her.
Sit in the bathroom floor during bath time, even if the kids are big enough to do it on their own.
Look people in their eyes.
Make sure you smile.
Never pass up an opportunity to talk to your children.
Read, read and read some more.
Tell your kids family stories – like the time their grandpa, as a kid, fell in the family outhouse.
Bake something.
Be silly.
Dance in the living room.
Play a board game.
Go through old family photos.
Roll the windows down and turn the radio up.
Put down the camera.
Remember: If you didn’t put it on Facebook or Instagram, it still happened.
Be intentional about living.
Take note of the beauty in your every day. Count your blessings.
See yourself in light of your Maker and not your mistakes.
Laugh out loud.
Embrace grace – for others and for yourself.
Leave your phone at home.
Sit at a coffee shop and people watch.
Write a letter.
Take the time to really see the people around you.
Don’t worry about crumbs in the floor and piles of dirty laundry – there will come a day when your home is clean and quiet and you will be kind of sad.
Don’t stop dreaming.
Plan a vacation.
Stop and listen to the sounds of life around you.
Breathe deeply.
Hug someone.
Step away from the computer.
Celebrate something every day.
Take a walk.
Sit on a swing.
Drink something hot.
Don’t forget how to play.
Take pictures – but make sure you are actually in some of the photos.
Invite someone into your home.
Sing out loud.
Keep traditions alive or begin new ones.
Be creative.
Be grateful.
Keep your word.
Be a forgiver.

It’s Five Minute Friday again! People all over the world blogging on the same topic on the same day for just five minutes and linking up at Lisa Jo’s place. Today’s topic: Graceful.

Go.

I live in a constant state of grace.

The insecure girl turned insecure woman trying to raise four confident-in-Christ daughters. I am all too aware of my own flaws and failures and I would mess them up for sure if it were not for His grace.

Only through Him can this wallflower step out into the spotlight and be full enough of His grace to dance. To show my sweet girls that we are all things beautiful to Him and He fills us until we are more graceful than we ever imagined possible.

There are no awkward girls with two left feet. No one hanging out at the punch table pretending not to care that they have not been asked to dance. No poor girl in a hand-me-down dress that she hemmed and bedazzled herself in a sorry attempt to copy the latest trend.

He is enthralled with our beauty, each and every one of us. We each get to be the belle of the ball.

In Him, we have received grace upon grace.

We are graceful.

Even those of us who never were.

Stop.