Beauty in Appearance

In my experience, everybody wants to look nice. They want to feel beautiful. This is a tricky issue, as it has been for as long as we can remember, and will be until the world is perfected.

There are three parts of this topic that I want to cover:

Is this desire sinful?

How can we keep our priorities straight, when faced with countless different messages about beauty?

What is beauty in appearance?

 Some people believe that the desire to be pleasing outwardly is sinful, and shouldn't be allowed to exist within themselves. They believe that others' beauty can be a sign of wickedness. I believe this is false. A want to be beautiful can help us to honor our bodies by taking care of them better, can help us feel more dignity and confidence as children of God, and can help us appreciate beauty in the world around us.

It does become sinful, though, if you start obsessing over what you look like. If thoughts of your beauty start creeping in until it crowds out more holy and truly beautiful thoughts. If it makes you feel less because you aren't perfect.

This leads us into the second part of our topic, how to keep our priorities straight concerning beauty.

Although it's okay to want to be beautiful on the outside, this should never take place of developing true beauty of character. We can do this by carving out time in our day for the things that need done, like serving others, studying scriptures, praying, education, and homemaking. 

We can do this by not comparing ourselves to others. This trap leads far too many people to be sad and upset because of their appearance, causing them to spend an unhealthy amount trying to "fix" their supposed flaws, so they can be just like somebody else.

We can do this by reminding ourselves that the most beautiful traits are on the inside. One way to remind yourself is to write a quote on a post-it-note where you will see it often, or some such thing. I like to review this quote whenever I can:

“Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity.”

-Margaret D. Nadauld

And finally, we need to figure out what godly beauty in appearance is. There is a difference between worldly beauty and godly beauty, but I prefer to devote this blog to things of God, so that's what we're focusing on.

Not everybody fits the world's definition of beauty. Not everybody can fit that definition.

A child of God should respect themselves enough to keep good hygiene. They should eat healthily and exercise in order to be healthy. They should dress and groom in a neat manner. I, personally, wear light makeup some days, but this isn't necessary at all.
Mostly, a child of God should think good thoughts and smile. This is always attractive.

Beauty in Friendship

One area of my life that I consider to be particularly beautiful is all of my friendships. I love my friends so very much. So, today I'm writing about a few different friends of mine and how they make my life more beautiful. I'm excluding my family because I know them too well to limit myself to only a few things, and my adult friends because there would be far too many to write about.

Also, I think it would be weird to mention them by name so I'm only going to use the first letter of their first name. :)

M-
This friend occasionally drives me crazy with his weeks\months of non-communication, but I love him anyway because I am fairly confident he doesn't ignore me on purpose, and he makes me want to be better at educating myself. I can always rely on him to discuss philosophical things with me, even things that other people would consider strange.
J-
This friend can make me laugh anytime. He always sounds enthusiastic to talk to me, he's very complimentary, and is willing to help me with the crazy projects that I start.
F-
This friend helps me with school stuff, inspires me to try harder, and is very kind. She is super smart, and challenges my thinking.
C-
No matter how long I go without talking to her much, I always feel secure in her friendship. She is slightly crazy, hilarious, and can be serious when needed. She is also a nerd who is willing to do nerd stuff with me.
H-
H makes me not take myself so seriously, allows me to have fun, and makes me feel comfortable.
P-
P is kind, funny, gracious, and complimentary. She tries to be a friend to everyone.
D-
D is kind, beautiful, loyal, and I feel like we can always be friends. He's encouraging, even when I'm having a really bad day and he can always make me feel better.
L-
He is funny, charming, and makes me smile when I think of him.
S-
He talks to and listens to me. He is also very funny, and puts up with my weirdness very well.

E-

He is slightly strange, has the best stories, and shares with me what he learns.

All of these people make me want to be better in some way, or make me feel better. They're very different, but the love that I have for all of them is beautiful. And their love for me makes me want to be more beautiful.

Rush, 2 Nephi, and Choices

"Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself."
-2 Nephi 2:27

I was memorizing this as part of my Seminary today, and it struck me that as we live our lives, we can choose everyday if we are going to do something that will improve our lives, and make it possible for us to have liberty and eternal life, or we can choose to be idle and remain in ignorance, falling into the captivity of the devil.
Every time we choose not to make a choice which is uplifting, we slide downwards. This can include sins of commission or of omission. As Rush says, "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."


I know that it is ultimately up to us to decide what spiritual destiny we have. We choose our actions, which have natural consequences attached. If we want to be happy, we choose to follow Christ. If we want to be miserable, we follow the devil. Who will you choose?

Creating Beauty

"It seems that everyone has a sort of urge within them that drives them to create something beautiful."
-Dallin Hill
My friend said this to me in a conversation we had once, and I find it to be true.
Life would be ultimately pointless without beauty, because beauty urges us to become better. When we create beauty, we enrich life and fulfill part of our missions. This is why everybody wants to create beauty.
This is why artists create art, why writers write, why parents work to give their children good lives, why philosophers search for truth.
This made me consider what I do to create beauty. Some things that I thought of were writing, teaching, photography, improving my character, improving my outward appearance, gardening, doing my chores, and reaching out to make friendships.




I don't know why I've been thinking about beauty so much lately. But it seems that everyday I find something that makes me think more about beauty. Every day.
Because of this, I think I will spend the next few weeks writing about different aspects of beauty. Hopefully you all enjoy it.

My Garden, Part 8

Last week sometime I harvested my beans. I've been waiting for them to be dry, so I can save them to plant next year. I am so very glad that they grew well, even if there aren't very many. They're beautiful.

        

My pumpkins are both ripe now. The plants are healthier than when I last posted, too.

My corn has started to produce an ear, even though it's still really short. Next year I'll grow it separately and see if it grows taller.