J-j-j-jaded

Okay, so I am loving this Project 31. challenge that I am participating in.

It's quickly becoming the highlight of my evening.

After the laundry is done, and the dishes are washed I love to sit down and check out the next's day challenge and think long and hard about what I want to write about.

(I do my posts the night before that way it can go out on my email subscription list. Not subscribed? You should)

Anyway, I digress.

The question for the week was about jaded beauty and if the world's definition of beauty has ever jaded me.

This started me thinking.

What does "jaded" mean?

Other than the name of a fantastic Aerosmith song.

So I looked up the word all scholarly like and this is what I found:

jaded:

1. fatigued by overwork

2. made dull, apathetic, or cynical by experience

So, in response to this question?

YES!!

Turn on your t.v. Alright it's probably already on. Now, count how many skinny, beautiful, flawlessly skinned, women you see in..oh.10 seconds.

And you wonder why I would feel jaded.

I get so tired of wondering what I could do to be more beautiful. If I watch my food intake enough, exercise enough, tweeze my eyebrows enough, bleach my hair enough, MAYBE I will measure up to an ounce of what those women look like.

It's so tiring!

Luckily, and through much prayer, God is teaching me that I am beautiful all in my own way.

I read a book with some of my kids at school about a bluebird who bragged to everyone he met that he was the most beautiful animal in the forest because he was the color of the sky.

He ended up making a mouse feel like crap because he was gray, not blue and therefore not beautiful.

He made a flamingo feel ugly because she was pink and not blue, so again, not beautiful.

So one day he goes up to the Wise Old Blackbird and begins to strut his stuff and flap his jaws about how beautiful he is, blah blah blah.

What does Blackbird say?

He reminds the bluebird that the sky is not always blue. Sometimes the clouds are gray and casts a beautiful sky over the Earth, and sometimes, when the sun sets it sends the most beautiful pink colors stretching across the horizon.

The lesson?

We are ALL beautiful and we all have our place in this world.

It doesn't matter if this girl can't compare to Miss Carrie Underwood over there. I AM BEAUTIFUL!

So I encourage all you beautiful women out there to rest easy. God created you in an image of Him. We can't be anything but beautiful!

Will I still be jaded at beauty sometimes after I post this? Of course. Beauty is exhausting.

I guess at times like that I will just have to re-read this post and remind myself.

You are beautiful. No matter what they say.

(Thanks Christina for such great lyrics)