As Long As The Son Is Shining, You Are Beautiful

​I'm an insecure person. Maybe because I'm shy. Or, maybe I'm shy because I'm insecure 😂😂 I don't know. I'm super critical of myself and when I look in the mirror, I don't always like what I see. I would never fit in with this selfie generation. If you look at my kid's Facebook pages, you would think they didn't have a mom 😂 I avoid cameras like the plague. Why is it that even when I'm 51, I can still remember snide remarks made about my looks while I was growing up? I was feeling so sassy in the sixth grade with my new Dorothy Hamill haircut, until I got this comment~ "between your body and that haircut, you look just like a boy". I know so many women that have moments of insecurity just like I do, and yet when I see each one of you, I don't find any flaws, only beauty all around me. In all of you. What are the qualities in each of you that I find so beautiful? A sweet remark. A genuine smile. A warm hug. A shoulder to cry on. An "I'm praying for you" or "you are loved". All of you have a glow. A beauty that shines from deep within. Beauty that is there when the makeup is gone and the hair isn't fixed just right. Beauty that's there even when mascara is smeared over tears that were shed. The other day, as I was writing a friend, I was thinking about why we as women struggle with insecurities. It was a clear, sunny day and as I wrote, I looked outside and commented to her~ "the sun is shining and makes the snow look so beautiful". And God smiled. He said to my heart~ "Charisse, as long as the Son is shining, you are beautiful". God's Son is our source of beauty. When our Savior shines from us, and He is our everything~ that's what makes us beautiful. Those days when I haven't spent time with Him, when I'm grumbling and complaining about everything and everyone, my countenance can look like a thunder storm and when I see my reflection, I see ugly. But on those days where I lay at His feet and soak up His presence, His joy bursts from me and can't be contained. Just as the sun makes the snow sparkle with beauty, once He is invited into our hearts, they become white as snow and God's Son shining from within makes each of us sparkle as well. Spend time with Him today, soak up His presence. Shine with His beauty and the next time you look in the mirror, smile, sparkle and tell the devil he's gonna need some Son glasses.