Women’s Beauty

So I don’t know if you guys have seen this thing from the archdiocese yet, but my college mentor helped draft it and it is bombdiggity!

https://online.flippingbook.com/view/205164345/

I told my friends, this is my favorite paragraph:

I read it and my spirit sighed in happiness.

Because there’s always been that tension in my life, how to live my femininity…

Did I mention my very good best friend chewed me out recently for ever envying her Italian good looks?

Working in a corporate environment, I was always like: to-makeup-or-not-to-makeup??? every. single. day. So exhausting.

Do I need to cover the acne? Do I need to look older? Do I need to be more professional?

You can drive yourself crazy like that.

Me and my five sisters, we’re very Northwest-y. Why bother spending money on makeup? Strap your hiking boots on, girl!

I visited the south last year and went to church and was like, oh shit I can never live here all the women are so beautiful and flawless and I can’t compete and this and that…

These days, I just think to myself: Fearfully and wonderfully made. Like the words inked down the arm of another of my college mentors.

And I think about all the women I’ve known in the past…

Beautiful. All of them. Because they have the imago dei, the image of God.

If you look closely at all the women in your life, you will see it too.

Sometimes I wear power lipstick like my mom did when I was growing up, and she’s incredibly beautiful whether she’s in pain or up and about.

I’ve never had to change my pronouns and worry about it. There all kinds of ways to be strong and gentle both as a woman — doesn’t mean I’m two different people, just means I need to use wisdom to discern the right context.

That’s what I learned last year.

Wisdom and discernment.

Oh, and I really don’t worry about church anymore.

Should I dress up for God’s presence?

Will Jesus accept me just as I am?

Both.

So what I do depends week to week.

And I really do not care what others think anymore.