Mutual Beauty

Tonight. Tonight was a fun night!

Let me give you some back story...

A few months ago, I got the chance to "doll up" one of the young women in my ward for her first formal dance! It was really fun! She is normally a bit of a tom boy, so she had never had her hair done in any sort of formal style or wore anything besides some eye liner and mascara, plus she is only 16, so it kinda makes sense she hasn't done those things yet. When I was finished with her hair, which, when down, was almost to her waist, and after finishing her make up, she was really excited and couldn't stop smiling.

She looked gorgeous! Her hair was in big curls, volume on the top, and all swept to the side in a ponytail. Her make up was classic, with some shimmery eye shadow and smokey eye liner. It was fun to see a different side of her. Whenever I "doll" someone up, I always want to make sure they still look like them. Just a fancier version. And boy oh boy, she looked fancy.

Well, by helping her out, it opened up the opportunity for me to teach the rest of the girls in my ward that are 12-18 some things about hair and make up. Tonight, I taught Young Womens and had a blast! (If you want to know more about the Young Women program in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, check out  http://lds.org/handbook/handbook-2-administering-the-church/young-women?lang=eng&query=young+women+theme )

I've known I was going to teach for awhile, so I had time to pray and prepare what I was going to tell them. I however didn't know how to tie in a spiritual thought with the beauty lesson... until one sweet night of scripture study after my prayers.

So, I was reflecting on the parables of Christ, specifically, The Ten Virgins, which is in Matthew 25, when the spirit prompted me to keep reading in the chapter... so I did. The very next parable after The Ten Virgins, is called, The Talents. Which are versus 14-30. I had the thought of, sweet goodness, this is it!

As I read the scriptures again, I realized that this parable can completely apply to literal talents!

Where is the tie in?

Here you be if you haven't guessed already...

The Lord has given us each talents, whether they are few or many, He still has given them to us. (notice the period?) I truly know that the Lord wants us to use the talents He has given us to help build His kingdom on the earth. I know that the talents we have been given are to help all of His or maybe just a few of His children in this journey through mortality. I also know, that if we don't have the self worth/self esteem/self confidence, to go and use those talents, we will be as the man who was afraid and hide them. We need to have the confidence to go out and use them!

The sweet understanding that we will be able to increase our self esteem when we feel good about the way we look, when we can have the confidence to walk into a room with our heads held high and our backs straight is something positive for all of us to achieve. If we doubt ourselves, we will doubt the Lord and not trust ourselves to use the talents He has given us.

I emphasized to the girls, that it doesn't matter what you look like if you have self worth and understand your divine role as a daughter of God. He will lift us up and it is He who can help us to not doubt ourselves. The hair and make up are not everything, they are just tools that can help you to see, some of your natural beauty, well a fancier natural beauty *wink* I also emphasized to them that the "worlds" definition of beauty is very skewed, that we are being shown pictures and media that don't represent real beauty anymore. Check out this site beautyredefined.net and you'll be amazed by what extremes are being done by the "world" when it is telling us how to look.

It was a really good experience and I really enjoyed teaching the girls (and their leaders, who seemed to enjoy it just as much) with a few of the talents that the Lord has blessed me with. I hope we can see and use our talents, because the world needs us to be those who are willing use the talents we have so that we may receive more! Remember, fear and faith cannot co exist... Matt 6:24 I said that one for me

God Bless! *grin*