Not Alone Series: Make-up

What are your thoughts on wearing make-up? Do you see a tension between a pressure from society and a God-given desire to be and make life beautiful? Is your use of makeup compatible with the idea that God sees you as naturally beautiful?

I don't wear make-up, at least not on a daily basis. I was a tom-boy growing up and not really into the girly stuff in my early teens. Also when I was about 8, a teacher told us a story about a woman who wore entirely too much make-up. I think a girl or two were already into it or something and she was trying to teach us a lesson on natural beauty and loving ourselves.

I've always been kind of self-conscious about how I look. Make-up made me look different to how I've always seen myself and I just wasn't comfortable with it. I may not see myself as beautiful but I was comfortable with my I looked and just being me.

I do wear make-up occasionally if I going somewhere really dressy like a wedding but I'm no expert so I just do some basic stuff. I really like my eyes and I had a friend a couple times do all that fancy colour matching and mixing stuff to highlight it but I can't really do that on my own. Make-up I believe is only to highlight and accentuate not make you beautiful. Your beauty is already there.

Sometimes I use tinted moisturiser and coloured lipgloss. I think make-up is great for a little confidence boost but it should never be so heavy that no-one can see the real you.

What are your thoughts on make-up? Do you wear a little, a lot or none at all?

Check out what everyone else had to say, visit Morgan for the link-up.

You are Beautiful: A Fill-in-the-Blanks Poem

Laura over at Catholic Cravings wrote a really great poem for the NAS: Beauty topic this week. She also challenges us to fill in the blanks and write our own poem. I thought it was a great idea and decided to write mine as a post, it took me a while but here it is. Think about doing your own fill in the blanks even just privately.

I am beautiful.

I am beautiful because I am made in the image of God, who hears me when I call. I am beautiful inside and out, for He didn't just make my soul but my body too. All of me, body and soul, is His image.

I am beautiful because my eyes are bright and expressive, my fingers are long and strong: capable and nimble as I am.

And because I can fold my tongue.

I was beautiful when I climbed trees in my grandmother's backyard.

I am beautiful because my hair doesn't do what I want and my body has no curves.

I am beautiful like a good book on an ocean front balcony on a summer night.

I am beautiful when I smile.

I am beautiful when I receive Holy Communion and sit with Jesus in Adoration. I am beautiful when I laugh and when I mourn, when I pray the Magnificat, whispering my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour to Him who is so beautiful.

I am beautiful when I wear my purple shirt and silver chain.

I was beautiful even when I did not see it. Though I've disliked what I see in the mirror, I was beautiful.

I am beautiful still.

I don’t know whether my eyes are doves behind my veil, or my hair like a flock of goats descending from Gilead. But in my own way, my own Nikki-way, I am beautiful. Perhaps, I am beautiful like an ornamental glass or like a tree in bloom.

I am definitely not beautiful because I am perfect. I am not perfect, inwardly or outwardly. I have flaws enough.

But I am beautiful.

For I am loved by God, and love is in my heart, and where there is love:

there is beauty.

Not Alone Series: Beauty

What does authentic beauty mean to you and how can you be better at believing/accepting that you are, in fact, beautiful?

This is a hard topic to write. I've started over and changed direction about four times already. I know what I want to say but not sure how to say it because I want to keep my scars hidden, to keep me out of it.

As a child I can't say I ever thought about beauty a lot. Sure there were people and things I thought were beautiful but in relation to myself it was a non-issue. Until I first over-heard someone say I was ugly, I had nice eyes but I was basically the ugly duckling. I've always been a stuffer so I more or less buried that and went about my life but without realising it, how I saw myself changed and how I was changed too.

"We are God's workmanship" Ephesians 2:10. We are works of art, created in beauty and in love.

Authentic beauty to me is being yourself, for we are who He has made us.

You have to be comfortable with who you are. Know who you are. That may not be easy if you have been taking your cues from the world around you. "You" tends to get easily lost while trying to be like everyone else.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder (not a fan of this by the way). Let God be your beholder. You be your beholder. See yourself as He made you. Unrepeatable. Beautiful

You are beautiful, don't be afraid to tell yourself that every single day. Say it fives times a day.

Don't accept labels that are not yours. She's too fat, too thin, too tall. Don't give labels to other people that you wouldn't want for yourself.

Beauty is inside and outside. Don't try to make someone else feel ugly just to make yourself feel beautiful. It doesn't work like that, we are all beautiful. We can all be beautiful together. Someone else's beauty does not take away from your own.

We are all created by God. He's the ultimate artist just look at the beauty of the world around you. If He could do such an amazing job with the animate why would He do any less on us who He loves beyond measure. We are made in His image and likeness afterall.

See what everyone else has to say on the topic. Visit Jen for the link-up.