Back in the day my friends and I had a loooot of food fights! We had pudding fights, sloppy-joe fights, egg fights, cake fights, ice cream fights, etc... Those days were so much fun and today for Family Home Evening with my ward we had a blast to Grace's past night in which we had a.... JELLO/PUDDING FIGHT!
It was so much fun; getting to shove pudding and jello into ward members' faces that you hardly know. I loved being able to let my guard down and have pure, untainted fun... it makes me crave adventure.
Though the real test is how you feel after the initial glee of lurching hand-fulls of pudding into the air aimed at the back of someone's head... the test is this: am I still comfortable with who I am though I am nasty, sticky, and smell of a mixture of vanilla/cherry/chocolate/lime? After the fight I hosed-off, swam, and then came home and showered... and immediately went back out into public though my hair isn't done and I don't have a trace of make-up on. Am I comfortable with myself without the mask of make-up? I think a year ago the answer would have been no in most scenarios. I would not have allowed myself to go out into public for fear of not being regarded as beautiful. My past definition of natural beauty was based off of the world's standards [you know- perfect skin, air dried hair that lays flat or falls curly, natural honey suckle aroma, etc...] but I think this summer I have learned a different definition of beautiful. This summer I learned that beauty is confidence. Beauty is a deep understanding that I am a daughter of Heavenly Father and everything about me is precious. Think about it like a huge hunk of gold recently mined: though it is not smooth around the edges- there are parts that jut out and pieces that seem to be dented in- no piece of the gold is less valuable than the rest of the mass. This dented and jutting piece of gold is the same value as a gold sculpture that has been smoothed and shaped. I compare that to each of us... we all have our dents and jutts, our faults and perks... but that does not make anyone more valuable or beautiful than another person.
This is a lesson my dear friend Kaja Pool [let me just say- one of the most gorgeous people I know] attempted to teach me in high school. I remember one day while hanging out in the hall after class I approached her with the question of how she felt comfortable wearing so little make-up. She only wore mascara- a thought that I felt was unthinkable! She told me that she didn't need a fake mask to think of herself as beautiful. Beauty isn't physical- beauty is personality. At that time I chalked up her answer to the fact that "oh, she can say that! she is just naturally beautiful- i could never pull that off in my life!" Well folks, I have! After my amazing summer of self-discovery [thank you Jared Workman and all of the other people that helped me figure this out] I am proud to say that I pull a Kaja almost each day. Sometimes I even force myself to leave off the foundation and earrings and walk out the door feeling slightly self-conscious; though after a few minutes I put a smile on my face and have learned to forget about my in-born womanly concern the thoughts of others and be comfortable simply being me.
I suggest you do the same! Sometime this week I challenge you [if you haven't already done so] to leave off the make-up... or to wear a baggy t-shirt to class... or to let your hair do its own natural thing. Leaving the house might be hard at first! You may feel pangs of self-doubt... am i beautiful enough to pull this off? The answer is a RESOUNDING YES! Beauty isn't beauty... it is personality. Stick a smile on that clean face of yours and show people that beauty emanates from inside. I bet if you smile and serve and let the light of the Spirit shine through- you will get a bunch of compliments. Compliments that don't trace back to the clothes you wear or the headband in your hair... these compliments will trace back to you. Natural, beautiful you. You might even change your definition of beauty.
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