Abundantly Blessed and Endlessly Thankful

...for this guy!

Every day I have to pinch myself. Did I really get this lucky?

Real, Beautiful Ellen

I have attached a photo of a time when I felt beautiful.  This picture was taken in 2006.  My college friend Katie (the blond girl on the left) ha come to Winston to visit.....she lives in Deleware, so I don't get to see her much, so that was awesome (incidentally, I'm planning a trip up to see her in a couple of months to see her brand new baby.....rock on!).  As a side note, I totally don't look like this now.  :-)

I feel externally beautiful when my hair cooperates and when I'm wearing flowy skirts that hide my much-bigger-than-it-was-in-my-twenties belly.  :-)
I feel internally beautiful when I HELP SOMEONE.  It's very important to me to be in tune with those around me, be it friends or strangers (most of my family fall into the latter category)....I like to try and be what they need in happy times and in bad ones.  I like to encourage them, cook for them, and send them things.  We all need to know that someone thinks about us.

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You're beautiful, inside and out, and I'd love to feature you here! Email me at laura.c.denlinger @ gmail . com with a photo of a time you felt really beautiful. Tell me what makes you feel beautiful and what makes you feel eternally beautiful. For more details go here.

Real, Beautiful Bernadette

Bernadette from Barefoot Hippie Girl

I don't usually feel beautiful-not in life, and especially not in pictures. The smile is too big, the boobs are to big, etc. etc.. But this picture is me in the kitchen, on a Saturday, doing what I love-cooking for my family. My shirt was a new one with cute ruffles on it, and I had paired it with a short kaki skirt. I felt feminine, and loved. I was jiving to my favorite tunes on Pandora Motown, and I was happy. 

I think that is what makes me feel beautiful-dressing nice, doing what I love-surrounded by the people I love. My husband tells me I'm beautiful. He tells me I'm beautiful with bed head. With wet hair from a run. In my running duds, or dressed up for a date. And his unconditional love and declaration of my beauty has given me confidence. 

I feel eternally beautiful when I am full of God's peace, joy and contentment. When He has filled my heart to over flowing in gratefulness for His abundant blessings. When I know that I am a loved daughter of God. Nothing can shake that.

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You're beautiful, inside and out, I'd love to feature you here! Email me at laura.c.denlinger @ gmail . com with a photo of a time you felt really beautiful. Tell me what makes you feel beautiful and what makes you feel eternally beautiful. For more details go here.

Real, Beautiful Alys

Alys from Beautiful Imperfections

"Here's a photo of a time I felt extremely beautiful. These pictures were taken about a week and a half after Bryant was born. Something that makes me feel beautiful is being in nature. Going camping, rock climbing, exploring a trail. Those kinds of things make me feel beautiful even if afterwards I'm a sweaty mess. Something about being in creation makes me feel like I'm valued and beautiful. Something that makes me feel eternally beautiful is coffee dates with fellow Christian women. Being able to talk about struggles I am having with someone and realize that I'm not alone in that struggle always makes me feel valued and eternally beautiful. Plus it's just nice sometimes to get out and hang out with a girlfriend so you know you aren't crazy. Thanks for doing this series. It has definitely made me think more about what I put my value and beauty in."

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You're beautiful, inside and out, I'd love to feature you here! Email me at laura.c.denlinger @ gmail . com with a photo of a time you felt really beautiful. Tell me what makes you feel beautiful and what makes you feel eternally beautiful. For more details go here.

Your Real, Eternal Beauty

Recently I shared a topic that's been on my heart for quite some time -- the idea of what we wear on earth and what we are called to wear eternally.

I shared a story at Sashes to the Merchants and followed it up with a little vlog I titled "Eternal, Unfading Beauty and Wearing God's Armor."

"But God told Samuel, 'Looks aren't everything. Don't be impressed with his looks and stature. I've already eliminated them. God judges persons differently than humans do. Men and women look at the face; God looks into the heart.'" 1 Samuel 16:7  

I've been thinking a lot about the emphasis we place on external beauty -- the clothes we buy and wear, our haircuts, our manicures, our jewelry -- and that none of it matters in the eyes of the Lord.

Not only does it not matter, it doesn't last.

"Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." Proverbs 31:30

God has a promise of eternal beauty and reward. He calls us to wear different clothes fashioned from love and patience, wisdom and grace, kindness and charity.

Let me say this: clothes are not bad. The fabrics that we wear every day, and feel good in, are important. God knows that. I have a closet full of them (and jewelry, and shoes...oh the shoes)! 

But it's not our clothes, but where we place our faith and our priorities that speak volumes about who we are.

I asked two questions in my previous conversations about this topic.

- What makes you feel (earthly) beautiful
- What makes you feel eternally beautiful

Both important. To us and to God -- but what's most important is keeping them in perspective.

Although last time I asked hypothetically, I'm really asking this time. I want to know. 

More than that, I want to feature you here. Because you're eternally beautiful and I want to show you off!

I'd love to get an inbox full of emails from you, just flood the thing! 

Email me with three things: 
- a photo of a time you felt beautiful (it could have something to do with what you're wearing, who you're with, where you are, anything)
- tell me what makes you feel beautiful 
- and tell me what makes you feel eternally beautiful

I'm going to feature a beautiful (inside and out) woman each Saturday. I'd love for it to be you!

***

I'm excited to welcome The Nerdy Sewist as a new sponsor! 

I just met Kristina, but oh how I love her [and her sense of humor!]

"In that realm just beyond beginning sewing… lies sewing nerdom. When trapped in this dimension, the nerdy sewer is far beyond just stashing fabric because it is pretty. This is a purely nerdy state, whence the sewist anticipates her time with the machine, gets revved by rad patterns, and follows compatriots’ Twitter feeds religiously, often at the detriment of paid occupation, relationships, and sleep. March on, fellow nerds!"

She's sharing her experience as a sewer and crafter, and is showing off some amazing DIY wedding projects to boot.

Connect with the Nerdy Sewist

blog //  Facebook // Twitter // Pinterest

Eternal, Unfading Beauty and Wearing God's Armor

A few things to know: I say "happy Friday," shot the video on a Tuesday, and am posting it on Thursday. [I'm co-hosting the Pinterest with Aimee tomorrow, so I needed to post my Rags to Stitches coffee chat video a bit early.]

Gosh I'm nervous to post this. I feel super vulnerable sharing a video, and even more anxious about the topic.

But here goes nothing...

What We Wear from Laura Denlinger on Vimeo.

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything to stand."
Ephesians 6:10-20

"Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great work in God's sight."
1 Peter 3:3-4

Read the Sashes to the Merchants post I referenced here.

*Adding my Thursday afternoon commentary after watching the video again*

It's funny, the first thing I think when I watch that is how horrible I look. Gosh, did I learn nothing from my own video? This stuff is hard. Do you struggle like I do?

Boy, I still hope you like me after that. In thinking about this topic, I tried so hard to make a distinction between caring about how we look and what we wear and that being perfectly wonderful and normal and caring too much about those things that we forget our eternal purpose and the clothes we are called to wear, clothes of a much higher and meaningful purpose.

Feeling Beautiful

I'm over at Sashes to the Merchants today talking about eternal beauty, and I'd love for you to join with me on the conversation!

As you may know, I used to have really long hair, then I had really short hair, and now I'm in that awkward season of trying to grow it out a bit.

It's a horrible season.

Combined with tons of I'm-too-young-to-have-gray-hair feelings [no hair dye until after the baby], and maternity clothes that I'd just rather not wear, I was feeling low yesterday.

Then my hubby said those magic words,

"I need a haircut. You want to get haircuts together?!"

We do a lot together, but a couples haircut was a first for us.

I just got a little trim. Enough to look a bit better, a bit more like myself [or how I like to look anyway]. Just enough to feel ok with this time of a changing body and expanding belly and really, really gray hair.

As we walked out, Kyle told me,

"you're always beautiful, but you're even more beautiful when you feel beautiful."

Read the full story here.