Beauty receivers and givers

There are moments in life of pure beauty that we cannot pretend to have earned or deserved, because these moments are undeniable gifts of amazing grace and they are incredibly too big for us to put our arms, hearts or minds around and claim as a result of our doing.

For me, these moments are most visible when I am with my children and I see their goodness, when friends know me and still love me, when nature catches me in her trap, when people are kind for no good reason and when I experience peace that surpasses all my understanding. These moments not only nourish me, but they give me hope and courage to keep believing and fighting for things that are good, excellent and true.

Now, more than ever, you and I need beauty if we are going to do more than survive and if we are going to do more than fight over crumbs of power, control and wealth.

I don’t know about you but I want to do more than survive…I want to thrive. I want to reflect the beauty that I see, touch, hear and smell in beauty filled moments in my thoughts, words and deeds. I want to help others remember who they are and how they are designed to be healthy, whole, holy human beings. But for this to happen, I must receive beauty.

I guess this is what I am thinking about this morning, because my weekend was full of beauty. I saw it in the face of my daughter and friends, in the east TN mountains, in the kindness of strangers and in places where dreams, hopes and passions were shared. I desperately needed to feel this beauty and to see and hear this beauty to remember who I am and how I am naturally designed to be a beautiful (healthy, whole, and holy) human being.

So, today I just want to encourage you to fill up on beauty. Look for it. Listen for it. Ask for it. SIt with it. Breathe it in and then give it away. Let’s be beauty receivers and givers! We’ve got way too many people trying to curate dead artifacts into a consumer lifestyle instead of cultivating living beauty in our personal relationships. 💐🌷🌹🌼🌸🌺🌳🦋