Where to begin? (Part 2)

Why hadn't I noticed her beauty?

So there I was completely mystified, as I continued my search of why I was suddenly viewing this plain-Jane in a whole new way. My thoughts kept going to, "But I've never noticed her beauty before..." until I successfully identified what was so alluring about her. It was her eyes. Now I'm going to be honest - I don't even remember which woman it was at this point. That's not what mattered, nor was it important that it was her gorgeous eyes that I found so beautiful. It was simply that I was able to find beauty in her.

BAM! Beauty.

Once realizing it was her twinkling eyes, I glanced to the woman seated beside her. Again, it was another woman I had known for a couple years but had never particularly connected with. In looking her way, I had planned to challenge myself in finding something beautiful about her as well. But I didn't have to. As soon as she entered my gaze, BAM! Beauty.

What about the others?

I began going from woman to woman throughout the crowded room, finding beauty in each of them. The majority were of the acquaintance friend type while a handful were more like actual friends, but some were even women I had harbored ill feelings towards due to past disagreements. Some had simply rubbed me the wrong way with their bold personalities and opinions. In each and every one of them I was able to find beauty. (And this wasn't a small room. There were probably close to 70 women there.)

Why would God show me this?

At some point the speaker concluded her talk and stepped away from the mic. This alerted me to the fact that I had completely lost track of time and hadn't heard a single thing she had said. I did, however, take a second to acknowledge her beauty. They directed us to take a quick break, so I immediately began searching my heart and head for answers. I was throwing rapid-fire questions at God like, "Why am I noticing their beauty?", "What's Your point in showing me this?", and (sad to admit) "Really, even the ugly ones?".

Intrinsic beauty

My takeaway from that little sidetrack adventure was that I had been dishonoring God by choosing to dishonor His creations. That each and every single woman there had been divinely created by Him, so they intrinsically were beautiful. In other words, all of us women, every single one of us, are beautiful by default because He made us. You are beautiful because you were "fearfully and wonderfully made" by God (Psalm 139:14).

Stay tuned for Part 3 to discover your radiance!