Not Anonymous

There's a great discount code at the bottom of nearly every post. If that's what you are looking for, scroll on down to the sponsorship message. :) For anyone who wants to know my heart, here's today's post:

The most frequent comments I receive to this website are posted by some kind person named, "Anonymous." Anonymous seems to love my page. Sometimes she posts 30-50 times in any given week.

Strangely enough, most of her posts are flagged by my filters as SPAM. I wonder why? Perhaps it's because Anonymous loves to post a ton of links with her comments, often to websites that are anything but beautiful.

Perhaps it is because some of Anonymous' other posts seem like they could be from a real person with real desire to interact, but because she doesn't log in through an account nor is she willing to sign any name other than "Anonymous," I really can't bring myself to approve her comments even if they might be legitimate.

In God's eyes, no matter how small we may feel, God never sees us as Anonymous! He not only knows if we are real people rather than computer programming, He knows every detail about our lives, even the number of hairs on our heads. He know the beautiful places in our hearts, the ones that sometimes we can't even see for ourselves. And He knows the broken places, the ones He longs to redeem and repair.

To everyone reading who is not named Anonymous, I really would love to hear from you - real, living, breathing, beautiful women. If you don't want to use a Google account identity, could you please at least sign your first name and give me some reason to believe you are actually interested in communication? Otherwise I might think you are a random SPAMbot going around saying, "Great post!"

If I can't figure out that you are a real person who has actually read the post where you are commenting, I won't approve your comment. I love knowing friends and forging relationships, but I need some help from your end because I have no desire to friend any computer program even if she does have a fun name like Anonymous. ;) It makes me very sad to ignore anyone who just might be real, so please don't leave me guessing.


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Loveliness

I'm guest blogging on the topic of Inner Beauty as a monthly columnist over at Glory and Strength. For the next nine months we will be looking together at characteristics that set a woman apart as a Christian, as found in Galatians 5:22-23.

Drop by Glory and Strength and click on "Growing in Glory" to find my latest reflections. This month we are talking about love - not the roll-your-eyes mushy, romantic kind, but the real down-to-earth, loving-in-the-midst-of-life's-messes kind. Here's a little taste to get you started. (And don't forget to keep reading to the bottom of this post to grab a great discount code for Affordable Mineral Makeup too!)

Love goes beyond “live and let live,” but takes the next step. When I’ve been wronged (I’m not talking about abuse here, but the daily messes of living life with imperfect people), I can show my friend God’s love by not waiting for her to make the first move. I can offer forgiveness even before she apologizes... Laying down my life for someone means I am actively on the lookout for my friend’s best interest.

Galatians 5:22-23 calls these times when I allow God to lead my decisions, attitudes and actions, the fruit or evidence of God’s Spirit in me... I’m not going to do a perfect job at showing God’s love each time I have the chance. The goal is to keep practicing, keep striving to bloom with time and practice... I can ask God to help me see opportunities to offer love to others because of Him, and then lean on Him for the strength to love even when it’s hard.

Please come read more about love at Love Fruit then tune in again next month to reflect with me on how we can find true joy. :)

For more thoughts on love by By Ida Mundell of "Eat Drink and Be Jesus," check out Love is a Sacrifice on (In)Courage. :)

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My heart is in sharing beauty with women, first heart beauty, but also affordable, healthy ways to care for our physical bodies that God calls the "temple" of His Holy Spirit when we allow Him to live within us through grace. To this end I am happy to represent Affordable Mineral Makeup™ as a beauty adviser and to offer this high quality line of pure mineral products to my readers.

For a limited time [this offer expired 2/5/2010 - please visit "discount codes" to look for current promotions], take 20% off every Affordable Mineral Makeup™ purchase of $19.95 or greater, placed from www.InnerBeautyGirls.com when you use check out using coupon code:
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With this code, qualified orders (over $19.95 and properly following instruction for submitting freebie requests) will also receive three free gifts with your purchase! Your gifts are one 5-gram sifter jar with your choice of product (up to a $7.79 value) AND two mineral samples of your choice (valued at $2.49 each). To redeem the free gift offer, please list your requested free product selections in your order comments (not added to your cart!) when you place your order. Promotion items cannot be shipped separately.

Please visit http://www.InnerBeautyGirls.com and click on the "shop" link to get started by viewing our catalog. (I greatly appreciate when my return customers remember to always come back and start at my consultant link so that the computer knows to credit me for your purchases.) Thank you for your business and support!

Contentment

An article entitled Can you be chronically ill and still find contentment? may seem like a strange one to link to from a beauty blog, but I would love to invite you to visit this link and find great beauty tips such as:

• God looks at our hearts, not our material possessions and external beauty. “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7b) External beauty will fade, but inner character will not.

or

• God made us beautiful and in His image. “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” (Psalm 139:14) We were created for a purpose and a plan,even those of us with physical limitations. How exciting!

If you know my story, you know physical struggle and disability have been a big part of my journey, along with all of the emotional issues of doubting and self-worth that come along with a body that isn't all I dreamed it would be. You can read more about my health journey at Given Me a Thorn or on my InfertilityMom blog, and you can find encouragement for your own struggles (maybe divorce, or the death of a child, or infertility, or abuse, or financial struggles?) at Harvesting Hope from Heartache™. Wherever you are in life, please know that God says you are beautiful, right here in the midst of the mess. Even if you can't see the beauty right now, God's still at work and His plan is yet unfolding in you!

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV).

New You

Yup, it's that time of year again, the time when everyone starts saying goodbye to the past year and preparing for a "fresh start," piling up New Years' resolutions that will mostly be shattered before February even gets here. We hope to wipe away past failures and replace them with victories, but my friend, in our own strength, we can never find lasting change.

I know this blog has gotten a little soft in content the past year or so, mostly being a collection of advertising and sales links. I've been rather "burned out" on beauty blogging the past year, focusing on many health issues. Recently I've gotten excited about this blog again and want to breath new life into my posts here. I'm not promising anything spectacular or earth shattering, but I am hoping to refresh my efforts at deeper content this next year. I'm starting by taking this moment to really bring us back to the original heart purpose of this blog, my desire to bring glory to God as we celebrate the beauty He sees in us as His handwork.

As we revel in the joys of womanhood, what real change can we seek in the new year? If anyone reading does not know with certainty where you would spend eternity if you were to die today, let's start right there. This week we have celebrated Christmas, the coming of God to earth as a fragile Baby. If that were the whole story, it would be a sweet tradition and nothing more. Thankfully that Baby came with a purpose. "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10). Do you ever feel lost? He came to bring purpose to your life, and to mine!

Over 2,000 years since His birth, there is still more factual, historical evidence for the person of Jesus Christ than even remains many United States presidents. There is no question that He was (and is!) a real person, the question is what you believe about who He is? If you say He was a "good man" or a "good teacher" then I must challenge your beliefs. He claimed to be God! With this claim there are only three options:
- He either is who He claims to be (and thus, so much more than just a prophet or another good teacher)
- or He was delusional, truly believing Himself to be God and so deceiving not only His followers but Himself (and thus certainly not a "good teacher" I would choose to follow)
- or He was intentionally lying about Himself (and absolutely knocked out of the "good man" category).

Who do you say Jesus is? I say He is my Lord and Savior. The one and only Living God, who was tempted in every way as I am, yet lived a sinless life, being crucified to pay the death penalty for my own sins. Again, if that's the end of the story, it's a sad one indeed, but as promised from the beginning of time when Adam and Eve first made a choice for sin, He has power over life and death and the grave could not hold Him! It is in His resurrection that I find true hope and peace.

Still questioning? Then here's a realistic New Year's resolution for you. Challenge God to make Himself real to you in 2011! He promises, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13).

If you are looking for real, lasting change for 2011 and beyond, here's your answer. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here" (2 Corinthians 5:17)!

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Resurrection

I can think of nothing more beautiful than the Resurrection. From the horror of the cross, and the silence or the grave, to Victory and New Life.

May God meet you in the joy of Easter.

What to Wear

I'm posting this verse by my mirror as a reminder that my attitudes are more important to the people in my life than the way I look...

“Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”
Colossians 3:12 (NIV)

Beautiful Servanthood

In reading the story of the last supper this week, something jumped out at me. On the night that Jesus would be betrayed, tried and sentenced to crucifixion, right there in the midst of the culmination of the greatest mission He had been sent to fulfill, then and there He stopped everything to wash the feet of His apostles.

I often serve others in the name of Christ. I often try to accomplish big things for God. But how often am I willing to set my important agenda to the side to simply be a servant right then and there in the middle of my big plans?

Too often I brush aside requests to "play a game with me Mommy" as I'm busy rushing around to get out the door to my "important" meetings. When was the last time I pulled over to help someone with a flat tire even though it would make me late to church?

I am more likely to serve when it's convenient, when it fits in my time frame and well-laid plans without squeezing me uncomfortably. But in looking at Christ's example as he wrapped a towel around His waist just hours before He headed to the cross, I saw with fresh eyes this week that beautiful servanthood is the uncomfortable kind that I "don't have time for" and doesn't fit in my neat little schedule.

I'm praying that God continues showing me such truths, to "makeover" my heart as He helps me put them into practice in my life, blossoming me into a woman of beauty, inside and out.

Thank You

With this post we conclude our Virtual Spa Weekend, but I hope this will not be the last time you visit me here at InnerBeautyGirlz! I will be spending the next few days going back through all your wonderful comments, taking note of questions and suggestions you have posted to gather ideas for future posts, and will continue striving to provide you discount codes, quality beauty information, devotional reflections and additional give-aways from time to time. If you haven't done so yet, please take the time to either "follow" me using the Goggle link on the right-hand side bar, or sign up for my email list in the mailing list box also to the right.

Thank you so much for joining me, for all the great participation and comments (about 300 of them!), for helping spread the word and share the joy with friends, and for making this a memorable Weekend! Thank you also to our many amazing guest bloggers and to all the Weekend sponsors who have so generously donated gifts for our give-aways. Don't forget that any comment on any non-prize thread through our whole Weekend enters you for last Wednesday's "early-bird" prize from Gurrlie Girl Christin jewelry. :)

I will accept contest entries for about three more hours then I will be selecting and contacting prize winners over the next few days. All prize winners should be posted by about Wednesday and contest sponsors will work with you directly to get your prizes to you. If you know any young women who would enjoy similar tips designed especially for them, please pass along my Girlz and Teens Inner Beauty link at Mineralz.blogspot.com where I'm currently offering a teen beauty book give-away through this week. :)

I would like to leave you with the following thoughts from 2 Corinthians 5:14-20 in The Message:

Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.
Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you.

- Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Infertility and New Life

Last night Melody of Hope of my Heart Designs gave you a chance to win her SpringTime Hope bracelet. If you missed that give-away, go back and look through yesterday's Virtual Spa Weekend posts because you can still enter to win unitl midnight tonight!

Now here's a bit more of Melody's story and God's working in her heart through the grief of infertility, adoption, pregnancy and miscarriage.

We got our PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) diagnosis 3 months after we were married, and started trying to conceive immediately. We tried Clomid after a few months, but it didn’t work. I was such a wreck while on that medicine that we decided that even if we tried with medical assistance later, we would NOT use the Clomid again. We lost our health insurance though, so we stopped trying to conceive for a while.

A year later, we pursued adoption. Nine months after we started the process, our son was born six weeks early. We were allowed to be in the delivery room with his birthmother, and after a week’s stay in NICU, he came home with us. We were thrilled.

Unfortunately, something was still missing. I didn’t know what it was, but I was miserable. Two months later, I finally admitted my problem – I was lost. I never dreamed that God would use infertility and adoption to bring me to Himself, but He did. On July 10, 2004, I finally accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. Finally, that void in my life was filled!

When our oldest was two, he started praying every night, “Dear Jesus, baby please.” I’d never been pregnant and wasn’t really convinced I would ever be. After a year, we were shocked to discover that I was indeed pregnant for the first time!

After our surprise little guy was born, we wondered how God was going to continue to grow our family. Once again, our oldest son started praying for a sibling. It didn’t take as long as we thought it would, but almost as soon as I suspected I was pregnant, I realized that I would never hold that little one this side of Heaven.

Our son kept praying, and we kept hoping for another pregnancy. Two months later, we discovered that I was pregnant AGAIN! We were surprised again at God’s timing. I was much more cautious that time, trying to guard my heart. But now I’m almost 19 weeks pregnant, and so far, baby is doing quite well.

I never dreamed that God would use infertility in my life the way He did, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.