Me and My SoldierMan: Skin-deep

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Quotes for Life

"Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. For this I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough in Him to speak as I should....My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with all boldness, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether be life or by death."~ The Apostle Paul: Eph 6:18-20; Phil 1:20

"Lord, I intend it to thy glory, and let no profane misinterpreter abuse it to thy diminution."
~John Donne

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy."
~ John Adams

"You have enemies? Good. It means you've stood up for something."
~ Winston Churchill

"I would rather have a plain down-right wisdom than a foolish and affected eloquence."
~ Ben Jonson

"The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it."

~ George Washington

"Country music is about new love and it’s about old love. It’s about gettin’ drunk and gettin’ sober. It’s about leavin’ and it’s about comin’ home. It’s real music sung by real people for real people, the people that make up the backbone of this country. You can call us rednecks if you want. We’re not offended, ’cause we know what we’re all about. We get up and go to work, we get up and go to church, and we get up and go to war when necessary."

~ Jeff Foxworthy

"The most dangerous predator of liberals is the real world. They hide from it in college campuses."
~ www.imao.us

"To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society."
~ President Theodore Roosevelt

"Only amateurs say that they write for their own amusement. Writing is not an amusing occupation. It is a combination of ditch-digging, mountain-climbing, treadmill and childbirth. Writing may be interesting, absorbing, exhilarating, racking, relieving. But amusing? Never!"
~ Edna Ferber

"A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in an argument."
~ Robert Frost

"I'm a Christian first and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, and don't you ever forget it. You know who else was kind of "divisive" in terms of challenging the status quo and the powers-that-be of his day? Jesus Christ."
~Ann Coulter

"Feminism has nothing at all to do with being 'feminine.' Feminine means accentuating the womanly attributes that make women deliciously different from men. The feminine woman enjoys her right to be a woman. She has a positive outlook on life. She knows she is a person with her own identity and that she can seek fulfillment in the career of her choice, including that of traditional wife and mother."
~ Phyllis Schlafly

"Tolerance is the virtue of a man without convictions."
~ G. K. Chesterson

"It isn't going to bed with a man that proves you're in love with him. It's getting up in the morning and facing the drab, miserable, wonderful, everyday world with him that counts."
~ Yours, Mine and Ours

"I owe nothing to women's lib."

~ Margaret Thatcher

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

~ Henry VI

"We're all born pessimists. It takes effort to be optimistic."

~ Rush Limbaugh

"True religion and true philosophy must ultimately arrive at the same conclusion."

~S.S. Smith

"There's no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit."

~ Jack Dake

"If a woman like Eva Peron with no ideals can get that far, think how far I can go with the ideals that I have."

~ Margaret Thatcher

"What I felt like saying was, 'I've produced my third child and my sixth book since I last saw you. Aren't either of these things more important, more interesting, than my size?' But no - my waist looked smaller! Forget the kid and the book; finally, something to celebrate! Maybe this seems funny or trivial, but it's really not."
~ JK Rowling

"Dear Lord
Lest I continue
My complacent way
Help me to remember
Somehow out there
A man died for me today.
As long as there be war
I then must
Ask and answer
Am I worth dying for?"~Anon
"[Judgment] comes from four sources: God, nature, diligence and conversation. Serve the first, and the rest will serve you."
~ Ben Jonson

"I think political correctness is a wonderful fad. Probably not as spiritually uplifting as the hula-hoop, but undoubtedly better for the health."
~ Waiting for God

"Our God and soldier we alike adore. At the brink of danger, not before. After deliverance, both alike requited. Our God's forgotten and our soldiers slighted."
~ Oliver North

"The way to tell the professional writers from the amateur writers is that the amateurs only write when they feel like it."
~ Jerry Van Cook

"Remember that only in cheesy romance novels is the heroine guaranteed to find true love without the risk of vulnerability or pain."
~ Dear Prudence column

"We do not fear censorship, for we have no wish to offend with improprieties or obscenities, but we do demand, as a right, the liberty to show the dark side of wrong, that we may illuminate the bright side of virtue."
~ from "The Birth of a Nation"

"Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: The requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree besides the river of truth, and tell the whole world - No, you move."
~Captain America

"While God doesn’t promise tomorrow, he does promise eternity."
~ Tony Snow

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
~ John Stuart Mill

"I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there. In the fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there. In her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits, aflame with righteousness, did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."
~ Alexis de Tocqueville

"I’ve got two daughters who will have to make their way in this skinny-obsessed world, and it worries me, because I don’t want them to be empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones; I’d rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny - a thousand things, before ‘thin’. And frankly, I’d rather they didn’t give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do. Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons. Let them never be Stupid Girls."
~ J.K. Rowling

Wisdom from the Great Communicator, Ronald Reagan:
------------------------------
Politics and morality are inseparable. And as morality's foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related. We need religion as a guide. We need it because we are imperfect, and our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they're sinners can bring to democracy the tolerance it requires in order to survive.

Live each day to the fullest. Live each day with enthusiasm, optimism and hope. If you do, I am convinced that your contribution to this wonderful experiment we call America will be profound.

The dustbin of history is littered with remains of those countries that relied on diplomacy to secure their freedom. We must never forget...in the final analysis...that it is our military, industrial and economic strength that offers the best guarantee of peace for America in times of danger.

We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free.

October 5, 2011

Skin-deep

I ran across this a while back and it's caused some things to be rolling around in my head for a while:

The first thing is, I really do like Kandee's videos, so if you are interested in some make-up tutorials, hers are very instructive, if not the most high-tech.

But the other thing is, look, I've always thought Kim Kardashian is (physically) a beautiful lady. I watched their show a couple of seasons and I can't say her behavior is always beautiful (but then, I don't know how I'd look if I was followed around by cameras 24/7 and then had my movements edited to fit a narrative.) But then I see things like this and it makes me think, wow, if you are literally caking that much make-up on every day, do I even know what you really look like? Do you?

Anyway, this is sort of connected to something else that's a little embarrassing to admit. There's this lady who I've known for a number of years. And for every single day of those years, I have seriously envied her. She is very sweet, loved by everyone, and drop-dead gorgeous. And - most embarrassing thing - it was the gorgeous part I envied the most. Cause she's, like, perfect. Perfect hair, perfect skin, perfect teeth, perfect figure....everything.

Not long ago we reconnected on facebook, which has been great, of course, catching up. The ironic thing about facebook is, as much as the critics accuse social media of creating "fake" relationships, when it comes to communicating online, people are very, very real. We all know this. The internal filter is turned off. Half because we don't have to address anyone face to face, half because it feels like writing in a journal rather than posting something on a bulletin board in the hallway for everyone to see.

Via facebook, I've discovered some things about this friend. The first is that, in many ways, she's even more amazing than I realized. (tiny girl crush, I admit). But the other thing is, I've learned that perfection has its price. Because, in order to have a perfect appearance, you have to be obsessed with appearance. And even with all the other things this lady has going for her, including a great personal and professional life, she is obsessed with appearance.

She's obsessed with lots of other good things, too. Career, faith, family. Okay, maybe she's just obsessive in general. But I guess what I'm trying to say is, this is why I try to be careful not to pursue perfection. "Perfect" is a pretty artificial standard when it comes to humans.

Really - do we see a person whose family and ethnicity makes her body style tend towards being beautifully full-figured and praise her for accepting her body as God intended it to be? Or do you look at her and think, "Someone needs to get on a bike."

I know the answer. I follow your twitter.

I want to share this post with you guys about a friend of mine from back home. Shanda is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet, and I'm not just saying that. She has the most kind and gentle spirit. For a long time she has struggled with chronic migraines, but you will never hear her complain. Ever. And frankly, I've always thought she was beautiful, even when (it turns out) she didn't.

On another blog, she shared her story of how she has lost 40 pounds and counting. Not because she wants to change who she is, be anything she's not or be what somebody else says she should be. I'm sharing this with you because I know everyone struggles at one point or another with addictions and body image and trusting God, sometimes all three together. Read, friends, and be encouraged: Shanda's Story.

4 comments:

JulieOctober 6, 2011 at 6:22 AM
:) I love this post.
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JessicaOctober 6, 2011 at 2:42 PM
I loved Shanda's story! She spoke truth. With God, anything is possible. I am learning that more and more every day. Thank you for sharing her story.
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Lindsay @ Tails to TellOctober 7, 2011 at 7:37 AM
Very true and very real post. Thanks for sharing. :)
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SarahOctober 7, 2011 at 9:54 AM
That's absolutely amazing. I think part of our obsession with appearance is the importance our culture puts on it. Like if you don't dye your hair, wear globs of makeup and practically starve yourself you're not pretty. I struggle with body issues myself, so I get it. It's hard to accept our bodies the way they are when we see skinny-as-a-rail models everywhere, including those motivational posters saying "get off your butt and workout." It's not realistic. Shanda's story is awesome and is exactly what we should all do. Thanks for sharing. =)
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