Responses
Boojeee: anna (12/2/07)
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Responses (sorted by date)
Boojeee: anna (12/2/07)
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Recently I was asked to answer the question "How am I lovely?". This proved a difficult yet rewarding adventure. I have chosen to share my thoughts with all of you and to challenge the women out there to answer the question for yourself. I would love to read your thoughts and hope you will also choose to blog about your loveliness.
How am I lovely? This seems like a strange question to ask myself. Thinking of me in a positive way is against all my background teaching. The belief that only the proud and boastful would declare themselves lovely runs deep and at first glance feels true to me. But I know now that this belief is not true so by sheer will I choose to seek what the truth really is.
First I think I need to define what being lovely might look like. The person I would describe as lovely has been in my life for the most difficult part of my recent journey. When I am with her she invites me to be real without fear of judgment even though she has seen me at my worst. She calls me out of my false beliefs and offers me truth about who I really am. She is feminine and gentle yet strong and sure. Her wisdom is offered with compassion and grace. She seeks to understand my pain and enters into it with me. She awakens within me the desire to blossom and grow into beauty. Who she is paints a portrait for me of loveliness.
So how does that help me see how I am lovely? I think the most important truth it shows me is that being lovely doesn’t mean being perfect. It’s really a struggle for me to recognize my loveliness when I also see my imperfections. The negative seems to cancel out the positive so much of the time. Once again a lie that seeks to destroy. Looking to the past finds me being less lovely than I am now and the future promises that I will grow into even more loveliness but I am still lovely today. I am lovely when I listen with my heart rather than just my head. I am lovely when I offer grace to those who wound me. I am lovely when I weep with a brokenhearted friend. I am lovely when I’m humble rather than defensive. I am lovely when I open my home and offer hospitality. I am lovely when I laugh and smile and I am lovely when I am weak and ask for help.
Somehow after writing and saying the above words I feel more comfortable in my loveliness than I ever have before. Yes it’s true, I am as lovely as God has known I am even when I doubted. | 
