Guest Blogger: The Servant and the Rebel

Hi, there! I’m a friend of Clara’s. For the sake of privacy on the internet, you can refer to me as Courtney. I'm a teenage girl who loves chocolate ice cream, performing, reading, I Love Lucy, Disney movies, Jesus, and writing. Clara recently asked me if I would be a guest writer for Beauty in Everything, and I eagerly accepted. Her blog has really inspired me, and I’m thankful for this opportunity. I hope you enjoy!

The Servant and the Rebel

If you were suddenly left as an orphan and then treated with both verbal and emotional abuse, would you still trust in God? Would you still wake up singing a song of hope? Meet Cinderella: a young woman who lost both of her parents at a very young age. Her stepmother is known for being evil (and her stepsisters for being ugly). Because of her threatening good looks, Cinderella is forced to become a servant in her own home among her own “family”. In the 1950’s Disney film, Cinderella never says anything mean about her stepfamily. She is honest, kind, respectful, and serving. Every day, she wakes up with a purpose full of hopes and dreams and works diligently.

Cinderella is an excellent example of Jesus Christ. The Pharisees were people who plotted against Jesus, trying anything to prove He wasn’t the Messiah. Similarly, Cinderella’s evil stepmother put her in rags to take away from her beauty. Jesus is the Prince of Peace and Lord of Lords, yet he humbled Himself to become a servant for mankind. Mark 10:33 says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Cinderella has a servant’s heart that really reminds me of Jesus’. She follows Colossians 3:23: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” In addition to this, she didn’t deserve her harsh treatment, and neither did Jesus. In fact, Isaiah 53: 9 says, “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.”

When I was a little girl, my favorite princess was not Cinderella. She seemed too sweet and unreal. I liked the red headed and passionate Princess Ariel from The Little Mermaid much more. In this Disney movie, Ariel is a mermaid with a desire to become human, even though her father, King Triton, specifically orders her not to go near them. The desire being too much, she seeks out the evil Ursula, a sea witch octopus. In their meeting, Ursula agrees to turn her into a human for three days. If Ariel kisses her human crush, Prince Eric, before the end of the third day, she’ll permanently be human. However, if she is unsuccessful, her life belongs to Ursula. Unfortunately, Ariel fails, and the octopus drags her back into the ocean. Because Ariel legally belongs to the sea witch, her father can’t save her with his magic triton. Finally, Ursula agrees to give Ariel her freedom in return for the King’s power- and his life. Hesitantly, he complies in return for the safety and freedom of his princess.

There are some obvious differences between Cinderella and Ariel. For example, Cinderella respected her stepmother and worked with a faithful heart. Ariel, on the other hand, disobeyed her father and was merely concerned about achieving her lifelong dream of being human. In the movie, Cinderella sang joyful songs of contentment and hope to her animal friends. Ariel sang of wanting more, even when her friend, Sebastian, sang, “The seaweed is always greener in somebody else’s lake."

Now before you start hating the little mermaid, consider how our actions are very similar to hers. I know I’ve rebelled against God, sinned, and compromised for things I thought would make me happy. Similar to how Ariel’s father gave his life, our Father gave His, and by no means did we deserve it. Romans 3:23 makes that clear: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Just like the mermaid, we’ve disobeyed our Father. But there’s redemption. Even though we’ve messed up, our sins are forgiven, thanks to a merciful and loving Savior. Titus 3:5 says, “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.”

Through Cinderella and Ariel we can take a peek at how to live life as a princess- a princess of God. A follower of Christ should strive to be like Cinderella: having a pure and innocent beauty, a servant’s heart, a loving attitude, and being full of joy, peace, and hope. Ariel’s story is a reminder that although we’re princesses, we’re not perfect, but our Father in heaven most certainly is.

More than Meets the Eye...

Miss Bates and Mrs. Bates from the 1996 adaption of Emma (the version I like to watch)

Emma, a movie based off of a book by Jane Austen, is my go-to chick flick movie. The basic premise of the movie is about a witty young woman named Emma who enjoys getting into other peoples' business. Throughout the story, she continually faces consequences from her matchmaking attempts (which are a whole different matter that I may talk about some other time). But, one thing that particularly stands out to me about Emma are its crazy characters. One woman in particular, Miss Bates, adds lots of humor to the story (as if there isn't enough already). She is an old maid, living alone with her mother Mrs. Bates. Her mouth runs many times faster than her brain and usually she is continually saying stupid things. To make matters worse, she laughs at her own lame jokes too. The audience sees Miss Bates as a two-dimentional character; she is simply the batty, slow type that adds comic relief to the plot line. But, towards the end of the movie, a scene takes place that changes this opinion completely (the following quotes are actually from the book, not the movie, but they are very similar)

Emma and several of her friends (including Miss Bates) are at a picnic. They are running out of things to talk about, so one of the picnickers suggests that everyone tell Emma "two things moderately clever or three very dull things indeed". Miss Bates teasingly says, "'Three things very dull indeed.' That will just do for me, you know. I shall be sure to say three dull things as soon as ever I open my mouth, shan't I?" 
Emma responds, "Ah, ma'am, but there may be a difficulty. Pardon me—but you will be limited as to number—only three at once’."
This remark suddenly shows something in Miss Bates; her entire happy-go-lucky, dull attitude changes into one of embarrassment and spellbound shock. For the rest of the picnic, she sheepishly wonders out loud if she really is as dull as Emma says she is, and her entire afternoon is essentially ruined.

Isn't it funny that this seemingly two-dimensional character took that blow so drastically? Watching that scene and its painful outcomes made me realize something important: there is more to every person than what meets the eye.

We all have those people in our lives who seem to have no depth to them. For example, while I was working at a kids day camp this summer, I came into contact with this one crazy girl in my cabin.  She was loud, bold, and comfortable with everyone. In fact, this girl even gave nicknames to several of the counselors. She was also the one who liked to stick her tongue out at me whenever my will clashed with hers and the one who complained rather frequently. It seemed as though she was just a crazy, slightly annoying kid, nothing more. 
Until the last day of camp came around. We were doing various relay races that day and eventually we reached an egg-and-spoon race. The girl dropped her egg during the race and everyone, in their competitive spirits, naturally started yelling at her, telling her to "go get another egg" and "turn around", stuff like that. Only about a minute after the race had ended, I found the girl crying her heart out. I suddenly came to a realization; everything that this little girl had done this week, from pushing to get her way to giving out obscure nicknames was for a single reason: to cover up HUGE insecurities. 
Beyond the loud and often obnoxious little girl was a human being with looming insecurities and doubts of whether or not she was appreciated. 

We need to realize that there is so much more to everyone than what we see. From the annoying jerk to the painfully shy wallflower to the flamboyant attention-seeker, there is so much more to every person than meets the eye. 

As Christians, we are definitely called to look beyond initial judgments of the people around us. 1 Samuel 16:7 says, The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

If you listen to any CCM music at all, you probably know the song "Give Me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath. This song actually depicts this concept very well by challenging us to see beyond the outward appearances of the people around us. Even if you could sing the song in your sleep, reread these lyrics, thinking about the meaning behind them.

"Give me Your eyes for just one second
Give me Your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me Your love for humanity
Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me Your eyes so I can see."

Let's start looking beyond ourselves into the lives of others. I don't mean to be nosy and probing. I mean to start truly caring for people, no matter what type of outward appearance they seem to have. Start praying and encouraging EVERYONE around you, even when it seems like your efforts could never penetrate their initial personality. You might just be able to have an impact on someone who needed support, love, or good influence in their life, or you might just meet an awesome friend :) 
As Shrek said, ogres (and people) are like onions, they have LAYERS... 

Guest Blogger: Skyler Simone's HSB song

My name is Skyler Simone! I’ve been playing the piano for about five years now and I’ve been writing music since 2011. I also run a music blog.

I enjoy thrift shopping, playing board games, sewing, and writing short stories. And I think the Lord of the Rings trilogy is the best thing ever!

Towards the end of August of 2012, I became slightly obsessed with a gorgeous intro to a song called Say I Love You. It was so simple, yet beautiful. The short intro evoked images of red and yellow forests, snow-capped mountains, and other natural wonders.

Around this time, I met a teenage girl that was fighting depression. The first thought I had when I saw her was, “Wow, she is so beautiful!” Unfortunately, she couldn’t see that how pretty she was.

Not only was I saddened when she would say that she was ugly, I was frustrated. Frustrated because I knew she wasn’t alone; millions of people buy into the lie that they aren’t beautiful.

Out of frustration, I wrote my song HSB (Heart-Stoppingly Beautiful). I wanted to describe the emotions I felt when I heard the intro to Say I Love You. And I also wanted to remind people that no matter what society says, we are all heart-stoppingly beautiful.

As I look at the things before me

The flowers and the trees

The mountains, the rivers, the hills and the valleys

Nature, all of it, in its splendor and glory

And I think, “This is heart-stoppingly beautiful”

These lines were inspired by the images evoked by Say I Love You.

When I hear a song so lovely

That the music is singing

A symphony of pianos, and lyrics that sound like poetry

My hearing, Lord, I’m so grateful you gave to me

So I can think, “This is heart-stoppingly beautiful”

Even though the first three lines are about the song Say I Love You, they could refer to any of my favorite songs. :)

The last two lines are thanking God for allowing me to hear! Music is my passion and I can’t thank God enough for creating something so incredibly amazing!

As I see all of the people walking around

I see someone that is staring at the ground

They look up and glance at me

How I wish that they could only see

That they are so heart-stoppingly beautiful

These lines were written with teenagers everywhere in mind.  

If we are all made in God’s image

And God is a perfect being

Then why do we hate ourselves?

I know He wants us to think

That we are all heart-stoppingly beautiful

I always like to have thought-provoking questions in my lyrics, especially if I’m writing a song that’s a bit aggressive. These are probably the most important lines in this song.

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them…” -Genesis 1:27

Our society says if we don’t look a certain way

Then we can’t be pretty

People. They hate themselves because they feel ashamed

They think they aren’t lovely

Why can’t we all see that we’re amazing?

Just stop and listen to me

I want to tell you, my dear, you are heart-stoppingly beautiful

The bridge is my most favorite part of HSB. I wrote and rewrote it several times. I wanted to get the lyrics just right because it’s another important part of the song. Like I mentioned before, I was pretty frustrated when I wrote this song. The bridge is where I poured out all my frustration (not just lyrically, but vocally as well!).

My God’s works are wonderful

Everything He has made

There are no flaws, no imperfections, and no mistakes

So when my heart skips a beat

And I see God’s Hand

I try to put it in the best way I can

And the only way I can say that is by saying heart-stoppingly beautiful

  

Like the bridge, I wrote and rewrote the chorus of HSB quite a number of times. The line “There are no flaws, no imperfections, and no mistakes” is referring to nature…but to human beings as well. After all, we ARE God’s creations!

I’ve written many songs, but I feel like HSB is one of the most important. The message is so powerful, one that needs to be shouted all around the world. It can’t be stated enough!  Because everyone is heart-stoppingly beautiful!   

Here's a link to the song:

https://soundcloud.com/skyler-simone/hsb-heart-stoppingly-beautiful

Your Personality + His Spirit, part 5 out of 5: Melancholy

                               “My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes.”~Anne Shirley


If you know someone who seems particularly thoughtful or quiet, often lost in their own world of analyzing everything and everyone around them, it is very likely that this person is a melancholy. Melancholies are the analyzing ones who can have the ability to spend hours on end just thinking and brewing over the smallest details. While this type of sensitivity can be very useful for finding important nuances in life and sensing when something is amiss in others, it can also be very harmful because of the way it leads a melancholy into sinful patterns of negativity and selfishness.
My favorite fictional character who is a melancholy is the lovable Anne of Green Gables. Her wild imagination and thoughtfulness allows her to live in her own world for hours on end. Another indication of her melancholy temperament is the fact that she holds a grudge against someone (Gilbert Blythe, to be exact) for years, simply because he called her hair "carrots".
For this temperament, I interviewed a good family friend, K.M. She runs an incredible ministry with her piano playing and communication skills and she just recently started a television show called "Faithpoint" in which she interviews Godly men and women about their faiths.

1. What do you think is one of your greatest strengths as a melancholy? How have you been able to work for the Lord with this strength?

I think one of the greatest strengths that God has helped me to use for Him is to be sensitive to others—to be compassionate and empathetic. I understand what will be a blessing to them, and then I ask God to help me to be that way.

Years ago, I remember sitting and really trying to picture how people felt when they were around Jesus. I made a list of the things that they might experience just by being near Him because I wanted people to experience those things when they were with me.  

I thought about how Jesus really focused on people and how He cared about them at every level. He let them know that He saw them and that He understood them and was interested in them.  That’s how I wanted to be. I wanted to focus in on people and really listen to them. One of the deepest longings of every person's heart is to be understood and I wanted people to recognize me as someone who really cares about them and wants to know them and understand them.

In asking God to help open my eyes to be empathetic, I have wanted to especially notice even the people who might not ordinarily be noticed. So when I go into a room I'm always looking to make sure no one is sitting alone or eating alone. I draw everyone into conversations. I try to notice when people are doing a good job and I thank them.

2. How have you learned to put others before yourself and think about the interests of others?

I think maybe that learning to put the interests of others ahead of my own hasn’t been as big an issue for me because of the empathy God has put in my heart.

But there is another issue that He has worked on in me and that is how I have wrongly judged the motives of others when they say or do things that hurt me or that I don’t agree with. A few years ago, God opened my eyes to see that I was very quick to feel secretly condemning (or spiritually superior) when someone spoke in a way that I perceived as negative or critical or proud. Without even being aware of it, I would take their words and assign them the heart motives I would have if I had spoken those words. I just assumed no one would say or do those things unless their motives matched what mine would be.

God has been showing me not to put my motives on someone else. He reminds me that I don’t know their heart and I need to realize that they could have any number of reasons for doing or saying something—even good reasons. Just because I could only picture myself doing or saying those things with wrong intent, doesn’t mean that their intentions were wrong.

3. What is one of the most uncomfortable things for you to do in social situations?

Go to them. ;) I love being alone. It takes a lot of mental energy and concentration for me to be with people. If I have to go into a situation with people I want to slip into the back and sit quietly in a corner and not be noticed, but usually that isn’t an option.  It’s draining for me to be with people except for a very small circle of people I love and am close to.

4. What do you believe is one of the biggest downfalls of a melancholy?

Not recognizing when they have crossed the line from productive thinking to non-productive thinking.

Not recognizing when they have moved from careful planning to worry; from better self-understanding to selfish focus; from trying to be empathetic to over-analyzing the motives of others. It is so easy to miss this line—the point between what is useful and valuable thought and what is a waste of time and nonproductive, even counter-productive.

I think a melancholy may need to be particularly vigilant to ask God to help them have the mind of Christ at every moment; to keep our thoughts and the meditations of our heart on His glory.

5. Have you seen this weakness have a negative effect in a melancholy's life (either in your own life or someone else's)? What happened?
 

I have been in situations where I need to give prayerful assessment to a serious situation but instead of carefully thinking through things with a picture of God in my mind, I wander away into imagining gloomy “what if” scenarios. In the name of “careful planning,” I’m trying to figure out all the possible ways things could go wrong and how I will handle them.  So my thoughts stray from thinking through something with God’s peace and provision central in my heart to thinking through something with my own resources. I grow more and more anxious as I realize there are so many things that could go wrong and I don't have the answers. Anxiety is settling upon me because I took my eyes and thoughts off Him and crossed that line without even realizing it.

Or maybe someone has said something to me and I’m wondering why they said it. I’ll focus in on it and try to figure out all the possible nuances and just basically wallow around in a morass of pointless speculation instead of turning it over to God and asking Him to glorify Himself in that situation, no matter what their motives were.

Or I might take a remark that someone made that seemed critical or hurtful, and I’ll mentally imagine all these follow-up conversations where I'm brilliantly defending myself so that they will understand me and agree with me and see how wrong they were.  I'm investing incredible emotional energy into these mental conversations and thought processes that are completely not productive or honoring to God.

Instead of being on guard to keep my focus ultimately on God and His authority in my life, I'm instead focusing on myself or I'm focusing on others or I'm focusing on possible alarming situations and harmful outcomes—trying to picture myself handling all of it with my own resources.

And the bottom line is that these negative forebodings can grow to sort of cripple you and keep you from investing your emotional energy in praise, and in serving God with gladness,  and in joyfully finding the life He has for you.

6. Is there a specific Bible verse that addresses this weakness? If so, what is it?

A verse that I have loved for years is Proverbs 4:23—“Guard your thoughts because out of your thoughts comes your life.” I also like Philippians 4:8 – “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”

Our entire life begins in our mind—in our heart focus. When we bring our thoughts into captivity to Christ, yielding to His control and authority, and glorifying Him in our private inward contemplations and conversations—then out of those thoughts the rest of our life flows to His glory.

7. How has God's word and His work in your life changed the way that you address your weaknesses as a melancholy?

I actually see that being a melancholy gives me weak tendencies on two extremes: On the one hand I can feel very confident in my creativity or in my ability to assess and think through a situation; and on the other hand I can be second-guessing and over-analyzing and wondering if I did okay, or if I could have done better.

The one extreme can lead to a sense of pride, a sense of self-reliance; and then the other extreme can lead you to feel guilty or paralyzed or self-focused.

In each of those areas God is teaching me to do my work with “my whole heart unto the Lord”, and to “be strong in the Lord”, and that “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength”.  He calls me to be faithful to Him; that’s the only standard. Because service and gifting and successes come through my connection to the Vine, there’s no room to either feel pride of accomplishment or to fear that I have somehow failed.

Because it is all done through Him and for Him I can leave the results in His hands.

Pro Cras

Brace yourselves; I am about to talk about something that I myself am very guilty of doing. It's a concept called PROCRASTINATION. Interestingly enough, while I was taking Latin a few years ago, I learned the two root words that make up this word, "pro" which means "for" and "cras"which means "tomorrow". It makes perfect sense, doesn't it? Every time I want to procrastinate, I literally think, "I'll do this tomorrow."

Those Ancient Romans were pretty smart, weren't they?

When we hear this word, we usually assume that it has to do with putting off some type of schoolwork or housework (that's what I think, anyway). But, has it ever occurred to you that we can procrastinate in our faith as well? Often times, God will speak to us, inspiring us to do something that will draw us closer to him or make life better for us. His commands to us all boil down to one decision, saying yes to this offer or saying no because we refuse to change. Yet somehow, we make the choice a little more complicated than a yes or no decision. That crafty, sly guy known as Satan has managed to add a third option: procrastination. Instead of obeying God immediately when we obviously hear His voice through his word or some other means, this third option comes up and says, "ehh, don't worry about making that hard decision today. Just do it tomorrow."

I remember experiencing this at a retreat I went to last fall. After listening to many amazing speakers at this particular retreat, I was very inspired to start consistently reading my Bible every morning and night. As I listened to the speakers urge us to start having daily devotionals, my mind went on this weird little trip in which I imagined myself serenely sitting in my treehouse every morning, watching the sun rise above the trees picturesquely with my pink Bible open on my lap and my journal beside it filled with deep, spiritual insight.

 Ha, yeah, right. The moment my feet set foot in my room the very night I returned from the retreat, the crafty sly guy whispered in my ear, "You can start your Bible reading adventure tomorrow, dearie." (I added the "dearie" part because I imagine Satan to sound a little like Rumpelstiltskin from Once Upon a Time). 

After going for several months without consistent Bible reading, I realized a very simple fact: tomorrow will never come. In fact, trying to aim to do something tomorrow that you could do today is like being a dog that chases its own tail; you'll never reach it, even though its right in front of your nose. 

The Bible actually warns us about this folly in James. It says,

"Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." 

James 4:13-14

Let me explain the context. James is telling us that we have no clue what is going to happen tomorrow, or even later today. So what does this mean when it comes to procrastination? Well, it means that we must do what God is calling us to do NOW, because we have no idea what might happen next. What if tomorrow is so busy that you never have a chance to do what you wanted to do? You never know; that's why it's good to do what you are being told to do right now. 

First time obedience. 

So, now, since it's extremely late, I think I'm going to go and read my Bible before I go to sleep :)