Beauty

Beauty is skin-deep, they say.

That is not true.

Your external physical features are deceptive because it is only a superficial skin covering.

It is transient.
It does not last.

True beauty comes from within and can be genuinely felt and experienced by everyone who comes in contact with you.

It comes from a life that is well-lived.
From a heart that is warm and generous.
From a mind that is interesting and playful.
From a personality that is kind and compassionate.

And true beauty lasts a lifetime, well after all the fading and wrinkling.

Trials

Trials always have a very beneficial purpose.

Trials purify you.  Trials show you what you are. Whatever comes out of you when your’re squeezed, shows who you really are.  When you’re hit, trials show that you can’t make it on your own.

Trials perfect you.  

Trials bring you to the end of your physical, intellectual rope.  

Trials make you pray. 

Trials make you go to the Word. 

Trials make you trust.  

Trials make everything you heard in Sunday school become real. Trials make you go to Christ.

Trials also prove you. 

Trials reveal who the real guys (& gals) are.

Peter says that the proof of your faith is “more precious than gold which is perishable, and even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7) 

If I asked you to list the things that have shaped your life, the chances are you would not name the mountaintop moments of success.  Instead, you would list your times in valleys of hurt and pain when you were forced to rely on trust, prayer and perseverance.  Those are the times that shape you.

Would I repeat my painful times for anything?

Definitely, no!

Would I trade them for anything?

No, either……

So, as Solomon says,

Trust God

Do good

Let the chips fall where they may

And enjoy life.

Enjoy your friends and brag about how great you used to be.

Catch a good movie.

Go to the gym (or the taman) and sweat it out.

On the way home, get a cup of good, strong coffee (or Starbucks?).

Get that book you have always wanted to read.

Do the things that will matter for eternity. 

Serve Christ as long as you can until your number comes up. 

Enjoy the things you do know and don’t be so concerned and distraught about things you don’t.

Trust God even when things don’t add up.

(Borrowed from "A Life Well Lived" by Tommy Nelson)