30 Days of No Make-uo: Day 29

  Well Happy Friday!

Tomorrow is the last and final day of our challenge, yahoo! Great job if you've stuck with us and even if you only did it for awhile!

I just wanted to thank each of you who have participated and also those of you who have followed the blogging this month. This truly has been life changing and it has been a blessed journey for me, I hope it has been for you too! I hope that you've learned a lot and been able to truly embrace your beauty and step out from the shadows that you may have been hiding behind.

If you want to dig deeper into self image issues, local counselor and life coach, Robyn Coffman has a "Beyond Skin Deep" workshop you can attend or even self study as well as individual counseling and life coaching. She is wonderfully amazing and I am sure you'll be blessed by her if you ever need her services. You can check her out on facebook at Once Upon Your Life-Robyn Coffman or you can contact her by phone at 928-848-1655.

We are wrapping up our journey Monday, July 2nd at 6:00 pm at SMARTgirls in Prescott Valley if you'd like to join us. We'll have some refreshments and we'll just be there to celebrate our journey and share all that we learned. We'd love to see you!

Thanks again for being part of this journey with us! Here's to changing what society says is "beautiful"!!!

JoAnne

30 Days of No Make-up: Day 28

Morning dear friends, I hope your week has gone well and that you're finishing this challenge strong. 

I want to reiterate from a previous blog post that I don't at all believe that wearing make-up is wrong or that to embrace your beauty you have to abstain from it. There's that coined saying that "Make-up is to enhance our natural beauty". Well we all know how often that happens and how many women use it as such. Sure I told my daughter that but it certainly wasn't how I viewed it. So why not take that to heart and if you choose to wear make-up, as you apply it, see it enhancing your natural beauty, not covering it up.

If we wish to see women embracing their beauty and debunking the lies of perfection and unveiling the impossible comparisons we try to live up to, we have to be the ones to start. 

So, as you complete this challenge I want to ask you to not just allow a change for a little while only to have the experience back on a shelf and chocked up for a job well done but make this a lasting impression. Maybe even make it your goal to encourage other women in this area and use your experience to make a difference! 

If you have daughters or granddaughters, young ones or older ones, wouldn't you just love to see them grow up in a society that embraces how simply beautiful they are? Sure we see it here and there but overall, it's a fading light. We have to make the change happen, no one else will. So, why not start with you?

I don't know about you but this challenge has lit a spark in me and I don't want to see it go out. I want to daily be thankful to my creator for all that HE so beautifully created me to be. 

Will you join me?

30 Days of No Make-up:Day 27

Only 4 more days to go!

What has this journey sparked in you, what have you learned? Are you counting the days until you've successfully completed your challenge or are you relishing every last moment?

I have to admit, as a busy mom of three little ones, I've enjoyed the extra time I've had in the mornings that getting ready normally takes. When my mom and I first decided to take on this challenge, I jokingly said, "Well, I guess I'll be getting more creative with me hair!" I normally don't do much with my hair, it's a big deal if I blow dry and style it! And I mean, a BIG deal! I guess I felt like I might need to sort of cover up in a different way. Oddly enough, I think it's been quite the opposite. I think I've worn my hair in a pony tail more in the last 27 days than I normally do.

There's something beautiful about simplicity. In a world of constant change, busyness, phones ringing and vibrating, tv's and other mechanical devices vying for our attention, don't you ever long for simplicity?

A few months ago my husband and I were looking at some property in a more rural area. We live in a fairly small town, so it's not like the hustle and bustle of the city, but when we were out there,  I realized how much noise actually surrounded our house (not talking about my kids here!). I found it to be most glorious and now long for it often!

Have you ever seen a woman with her hair pulled back in a pony tail, glistening bare skin and just some jeans and a t-shirt and just thought, "Wow, she is just so beautiful". Simplicity my friends, simplicity.

There is much to be discovered when it comes to simplicity when it comes to our beauty. We were made beautiful just the way we are.

So today, embrace how simply beautiful you are!

30 Days of No Make-up: Day 26

Happy Tuesday!

Here is the youtube video and lyrics of the song I mentioned yesterday... (I don't know what it is with me and songs these last couple blog posts!) :)  I have to say that I hadn't watched the video until just before I posted this and although it's not the best music video I've ever seen, let me just say, I was pretty wowed towards the end. At 2 minutes it gets pretty incredible. This ladies, is what we compete with. It's no wonder we can never measure up.

More Beautiful You-Jonny Diaz

More Beautiful You lyrics
Songwriters: Diaz, Jonny; York, Kate;

Little girl fourteen flipping through a magazine
Says she wants to look that way
But her hair isn't straight, her body isn't fake
And she's always felt overweight

Well, little girl fourteen I wish that you could see
That beauty is within your heart
And you were made with such care, your skin, your body and your hair
Are perfect just the way they are

There could never be a more beautiful you
Don't buy the lies, disguises and hoops, they make you jump through
You were made to fill a purpose that only you could do
So there could never be a more beautiful you

Little girl twenty one the things that you've already done
Anything to get ahead
And you say you've got a man but He's got another plan
Only wants what you will do instead

Well, little girl twenty one you never thought that this would come
You starve yourself to play the part
But I can promise you there's a man whose love is true
And He'll treat you like the jewel you are

There could never be a more beautiful you
[- From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/j/jonny-diaz-lyrics/more-beautiful-you-lyrics.html -]
Don't buy the lies, disguises and hoops, they make you jump through
You were made to fill a purpose that only you could do
So there could never be a more beautiful you, more beautiful you

So turn around you're not too far
To back away be who you are
To change your path go another way
It's not too late, you can be saved
If you feel depressed with past regrets
The shameful nights hope to forget
Can disappear, they can all be washed away

By the one who's strong, can right your wrongs
Can rid your fears dry, all your tears
And change the way you look at this big world
He will take your dark distorted view
And with His light, He will show you truth
And again you'll see through the eyes of a little girl

That there could never be a more beautiful you
Don't buy the lies, disguises and hoops, they make you jump through
You were made to fill a purpose that only you could do
So there could never be a more beautiful you
There could never be a more beautiful you

30 days of No Make-up: Day 25

Happy Monday!

Wow! I can't believe June is almost over! We only have 6 days left in our challenge. Great job for sticking with us!

A few years ago my sister purchased some wall words for my daughter, Emma's birthday. The words came from a song and they say "There could never be a more beautiful you". Even though she was too young to read them I wanted to have them forever posted on her wall as a constant reminder. The ironic thing was that my sister struggled and battled to believe these words herself. Every girl wants to be a princess. To be wooed and spin around in magnificent dresses and have everyone around her tell her how beautiful she is. I was more of a tom boy when I was younger but my sister was all about the glitz and glam, fashion and style. I was mismatched in my neon mickey mouse clothes and was in love with punky brewster! But when I got older I always went to Julie's closet for clothes. She hated it, I loved it and I'm sure my mom loathed the fights that ensued over borrowed clothes! :) If you have daughters you know exactly what I mean!!! But I watched as my sister grew older, how she strived for perfection, for beauty, for wholeness but it seemed to be never ending. She had enough clothes to outfit an entire cheer squad, for the year (!), and she always looked so fashionable. She was beautiful. But just like I talked about a few weeks ago, she didn't see it. As her family, we all longed for her to see it, but she just didn't, it was as if she couldn't. She'd spent too many years comparing herself to what the world defined as beauty and it had defeated her. I know there's many women at the other end of the spectrum as well who don't see the beauty they behold and think it's just not worth trying so they don't even bother.

I beg of you, if you are in either of these places, please don't stay here. Find a friend, a counselor or someone else who can help you discover your beauty, worth and value in this world. You are beautiful, you are amazing and trust me friend when I say, "There could NEVER be a more beautiful You"!!!!

I am beyond grateful that today, my sister is more beautiful than I can imagine. She finally is perfect and whole and no longer vies with the powers that be in this world to compete for status and beauty. She rests at the feet of Jesus and dances in the gentle breezes of heaven. And I look forward to the day when I will hug her neck and see what she was always created to be.

30 Days of No Make-up: Day 22

Happy Friday everyone!

Today is a short post. Randomly in the middle of the night last night and in about 10 ounces of alertness the idea came to me to post this video. I chock that up to divine intervention, not me, so I felt like someone needed to hear these words.

Enjoy! Oh and I've got another picture for ya today. And since my other two kiddos are with me in the first two pictures, I figured I had to give my littlest wee one some screen time too. :)

                      JJ Heller~What Love Really Means

Me and my baby girl Lucy who is 9 months :)

30 days of No Make Up-Day 21

So, how did you do yesterday reminding/telling yourself how incredibly you are made? Keep it up as it will take a lot longer than one day to cement within yourself these truths.

Today marks a pivotal place in our challenge. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit and today is that day!

What habits have you been making in these 21 days? I realize you've been going without make-up but that's not necessarily the habit we're looking for. It's not just about the make-up but about uncovering the lies that we've believed and getting rid of them. Maybe it's about the habit of not even giving the lies of our society the time of day. At the end of this journey something bigger will have stayed with you. What might that be?

I think for me it's been about uncovering the lie that me in my natural state of beauty just isn't enough. I'm still working through this one but I'm a lot further along than I was before!

Today I hope you'll continue reminding yourself how amazing and talented you really are and keep an eye out for the lies that lurk around every corner!

A quick assignment for you. Today, write one thing down that you're amazing at. Keep it somewhere you can see and add to it each day. Even add things you like about yourself. Sometimes we need the reminders and having this somewhere you can see it will likely give you a pick me up when you least expect it. :)