On today's podcast, I will be speaking about a popular word, but with a twist. Sandra Vernon here with the art of connection and the topic for today is beauty, but first a quote, would you agree with what Alice Walker has to say about beauty? Whenever we are creating beauty, we are restoring our soul. Before you answer, I want to first define beauty. Beauty is a combination of qualities that pleases the senses, especially site. We know what this beauty looks like. It is skin, deep fashion, conscious and captivates attention. It's often marveled at and just as often subjective because as the saying goes, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and the short view of beauty that we see beauty, the sands of time quickly adjust. There isn't art to aging gracefully and beautifully and when we focus not only on appearance but with this twist on beauty. The aging process can be done with grace and it tends to be a breeze. The beauty of which I speak, the twist on beauty of which I mentioned is enduring beauty. This beauty, it's timeless and goes beyond the surface and while being partnered with appearance, it is not limited to the constraints of appearance. How often have you known of an incredible beauty? She's lovely to behold, only to have the illusion shattered when the word spoken are anything but beautiful or the attitude a cervic or downright nasty. Enduring beauty is a character quality. This beauty originates from our heart and soul. It is a beauty that scripture encourages we women to develop just as we can develop the skills of enhancing our physical beauty by learning how to artfully apply makeup style our hair and dress well, making the most of our appearance, the character quality of beauty can we also developed enduring beauty, pours forth out of a woman's heart that is filled with love. Enduring beauty is focused on others. It's inviting, welcoming and encouraging. Enduring beauty creates and in so creating. Our soul is nourished and refreshed and each of us are uniquely equipped to create beauty in our lives. As I said, we do this with our appearance and also as we develop our character and yet beauty extends from our hands to when we put our unique gifts and talents to use. This is where each of us is unique. There is no one us and no one puts these gifts to work quite like you or quite like me. My friend is a jeweler. I love the pieces she creates and yet another friend creates Julie. That jewelry that is quite lovely to hers is just different and they're equally as beautiful jewelers. Both of them are but so different in how they apply their gifts. I have a friend or friends rather who are authors. One writes fiction and a few others write nonfiction beauty in the creation with a message unique to each author. The beauty of gardens, whether floral or herbal or vegetable or some combination are beautiful, different, different textures, different fragrances, different colors. All beauty created by the hands of the gardener or the beauty of motherhood. Many of us have been blessed with each of us. Moms operating in our own unique flavoring of motherhood. It's beautiful, too often we refrained from using the very things that would bless others. I have found this in my life as I transitioned from motherhood, motherhood to Maven life, navigating new waters, sorting out past stuff that I was mired in and I found that I was mired in a shame storm for me, shamed kept my gifts under wraps, and if you want more information on shame, check out my podcast on that topic with shame. I disqualified myself, disqualified myself from using any of my giftings because the shame message icon do convinced me that I had nothing of value to offer or contribute what ally and I listened to it. I believed it and I operated in it. Missing out on beauty and missing out on a lie a lot from this life. So when we do this, the world misses out on all we have to offer and all that we can contribute. Each of us have gifts and talents that are unique to the package of us. There are women with face society who are gifted with hospitality and entertaining. It just comes so easy and natural for them that they think they've done nothing. Yet there are women who create such lovely homes. They are places that are inviting, welcoming and peaceful, a place where we want to terry and spend some time. It's creating beauty in their home and there are women who have a contagious sense of humor that invites all to participate in and enjoy, and then there are the bakers or chefs in our group who with ease, create delicious foods and treats. Each one of these unique gifts is in a way creating beauty. There are for either the young, the old or the infirm who's tender heart creates a place for safety and love. We create in our careers at home with friends at church where we might volunteer. They're all opportunities to create beauty using the gifts and talents that we have. And this is not an exhaustive list by any means. I just wanted to share so you could hear all of these beautiful gifts, many of which you might possess and don't even acknowledge them as gifts. And often we are far too easily and frequently say, ah, they're nothing. Yet they're each a way and a means of creating beauty. And so I want you to use yours to create beauty where you are, the world needs you and what you have to offer to reveal enduring beauty in your sphere of influence. In this season of life. Don't believe me? Well, perhaps like me. Shame is chaining you down. Please check out my podcast as I mentioned earlier on shame. I don't want you to lose another day mired in shame. I spent way too many wasted years there we women are meant to nurture relationships and create beauty. And when we allow ourselves to operate in this manner, we experienced joy as we are creating our own unique, enduring beauty. We are created for nurturing relationships, creating beauty as a way to reflect who god is. We do this by cultivating the beauty unique to our lives, using the talents we have and in using these gifts are beauty is revealed more and more. I love this truth. God, the master artist and creator of all things proclaimed on the last day of his creation that it was all very good after he made eve. Ladies, we are the crowning glory of all creation. Isn't that awesome? God proclaimed after each phase of creation that it was good. He was pleased with his work. Each day that he created and all the things that he created in it, he called it good, but it wasn't until eve was created that God proclaimed that it was not just good, but very good. Let that sink in. We need to walk in mindfulness of this truth. Truly the world needs what we women have to offer. We must ignore them, world's messages from the media, social media, etc. And claim to the truth of the feminine power through enduring beauty and loving, nurturing relationships. And as I said, it's going to be unique and wonderful according to each one of us. How often in this world are women attacked or sequestered away or covered to hide their beautiful appearance? To prevent the world from receiving their beautiful offerings or perhaps the reverse? Exposing ourselves in ways that almost perverts captivating beauty and damages allure. Why this attack against women that has occurred since the beginning of time? It's precisely because we are the crowning glory of creation that the enemy of our souls wants to destroy or at least prevent us from creating beauty and blessing those around us. What we offer is women cannot be offered by men. Yes, they have their own unique contributions, but feminine power. It is not what the current culture is. Spouses, so when we allow ourselves to create beauty, we are reflecting god's character, quality of creating. We reflect a bit of how things were supposed to be and one day will be restored and we can live in this hope, the hope of restoration to operate fully in the captivating but that we were created for. in the meantime, when we allow our beauty to be revealed, when we feel we are captivating, it is a thing to behold. It is feminine power at it's mightiest. Queen warriors, try this. If you are not driving or doing something that requires you to use your eyes, close them and think about. Imagine yourself when you feel your loveliest. What are you wearing? Be specific and describe this well, note the detail of your clothing and how you feel in it. Think about your hair and makeup. How has your hair fixed? How is your makeup different than the day to day wear or your lack of makeup? got your picture in mind. Hold on to it. One of the times I felt my loveliest was in a lovely gown that I wore to a fundraiser. The skirt is a stunning red silk with beating over the sweetheart bodice. There is tool under the skirt which gives this a ballgown effect and gives more of an hourglass figure. My hair is an in an updated that makes me feel elegant and my makeup. It's simple, but it makes me feel pretty. I walk differently in this gown, not because of the small hills I am wearing, but because of an attitude I take on in this beautIful gown and as the evening progresses I find I am behaving a bit differently too, in a good refined way. Okay. How about you? What are you feeling? Dressed up in your loveliest. Can you imagine this or perhaps you need to work on even imagining this because sometimes we get stuck in our day to day life and can't imagine much else. That's okay. It takes practice as you give yourself permission to dream and imagine and a lot of the time it only requires that we actually get out of our sweat or sweats or yoga pants, put on some nicer clothes and a bit of makeup even if we are going to stay home all day. Just doing this does wonders for shifting our mindset. Take some time to do this exercise and think about how you would go about your day dressed, elegantly dressed in your loveliest feeling, your love list. We are different wearing a ball gown than we are when we were our sweats or are yoga pants, but more importantly, it is a mindset to hold onto more than concerned for what we are wearing. Does this make sense? When we allow ourselves to feel and experience beauty, we can pour out beauty from our soul, from our heart, our accountants, and our confidence grows this mindset as we go about our day. Cultivating beauty around us is a great mindset to stay in as often as possible, elegant, refined, beautiful, and how we reach out to others and love even when in farm closed, mucking out horse stalls even while feeding the baby who spits the food out on your clothes, even while completing errands or jobs at work, you get the idea. It's a mindset. This mindset is during mind is how we can go about our days confident as well as who we are as children of the king. Beautiful, lovely and yes, if we belong to god through jesus, we're royal, but too often we believe a line that was said about us or align that was said to us, perhaps it was that we are not enough, that we have nothing to offer, nothing to contribute. We're nothing to look at. We are too emotional or too sensitive and this line or lines, whatever the lies they might be. If we replay it often and oftentimes we add more to this message, the line becomes a label and soon the label becomes part of the fabric of our life. When we park our mind on a thought, reminding ourselves of the message, whether it's true or not, whether it's beneficial, hurtful, this changes our mindset, but the good news is that we have a choice on what to think on which thoughts we park our minds because if we allow the lies to persist, we prevent ourselves from cultivating the beauty in our life, in our character, in our appearance, in our work and in our world. But we can choose to dump the lies and wrong thinking and choose to park our minds on a foundation of truth. So today's call to action cultivation. Yeah, I love the agricultural terms. It comes from reading scripture and also living on a farm these past 14 years. Ladies, the woman eve was created as a culmination. The crowning glory of all creation. We are to walk in this truth. This is our vocation created to cultivate beauty wherever we go and to live beautiful within during beauty because we are beauty cultivated. My sweet ladies, cultivate it first with your mindset, allowing your soul to revel in love and joy and beauty. Fill your mind and feed your soul with all that is good and true and lovely. Cultivate beauty in your character. This is enduring beauty and cultivate beauty in your appearance, walking in confidence and love. Let your beauty spill out and using your unique gifts and talents because when we cultivate beauty, we feed and restore our own soul follow phase society on instagram or facebook and let me know how you are cultivating beauty in your life and for those around you because when we share it encourages and blesses others. and at face society we are all about connection and community. So let's build one another up for now. This is sandra vernon with the art of connection.