Apology and More Beautiful You continued

I Am SO sorry! I haven't updated this blog in over a year. Not that this is an excuse but here is what happened: After posting that the unexpected happened! I GOT A JOB! I worked for about 6 months and then spent the last few months kind of taking care of myself due to the stress the job added (completely unnecessary stress) So now I'm back and I've learned a LOT. I'm going to pick up where I left off with More Beautiful You (AKA the beginning) And we'll get through this. Then I'm going to add some other things I've learned. Over the past year I've undergone a lot of changes. In the job I had available to me a clothes closet in which I was able to get some fashionable and nice clothes. Suddenly with this job came an amount of confidence I never new I had with that I wore less makeup, nicer clothes, cuter shoes and ACTUALLY styled my hair more! This taught me that with confidence comes a desire to stand up straight and just do it! But beyond that my confidence brought out my natural beauty! It was amazing! Then I quit my job. With the stress of being jobless (again) I gained a ridiculous amount of acne, I'd never had acne this bad in my life. I felt ugly and gross. So I decided to fix it. I started getting into home remedy stuff and suddenly my acne got better. I'm working on losing weight for health reasons and I'm just happier because I know I'm working on a MORE BEAUTIFUL ME! Confidence has everything to do with that. Hold your head up my dears this is only the beginning of our journey, and I will try not to flake out this time (ha!) Lesson 1 (day 1) of More Beautiful you: Lyric used: "Little girl 14 flipping through a magazine says she wants to look that way" THE WORLD'S VERSION OF BEAUTY: I don't think I need to say too much about this lesson. We all know it- media controls our views of beauty. In magazines, movies, TV shows (reality and otherwise) the girls shown are 9 times out of 10 very tiny. The trends are revealing and the make up often caked on! Plastic surgery and Photoshop are medias best friend and they want it to be OURS too. The view of perfection that they show is just....unrealistic and downright...ridiculous! This book says that the number of cosmetic surgery procedures performed on girls 18 and under have nearly doubled over the past decade. The fact that media has done this to us is only proven by our reactions from friends and family (yes even parents) I've known family members who have ENCOURAGED eating disorders and surgery on the young person who they deem "unpretty" COME ON! That's just NOT right. This book delves deep into scripture which I will share with you the verses: Genesis 3:1-24 look it up and then answer these: In verse 6 what 3 things about the fruit from the forbidden tree made it attractive to Eve? How does our culture use these same 3 lures to entice us to seek more than God has already given us? What should Eve have done to avoid being seduced by the serpent to sin? Now it's time to look in the mirror. What does beauty mean to you and what aspects do you desire the most? The book goes on to suggest memorizing Psalm 119:36-37 Following the scripture is your choice, though I do recommend it. I found my own personal love for myself in my love for Christ. I've had people ask me "You are a bigger girl how do you keep your self esteem high?" Because GOD CREATED ME! I'm bigger because that's part of my story. I want to help other girls see the beauty in their differences, the things that stick out about them make them beautiful! I'm bigger yeah... but I am working on myself not because I think I'm ugly but because my health wants me to. Girls we can rock the bodies we can have, be who you are and you don't have to be a smaller size to rock it. As for the smaller girls who wish they could gain weight (yeah they exist) do your best to do just that but STAY HEALTHY. Remember ladies you don't need to show every part of your body to be respected or loved just be you- and when you see your beauty the world will too <3 Until next time... STAY BEAUTIFUL! <3 Check this video/song out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuCIcIQmBgU