When I was a teenager, I hated the way I looked. Everything that made me unique -caramel colored skin, hazel-green eyes, ashe-colored hair with natural blond highlights- I didn’t like. I looked too different from all the other kids. Skinny legs, no boobs, no hips or anything else that resembled a direction toward womanhood.
When I began wearing makeup, I had a distorted view of myself. Because my sister, Launi, was several shades lighter than me, I thought I was dark-skinned. Really dark-skinned. I remember wearing foundation for the first time to church and having a woman come up and tell me how I should allow her to teach me how to do my makeup.
What was wrong with my makeup? Well, looking back at it, I know what was wrong with with it. I was wearing a foundation on my skin several shades too dark. I probably looked like I’d been embalmed.
As I got older and began to fall in love with the way I looked, who I was on the inside, and the world overall, everything changed. My features I once wished I could change became my favorite physical attributes. My natural thin frame became my best friend. I fell in love with the person God made me to be. And by doing so, I fell in love with the world around me.
I love life. I am a happy woman and a happy wife. But that began first with me. When I met my husband, I was happier than any single person I knew then or know now. I loved life and had no problem going to a restaurant and requesting a table for one. I went to the movies by myself, ate popcorn by myself and laughed out loud like I was on a date – but it was just me.
So often, people look to their marriage to make them happy. They look to their husband to find joy. Happiness and joy cannot come from that which is external. True happiness comes from within; a satisfaction and contentment with yourself first and foremost.
When you look in the mirror, do you like the person looking back at you? If not, that is where you must start. Fall in love with the person God created you to be and the entire world will take on a different look and shape. Joy will be all around you. Peace will live within you. And happiness will be yours for the taking.
Until Monday…make it a great weekend!
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