Patchwork Beauty

I remember not liking my nose. I didn’t love it at all. It was big and broad and in high school, I remember thinking I was ugly because of it. I remember hoping that one day I’d grow into it, not love it, but grow into it. I have my father’s nose, which by comparison looked perfectly fine on him. I always thought my father was handsome, and I wanted his brown eyes. My eyes are brown, but not as brown as his. I envied the dimples in my mother’s cheeks when she smiled, not realizing that my own dimples faintly appear when I would smile. I envied my brother’s popularity and confidence. I lived in the state of “want” for a time as a kid.


I love my nose and the way my smile sneaks into it, making it even broader! I noticed my nose in the mirror at work yesterday and it made me smile. I do that a lot—look in the mirror and smile.

Self love is challenging, especially when you juggle so many images of what is beautiful, what is acceptable and what is sexy. We’re exposed to so many external suggestions of what beautiful is, that it’s hard to imagine that we’re beautiful just as we are. It’s God’s great design that we all look different. In the factory that is heaven, there is no “ugly” pile and no “beautiful” pile. We attach those labels to ourselves in an effort to fit or let someone else know they don’t. You will never draw the conclusion of your own beauty by quilting together the standards other people use. Don’t ever seek the reflection of someone else in your mirror. You really are fine just the way you are.