Wood and Friends

I was making a picture holder board for a friend.  You know the kind...it's an old beat up piece of wood with pieces of paint falling off and it's a little bit warped.  I found it at my local Habitat Restore (love that place!).  It looks like an old piece of exterior window trim.  It was perfect for what I was using it for.

As I was turning the hooks into the wood, my hubby observed that as a trim carpenter, one must have precise cuts and joints.  There is very little room for error, and if errors are made it's obvious and undesirable in the finished product.  But the opposite is true when creating rough cut pieces.  When making a door, or drawer front, or table from rough cut wood, the imperfections are highly desirable and intentional.  The ironic part is both are beautiful.  

The tight angles and the knotty, rough wood are both beautiful--each in their own way. I was talking with a fellow mama the other day.  Her beautiful 13-year-old daughter had been a little sad and maybe a tad bit jealous of another friend who happened to be very athletic and outgoing.  The friend was amazing!  It seemed that her daughter thought she wasn't amazing because she wasn't those things.  A bit more introverted, but no less smart, and certainly no less beautiful, she felt less than because she wasn't outgoing or super athletic.  It's a lie.  

The enemy wants us to feel less than and this is one of the current lies being permeated to our daughters.  Here's the truth: just because you're beautiful, or smart, or sparkly, or wonderful in any number of ways, doesn't mean that I'm not.  My beautiful may be different than your beautiful, but we're still both beautiful. That doesn't mean same.  I want my daughter so much to understand this. Just like the rough and knotty wood is beautiful, as well as the tight corners and precise panels are both beautiful...

Be your kind of beautiful today, friends.

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