Sorry Saturday: Let's Focus (or not) on Cold Sores

 

Last night I told my daughter Allison we would be going to the Cedar Falls writing group "if I didn't look too hideous in the morning." I was just starting to get a cold sore and I wasn't sure what it was going to look like today.

I slathered on Abreva before bed and prayed for the best. It was noticeable this morning, but I decided it wasn't too bad to venture out in public.

I would have missed out on a great meeting if I had stayed home just because of a little spot on my lip. 

We are pretty vain people, aren't we? 

We worry about what people will think of us if we aren't dressed the right way or if our hair isn't just so or if we have a big zit on the end of our nose (or a cold sore gracing our bottom lip).

I've gotten over most of that. I don't wear makeup. I don't mind going in a store in jeans and an old sweatshirt on a Saturday. I never spend much time on my hair, but physical imperfections bother me.

Cold sores, big pimples, and other abnormalities make me feel extremely self-conscious.

I remember a couple of years ago at the Breathe Christian Writers Conference in Michigan. I had a problem with my eye. It was sore and extremely red. I could hardly talk to my friends because I was sure they couldn't stand to look at me or were worrying I had pinkeye and would infect them if they got too close. 

I skipped a workshop and went to the eye doctor and found out I had a contact stuck in my eye and it was getting infected. (When I got back to Iowa I figured out I also had an old one in the other eye. What is wrong with me!?)

Even after I knew my problem was temporary, it was hard to show my face at the conference.

We need to remember that what is important is what is inside of us.

Of course, we want to look nice most of the time, but physical imperfections do not have to bother us so much that we don't want to spend time with people.

Cold sores and infected eyes are temporary.

What about people who have permanent "flaws"?

Scars, skin diseases, missing limbs, drooping muscles after a stroke...so many things can mar our physical beauty and make us self-conscious.

If we learn to put more effort into becoming beautiful on the inside, maybe we'll be able to make peace with the physical flaws that are part of who we are.

God loves us just as we are. He knows every cell of our bodies and he loves every inch of us. 

Some people will stare at our flaws and stay away if it makes them uncomfortable, but the people who love us will never go away. They will love us for who we are inside. A missing limb or scar just becomes part of how they know us and it doesn't matter a bit.

They can even look past a giant zit or an ugly cold sore, I'll bet. 

(image from livequotes.online)

"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised." (Psalm 31:30 NIV)

Do physical flaws make you feel self-conscious? How can focusing on God help you to make peace with the imperfections that bother you and move ahead confident that God sees you as beautiful, inside and out?

Focus Friday: Let's Focus on the Grand Canyon - Going Down

I've been promising to tell you more about the Grand Canyon, but with the holidays the last couple of weeks I put it off. It's time to keep that promise and show you some pictures and tell you more about our trip.

Between Gary and I, we have 583 pictures of our trip. Would you like to see them all? No? I didn't think so. How about 25?

Here we are at the top soon after we arrived at the Grand Canyon:

It looks beautiful from the top, but it's even better when you get off the rim and descend into the depths of the Canyon. Here we are at the top of the South Kaibab trail:

You can't go in a straight line because it's just too steep. Switchbacks are everywhere!

You have to keep your eyes on the trail, but it's good to look up often so you don't miss the great views.

 I attached "Lizzie" to my backpack, hoping to alarm some fellow hikers. No one mentioned it on the way down, but some women in the bunkhouse commented on it and said it was cute.

 Ooh Aah Point:

Ooh Aah!

 It was pretty cold and windy at times on the way down, but I was prepared.

 We're still not at the bottom.

 It's hard to really capture the trail in pictures, but I hope you can envision the trail descending in switchbacks to the right in the next picture:

 A couple of times we had a group of mules go by. We stood to the side while they passed. Such hard-working animals!

 Stopped for a sec to make sure this rock didn't fall on Gary. I saved him! :-)

 We knew we were getting close when we could see the Colorado River.

 Here's the Black Bridge...and you can see a group of rafts at the beach on the left side of the picture:

A better view of the Black Bridge

 Here we are before going through the tunnel. We're almost there!

 Crossing the Black Bridge:

 A beautiful view of the Colorado as we cross it:

 We made it! There was no one around to take our picture together, so here are two pictures of us arriving at Phantom Ranch.

It was a great day of hiking, even though our knees gave us much more trouble than we thought they would. 

More next week about what we saw in the Canyon.

"Through him [Jesus] all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." (John 1:3 NIV)

Have you ever visited the Grand Canyon? How about some other beautiful natural wonder? How can focusing on God help you to appreciate the things He has made?