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Birthdays!  I absolutely LOVE birthdays and yes, I find everything about a birthday beautiful! I will admit that I am a total birthday snob and ... I am all about celebrating my birthday.  I tend to celebrate BIG - it is not just a day but I actually celebrate ALL month long which is why I call it my "birthday month!" Last year I actually ended up celebrating into the next month as well ... this was not on purpose however - it just kind of happened.  Birthdays are a BIG deal to me ... I think it is important to acknowledge and celebrate the people you love and care about.  And, who doesn't love to be acknowledged, celebrated and cared for ... I mean really.  It is your one day ... it is the day that the Lord has ordained as your entrance into this world ... He CHOSE the day you were going to be born ... he chose it!  That in and of itself is beautiful ... I mean the Lord chose the day you would enter the world ... he made it happen and that is not an accident.  

Yep, beautiful!

Now, those of you who know me can also attest to the fact that even though I tend to be a birthday snob when it comes to my birthday I am not just all about me ... I absolutely LOVE celebrating others on their birthday as well.  I have learned however that not everyone is like me when it comes to celebrating birthdays.  Many of my friends could care less about their birthday (I so do not remotely understand this) and it is almost like pulling teeth to get them to allow me to celebrate with them on their day or even within their birthday month.  WHY????  Can someone help me understand why some people do not like to be celebrated on their birthday?  Again, I so do not get this.  

Back to celebrating ... Today is the birthday of my sweet niece - I SO love this day!  I am so thankful that the Lord created her ... I am so thankful that he ordained this day to be her birthday and I am so honored to be her "Auntie!"  Side note ... when she started forming words she named me "Auntie" and when others in my family would refer to me as Annie (my real name) she would correct them and say "no, it's Auntie" - years later my family still refers to me as "Auntie" ... to this day, it is so very endearing to be called this name.

Beauty is 11 today and it is so hard to believe that she is 11!   You see when my sister was pregnant with this precious child it was not an easy or blissful time ... it was the exact opposite - it was scary and hard.  I will never forget the day that my sister told me that she was going to be on bed-rest for the duration of her pregnancy and that she was afraid she would lose the baby.  At the time,  she wasn't far enough along to deliver and the doctors were doing everything that they could to keep this child in my sisters womb for as long as possible.  I along with my brother -in-law, and my mom would take my sister into the doctor for weekly check ups ... this went on for weeks and weeks and weeks.  I don't remember the exact week  but I asked my sister if we could find out the sex of the baby ... she didn't really want to know but I wanted to know SO badly ... mainly because I wanted to pray specifically for this child by name (they had a name picked out for each sex) but I also REALLY wanted it to be a girl so I could go out and buy really cute girly clothes, dolls, stuff for her bedroom, etc.  I begged and begged her to find out the sex of the baby but she wasn't fully sure she wanted to know ... one week she said to me "I am sure it is a girl"  I asked "why do you think that?" to which she answered "because it is already causing me problems and is being a pain which reminds me of you!" We both laughed really hard mainly because there was a bit of truth in that statement (I fully admit that most of my life I have been known as "difficult").  But ... I wasn't offended at all and secretly hoped that her gut instinct was right.  Well, one week I was with my sister and her hubby watching the ultra sound technician scan my sisters belly to check the size of the baby and she asked if they wanted to know the sex to which he replied "yes" ... I will never forget the moment she told us that it was a girl - it was so joyful and such an honor to be a part of that precious moment of knowing that they were going to have their own little precious girl one day soon - from that day forward I have had the privilege of praying for this child by name ... she truly is a gift from God. 

Beauty entered this world earlier than anyone expected ... 6 weeks prior to my sisters due date she was born via c-section - she weighed 2.5 pounds (yep very small and premature) but was this completely perfect, beautiful and precious little bundle of joy who all of us fell completely in love with from the moment we laid eyes on her.  I will never forget talking with my sister that night ... with tears in her eyes she said "I was so scared that she wouldn't be okay ... I didn't know what to expect but she is perfect ... did you see her nose, her toes, her fingers, her lips ... she is perfect - so beautiful and perfect!" 

So, this is one of the many reasons that I find birthdays beautiful!    Everyone has a story and everyone deserves to be honored and celebrated for who they are on the sweet day that the Lord has ordained as their birthday.  

I am so thankful that the Lord has blessed me with so many incredible people in my life to which it is a privilege and an honor to celebrate.

 

My sister, beauty, me and my mom ...

So tell me ... what in this day do you find beautiful?  Or what about birthdays do you find beautiful? Do tell ....

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I think that the word beautiful is beautiful in and of itself!

beau-ti-ful : [byoo-tuh-fuhl]

–adjective

1. having beauty; having qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind: a beautiful dress; a beautiful speech.
2. excellent of its kind: a beautiful putt on the seventh hole; The chef served us a beautiful roast of beef.
3. wonderful; very pleasing or satisfying.

–noun

4. the concept of beauty (usually prec. by the).
5. (used with a plural verb) beautiful things or people collectively (usually prec. by the): the good and the beautiful.
6. the ideal of beauty (usually prec. by the): to strive to attain the beautiful.

So, think about it ... when you experience something beautiful through an image, a song, a word, a book, a movie, or an interaction with another person, what happens to you ... how does it impact you - what emotions stir in you? Better yet, when you are the recipient of being told that you are beautiful, what does that do to you? Does it give you a little spring in your step?

I have been calling my niece Emily "beauty" since she was a baby (she is now 10) and every time I see or talk to her the first words out of my mouth are: "hi beauty!" ... Upon hearing these words, her eyes light up, she smiles slightly and I can see in her a sense of joy and delight because she is found beautiful by me. After pausing for a few seconds, I always follow it up with "but you are SO much more than another pretty face ... God created you perfectly in his image, I love your tender heart, I love that you care so much about other people and I love your desire to do your best in everything that you do ... that is why you are so beautiful to me my sweet Emily" ... and then I see in her face a sense of affirmation because she knows that I find her beautiful not only on the outside but most importantly for who she is on the inside.

And then I sometimes remind her of the following verse:

Psalm 45:11

The King is enthralled by your beauty; honor him for he is your God.

So tell me ... what in this day do you find beautiful?

One

Okay, here it goes ... number one of a thousand things that I find beautiful.

I find the invention of photography via the camera one of the most beautiful things ever invented. I did a little research and found out the following: A man by the name of Ahazen invented the first pinhole camera around 1,000 AD but it wasn't until 1827 that a man named Joseph Niepce created the first photographic image through a process known as heliographs or sun prints. Niepce's sun prints were the prototype for the modern photograph by letting light draw the picture.

For those of you who like to know the "root" meaning of words, "photography" is derived from the Greek words photos ("light") and graphein ("to draw"). The word was first used by the scientist Sir John F.W. Herschel in 1839. It is a method of recording images by the action of light, or the related radiation, on a sensitive material.

I will stop here as far as history goes and leave you with why I find photography so beautiful.

I believe that a camera lens can truly capture a glimpse into the soul of the subject (if the subject is a person of course) and often times a photo evokes emotion in the soul of the person viewing the image. Think about it ... how does photography stir you emotionally ... what happens in your soul when you see an image that causes an emotional response in you?

Below are some images that evoke emotion in me ...

So tell me ...what in this day do you find beautiful?