Charm is Deceptive, and Beauty is fleeting

Hello there again! Only twelve more days till Christmas!! I can hardly believe it, can you?

So you may be wondering why I have a melodramatic picture of myself up there, and how it could possibly have anything to do with a lesson I learned. (I'll get to the 'hard thing' I told you about later:) 

Well, two days ago, Chloe sent me this pin, one I had pinned from my computer several months ago (that picture) on pinterest, and she said it had gotten repinned on some people's character or story inspiration boards! I am ashamed to say it, but I was very excited. A little too excited. Looking back at my thought process, you would probably visibly see my head expand. I was proud of my "achievement". What? I don't know how my mind works sometimes... so anyway I was getting pretty prideful. Believe me, not a great place to be. I started expecting myself to always look perfect, be perfect. Thankfully though, God reminded me what I was doing. Jolted me from my daydream of pride.  

I was pretty sad that I had fallen into that trap again. I kinda just moped for a little bit, but God picked me up and gave me this verse. 

                                                                 Proverbs 31:30

   "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."

Beauty is fleeting. It only lasts a minute. I spend time on making my outward appearance beautiful, but what am I doing to make what will last, my heart, beautiful? I read John Eldridge's book, Captivating, and it really reminded me that God thinks I'm beautiful, just the way he made me. He wants to be able to grow my faith, my fear of Him. He pursues me because he loves me. I had never thought of Jesus like that!

Okay, spent a lot of time on that... so remember last week I told you I was praying for something big, a hard thing? It came! A girl in our Life Group is looking for a new apartment next semester, and she mentioned that she would rather stay with a family. We've all been praying about this, and it looks like we will potentially be having an adopted big sister next semester! I'm excited, but the hard thing will be that Olivia will move into my bedroom. This will be hard for me, because I'm used to my own space, and having everything the way I like it! I should probably stop talking now, the rest of school calls:)
                                                                     Have a wonderful day!
                                                                              ~Avery