Smile. You are Beautiful.

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It was one of those days.

Have you ever had one?

Have you ever had a day when you don’t want to smile?

A day when you feel ugly. A day when you feel like the pores on your nose are as big as a 2HB pencil, and the lines on your forehead resemble the tracks the wagon trains left on the prairies. You have been wearing the same pair of jeans for two weeks straight because you can’t fit into any of your other pants and you haven’t done laundry. Your hair is pulled back and hidden under a hat because you forgot to shower this morning.

And then you see it.

In the window on a second-hand store is a hand chalked sign.

Smile. You are Beautiful.

The person writing the sign doesn’t know you. They didn’t think, Hmmm, Margaret, or John or Rebecca is going to walk past my store and I want them to know they are beautiful. It was a random act of kindness. A small message of hope to encourage someone who needed it.

And we need it.

A reminder to smile. A reminder that we are beautiful.

We need to be reminded we are beautiful because we live in a retouched world. We live in a world where no-one in a magazine has wrinkles or visible pores.

We are beautiful even if our nose has large pores. We are beautiful even if our forehead has ruts running across it. We are beautiful even if our clothes don’t fit and we have cellulite on our thighs. We are beautiful even if we have to shower. We may be smelly, but we are still beautiful.

We are beautiful because God, who created us, doesn’t make mistakes. God didn’t say, “Only the people who are a size six and are over five feet eight inches tall are beautiful.” I looked for a reference for that in the Bible and I couldn’t find it. However I did find this.

For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well. Psalm 139: 13-14

Yes, that’s right. You are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Do you lay awake at night thinking, “Oh! If only I had smaller pores on my nose then I would be beautiful.”?

You are beautiful with a large green piece of lettuce on your teeth. People might stare, but you are still beautiful. You are beautiful with gray hair and wrinkles and large pores on your nose.

And why are you beautiful? You are beautiful because God made you and He loves you very much.

And if you ever feel like not smiling, remember: God doesn’t make mistakes. Then smile.