friday favorites

imagine if you had to describe your own beauty to someone. could you? would you know where to start? most of us can't see our own beauty, but the people around us can. we constantly underestimate ourselves.

this video is from the dove beauty sketch ads. an fbi-trained forensic artist sketched seven women who were hidden behind a curtain, using their self-descriptions as the basis for his drawing. before the session with the forensic artist, each woman spent time with a stranger without being told why. the artist also drew sketches of each woman based on the stranger's description.

the results are pretty revealing. remember: you really are beautiful! quit being so hard on yourself.

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{source: ashley hempel photography}

i'm not a huge fan of maternity photographs, but this one is so funny. to clarify: maternity photos are fine, it's the naked belly shots i am not into.

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 {source: auntie anne's}

i also think prom proposals are a bit over the top - but what's not to love about this?! adorable.  one of the ladies in my small group told us the story of how her son asked his date to prom last week and he really hit it out of the park too.

he got a police officer to pull over the girl he wanted to ask when she was driving home from church and pretend she was in trouble. eventually the officer brought a huge paper - not sure if it was supposed to be a speeding ticket or a bill of rights - but on the paper the guy had written: "isabelle, will you go to prom with me? -zach." HA. of course she started crying and said yes.

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 {source: google images}

Girl reportedly guarded by lions- NBC News
i love this miracle! there is still good in the world and news - look for it. and the supernatural is real - welcome it.

and speaking of lions, does anyone else imagine God looks like a lion? i picture God in all sorts of different ways, but when i googled images of lions i was reminded of how much lions remind me of God. i find lions absolutely beautiful. they are just stunning creatures with piercing eyes, but they also terrify me. and i think God is like that in a way. not that we should be terrified of him all the time, but we need to have that healthy fear of him. and play by His rules. or it leads to destruction like we see all over the earth more and more.

people wonder "why does this awful stuff (fill in the blank with any number of recent shootings, bombings, other tragedies) keep happening?" "what is wrong with people?" HELLO. our nation has blatantly turned against God for a very long time! pretend that doesn't have consequences, pretend you're invincible, pretend secularization and being politically correct will improve the world and save us all, but nothing will save us all except for turning back to God! we all desperately need Jesus! He is the only answer.

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{source: pinterest}