Beautiful

Sister Hicken and me at the Columbus Temple

As a missionary you tend to be very critical of yourself. You have doubts, you feel like you cannot measure up to who you want to be. As a missionary I have been critical of my appearance. I want to portray myself in the best way because I am a representative of Christ. I often look at myself and think man if only I had cuter clothes, or if I only I didn't have these little imperfections, or if only my hair didn't look like this today. What is it about girls? Why do we do this to ourselves? Well anyway we had the opportunity and privilege of attending the temple last week. The Columbus temple looks exactly like the Reno temple. When I walked in I felt at home, which is exactly how a temple should feel. After I was dressed in my white temple dress I had a chance to glance in the mirrow. Tears filled my eyes as I saw myself. I felt the arms of Christ being wrapped around me, and I felt more powerfully than ever that I was a child of God. I was beautiful because I had the light of Christ in me. We are all beautiful to them no matter what our physical appearance looks like. It didn't matter what I wore, what color my hair was, if I had freckles or not, I was beautiful because I was His. The words to one of my favorite songs came to my mind. The words say, "He says I am beautiful. I'm not alone and in His eyes I'm so worth it. I'm worth every tear, and every scar. He says I am beautiful." Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ see each of us as worth it. Christ provided the ultimate gift of love because we were and are worth it. So I guess my point in writing this is do not get down on yourself. YOU are worth it. YOU are beautiful because you know who you are and where you stand!

 The Dress was a gift from one of our elderly friends who is something of a hoarder. She wore this dress in the 1970s.  Perfect!