NieNie, A Teacher of Beauty

As many of you know, the below quote by Ruby Dee has been my chosen quote for few months. There are so many empty, beautiful carcasses of people here on earth (just look around in media for starters). They have a misdirected focus and thus are going about achieving true beauty backwards. You know I love pretty things and mascara (I'm a sucker for a good mascara ad), but being at Young Women's Camp all last week reminded me that faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works, integrity and virtue should be applied or that mascara is just covering up not magnifying beauty. Ruby Dee has this beautiful statement, reminding me of true beauty shining from within will brighten any countenance. As I have followed NieNie Dialogues, I have been taught by NieNie what real beauty is.

The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-to-get kind that comes from within - strength, courage, dignity.
― Ruby Dee

This week, I had some news that delivered an unexpected, possibly large trial. We are praying and fasting that this trial will be taken from me. It could potentially change a lot of my life choices. It has left me feeling down and concerned about my and my family's future life and decisions. The first day I thought, "Do I have a target painted on me somewhere?" Then, today, I read this post and knew that true beauty shines from within, and no matter how feeble our mortal bodies are, we can overcome with the Lord's hand. And I realized, no matter what happens, I'm just being redirected by the Lord's hand. I am grateful for NieNie's willingness to share her story of strength and hope. I feel that spark of heavenly fire now. Read about her blazing fire. See her beauty, the hard-to-get kind, shining with a heavenly fire on her countenance. Go here.
Here is her quote:

There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire,
which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which
kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.
-Washington Irving