Don't Forget That You Are Amazing, Incredible, and Beautiful

     I'll admit it....even though I try my hardest to be positive there are times where negativity creeps in. I find that I sometimes compare myself to others {alright basically I compare myself to other people almost all the time} and in the process I end up putting myself down and feeling all together kind of gross {I HATE that! it's one of the worst things in the world I am sure of it}and I forget all my positive thoughts that I had maybe only moments earlier.
     What I need to remember is that yeah sure there may be someone who is prettier than I, someone who has accomplished more things than I have or someone who has traveled more than me but all their accomplishments don't detract from who I am. Instead of focusing on what I don't have I should be focusing on what I DO have and what I have been blessed with. And friends I will be honest, I have been seriously blessed. I have a fantastic family, an amazing network of friends and a truly fantastic place to work as well as the opportunity to continue my education at a university {and those are only the big blessings in my life, there are SOOO many more but I won't bore y'all with those here}.
     There is this couple that lives in Provo, Utah both survivors of a nearly fatal plane crash. The wife came away from the crash with third degree burns over 80% of her body {she now refers to herself as looking like Sally from A Nightmare Before Christmas} her husband suffered extensive injuries himself but not to the physical extent that she did. her story in her words {this woman is so incredible!!}. She looks like a completely different person and in my mind she has every right to complain about the hand she has been dealt, however what is truly amazing is that she doesn't complain. In fact reading her blog is inspiring to me because she and her husband work so hard to find the positives in their situation even though I'm sure many people wouldn't begrudge them a little complaining. This couple is really incredible. To the world she may look like a stitched up doll but to her husband she is the most beautiful creature in creation.
     The best part about that? He loves her for her. He doesn't love her because she looks like a supermodel but because she has a beautiful soul that far outshines her burn scars. Her husband is in love with her. He is in love with her spirit. And that is truly inspiring and probably one of the most beautiful and wonderful things in the world to learn. Her blog has taught me that we are not our bodies. We are our spirits.


     My grandfather Renstrom was always, always, ALWAYS so good at seeing a beautiful spirit. He would go on and on and on about this beautiful girl that he met the other day and how wonderful it was to see such beauty in the world. He would continue on in that manner until you were just dying to meet this beautiful and gorgeous girl because the way he was speaking about her you just knew that she would be the end all and be all face of beauty. However more times than not when you were finally faced with this person, the girl before you would be very plain, sometimes even leaning more on the unattractive side and it was enough to make you wonder what kind of glasses does Grandpa wear when he meets with this girl? It was always very weird to me that my grandpa {who's wife was and still is absolutely beautiful} could call these plain, mousy and sometimes unattractive girls beautiful and stunning and gorgeous. I thought that until I actually took the time to speak to and get to know one of these girls. It dawned on me {well more it smacked me upside the head} that my grandpa wasn't looking at their physical appearances  but at their spirits. And in every instance he was right, these girls were incredible and absolutely gorgeous. These girls that he had called beautiful were beautiful but not in the physical way. They had a much better beauty, they had beautiful souls. After learning this little fact about how my grandpa viewed people I always felt much better about myself when he called me beautiful because I knew that he was commenting on something much better than my physical appearance. I've always been jealous of that ability my grandfather had to look not only at the body of a person but also at their soul and I hope to one day do just as he did and see beauty in everyone. And I do mean EVERYONE
     I am learning to not just ignore but accept and love the faults and flaws that I see when I look in a mirror, because those "faults and flaws" are what make me uniquely me and are not the only thing to me. I am trying to work on my spirit everyday so that it is the most beautiful that it can be. I may not be Natalie Portman or anything but I am me and I am determined to be the best me that there ever can be {that feels like I am channeling my inner Dr. Seuss...awesome right?}
     And to my blogstalkers {all four of you?} "don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise, but you are AMAZING, GIFTED and INCREDIBLE. I love you and everything that you are. Heavenly Father knows you by name and loves you with such intensity. Don't EVER give up and don't EVER be less than what you CAN be. You have the POTENTIAL to do ANYTHING. You are a choice spirit."
     I love you all and you are all amazing, incredible and beautiful! Thanks for being a part of my life!