God Wants to Redeem Beauty as His Idea

     "On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean.  No one looked on you with pity or compassion.  Rather, you were thrown out ...for on the day you were born you were despised.
     Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there I said to you, "Live!"  I made you grow like a plant in the field.  You grew up and developed and became the most beautiful of jewels.  Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, you who were naked and bare.
     Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness.  I gave you my solemn oath and entered into covenant with you, ...and you became mine.  
     I Bathed you....Washed you...and Poured oil over you.  I put beautiful clothes on you made with embroidery and sandals of leather on your feet.  ..... I adorned you with jewelry:  I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck, and I put a ring in your nose, earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.
     So you were adorned with gold and silver and costly fabric.  Your food was fine flour, honey and olive oil.  You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen.  And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, Because The Splendor I had Given You Made Your Beauty Perfect ...........Declares the Sovereign Lord!"
                                                                                                         Ezekiel 16: 4-14
                                                                                              From the Greatest Book ever written

    The first time I read this passage, I might have blushed.  It seemed to me to be so intimate, romantic, unexpected.  You see although this passage is meant to be an allegory .... symbolic of God's compassion over a wounded people and how he healed them,  it spoke to me on a different level.  I grew up listening to preachers and pew sitters talk about beautiful women like they were the devil, himself.  Like all the sin of the world rests on the shoulders of a beautiful woman and her powers to allure and persuade.  I remember being so angry at beautiful women, blaming them for the broken homes and hearts, and dreams.  I hated them, and yet I wanted to be them because they were the ones that got the love and attention that I so craved.  They got the acceptance, the leg-up in the world, at least in my childhood perspective.  But never had I ever heard anyone speak of beauty as a means to bring glory to God.  That beauty was, in fact, a gift and not a curse.  If beautiful women were such a weapon in the hands of evil,  why would God use a beautiful woman to describe his ultimate form of restoration?

      In American culture, we are accustomed to seeing beautiful women as sexual idols.  We are either, tempted by them, tortured by them, avoid them all together, or by rare occasion, inspired by them.  Truly inspired, not just physically inspired.  Have we ever considered them as a means to point back to God?  I remember feeling shame when I felt beautiful or even embarrassment when I would wear something extra feminine.  I thought I was some how breaking the rules like I had slipped onto the other side........the bad side.  I thought that in order to be a christian I had to suppress my femininity otherwise I was somehow working for the "evil one".  But when I knew for the first time that my beauty had come from God........it was a freeing moment.   I wasn't some tool to wreck homes and other women weren't my arch enemy.  I didn't have to be scared of other women just because of how they looked.  I didn't have to be scared of being beautiful, either.
      I was also taught to believe that jewelry like nose rings and such were objects of vanity and sin as well.  Yet, this was the picture God painted for us to see how He takes something broken and restores it.  So then, what is the problem?  It's what we chose to do with these gifts that makes the difference.  Any gift that is given has the potential to be misused and abused.   I don't know about you, but whenever I see something beautiful I immediately think "Great job, God!"  Whether it be, flowers or forest, waterfalls or weeping willows, Sunsets or seashores, men or women. It is the splendor of God that makes beauty perfect. It has been the splendor of that same compassion and love that my own beauty has come forth.
     I'm tired of the porn industry degrading the value of what was to be the pinnacle of creation.  It's time for Beauty to be attributed back to God. An artist that passionately creates should be acknowledged.  Because the creating of Woman was the pinnacle of all He did, she is worthy of Praise not Perversion.  After all, He said that it was "Very Good".


I am Letriah Masters and I believe God wants to Redeem Beauty as His Idea.

                                                      

Dress from Marshalls
$20.00

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Great Deals at TARGET!

    Today I went to Target.  Or should I say "Today I hit the Target" because that's exactly what I did.  As you may know, I love to shop at thrift stores but there are certain items that have to come new and jewelry is one of them.  I have no hesitations buying nice jewelry, when I have the opportunity.  When I get coupons in the mail for Kohls, Fashion Bug, and Target, you would think it's Christmas morning.  I'm like Flash, running full speed ahead.  Well most of the time.   This time it was even better.  I had a gift card to spend.  Spending money that's given to you is way better than spending your own money.  That's my opinion.
    So Jingle bells jingle bells jingle all the way, oh what fun it is to shop on a July, Summer day.  One advantage of shopping in a thrift store is I generally leave with a complete outfit.  In a department store I have to be way more decisive than my nature wants to be.  Which is why my husband turns pale in the face and loses oxygen when he goes shopping with me.  The solution to that problem is, I go shopping alone and my indecisiveness stops at the onset of a headache.   I must confess, I was way better today.
       1).     I started with a basket full of options, laid them all out on the counter according to what I
                absolutely love and what I really like.
 Then when I had discarded the "really like" group................
       2).     I  looked at all the merchandise to see which items would compliment each other.
       3).     Next, I applied my pricing cap to eliminate any other options.
       4).     And at the check out lane I made one last adjustment after taxes were applied.
 After one hour of shopping, I had a bag full of treasures to inspire new outfits and combinations I haven't thought of yet.
   
On a side note.  I looked at clothing too and discovered some amazing clearance sales for shirts, dresses, skirts, swim wear, and more.  These items were as cheap as 5.00$ to 20.00$ with their 50% off sales and 30% off sales.  I noticed purses, wallets, and scarves were also a great buy.  If you're looking to Fab Your Image 4 Less, check out Target.  With them, You won't miss the mark.

Now it's time to show you what I found.

Jewelry from Target
$19.06 for all of this

The sparrow and the butterfly have significance to my life
$4.99

Love the leaf earrings.
Not a fan of the feathers.  They remind me of ostrich
$3.48

I love wooden jewelry
$2.80

Purple and Gold,  colors for a princess
$4.99

$2.80

 Thank you for visiting http://fyi4Less.blogspot.com

Everyday Fab

     I don't profess to be the best dressed but I have fun doing my best with what I have.  Everyday I wake up I have a little adventure picking out my clothes and accessories.  I don't obsess over it, but I try not to repeat an outfit in a month.  So I challenge myself to be creative and find new combinations with what I have.   A smile crosses my face as I think about it.
      I came from a very challenged background that has molded the woman that I am today.  I am the fifth child in a family of six, and out of four girls, I was at the bottom of the totem pole.  So my hand-me-downs were grammy-downs by the time they reached me.  Shopping at the goodwill was the worst thing a kid could ask for in a world full of bullies and television adds to tell you you were out-dated, broke, busted, and disgusted.  I was so embarrassed that I couldn't look a soul in the eye.  I was the girl that kicked rocks down the street and though I wanted to hide, I couldn't because I was also the girl that was taller than all the other kids too.  So tall in fact, that I got confused with being a parent when I was in eighth grade.
      But here I am posting on the world wide web about what I wear and I don't care that the world knows that I shop in thrift stores at all.  I try to shop in other stores even when I have the money, but it seems so wrong to pay so much for one or two items.  Some of you may say that I have a poverty mindset, but I disagree.  In fact, I live like I'm rich though my bank account says otherwise.   I don't have private jets and limitless credit cards to max out.  I don't even have one credit card to max out, which has been to my advantage.  I've simply learned that I can have an upscale fashion in a down scale economy.
      So today, I'm sharing my "Everyday Fab".  A black and green blouse from "the limited" and a black blouse of "Gloria Vanderbilt"  These items only cost me 1 dollar a piece.  It's light weight, comfortable, classy, and goes great with jeans.  I'm an everyday woman with an everyday fashion.  This is how I work my everyday budget.

Green and black blouse from "The Limited"  1.00$
Salvation Army thrift store

Gloria Vanderbilt black blouse 1.00$
Salvation Army thrift store
Black open toe heels 10.00$ payless shoe source

black leaf earrings 1.00$
Discount store

If you don't love it don't buy it!

    I'm a woman.  A lady.  And what lady doesn't like flowers?  I love flowers and yet for years I've had a strong aversion to floral print attire.  I think it reminds me of my grandmother's furniture all covered in plastic.    I've always been more apt to wear solid colors.  I used to wear mostly blue.  It was my favorite color for the first 13 or more years of my life.  I think it reflected how I felt; lonely, depressed, neglected, forgotten.  It also represented the blue skies that I wanted to fly to, or the blue ocean that could have carried me to some place far far away.
 But in the last seven years, I've gone through major transformation, like a caterpillar in a cocoon.  One of my more recent favorite colors is purple. The color of royalty.  When I wear it, I feel like I should hold myself to a greater level of integrity and honor.  I love green.  It's the color of life and vitality.  After a long dead winter, we know that new things are coming when we began to see green again.  When I wear it, I want to live better, live braver, bolder, take risks and enjoy every moment.  And silver. It makes me feel like a treasure, a star in the sky, an image of beauty like a cloud with a silver lining.
Today, however, I'm wearing a floral print shirt.  I went down to Washington DC for the first time this year and happened upon it after I stole a few minutes for myself .  Something about it just caught my eye.  The colors, the pattern at the top.  It made me want to branch out and try something new.  It was definitely out of my comfort zone.  Somehow, out of all the other beautiful items I had in my arm I left with two shirts, and the floral print shirt was one of them.  Was that a mistake?  There's two things I really hate to waste; food and money.  So I guess I was going to have to wear it.   
 When you buy clothing,  you are making a statement that it was worth your time and money.  I have a rule that "IF YOU DON'T ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT, DON'T BUY IT!"  And if you buy it, don't shove it in a closet until your next garage sale.  I loved the shirt, but it still had a chance to end up in a garage sale or give away pile.
          What items do you have that are just collecting dust?  What dress/suit is just waiting for a special occasion?  Make everyday special.  Wear something out-of-the-ordinary today.  There are times when I put on a beautiful dress just because.  And though it feels a little odd, I'd catch myself smiling and feeling happy.  It's a little reminder that everyday should be celebrated.  Besides, you are the one who sets the limitations.
And if today is just an ordinary day, "MAKE IT EXTRAORDINARY'.
        This floral print shirt is definitely out of the ordinary, and it feels a little odd for me but when I wear it I feel like a flower that has truly blossomed.

Floral print shirt for $5.00
$10.00 green genuine leather heels
$1.00 blue jean belt

It was $79.00. I paid $3.50!

       It's time for another "Fabulous Find" episode.  Well semi-recently I had a birthday and had been waiting patiently to spend my birthday money.  I know it sounds like I'm having a teenage moment, but who doesn't like getting money they can just spend on themselves.  As a matter of fact, Birthday money might be the only time I don't feel pressed to give toward the needs of my wonderful children and ever rising bills.   
     Finally I had the opportunity to shop till I drop, which is usually two hours after I start.  But today, I wasn't really looking for myself, I was shopping for my son who needed summer shorts. Sinse I was going to one of my favorite stops, I decided it was a great idea to be prepared just in case.
     It was a Monday, not a Tuesday, which I had recently discovered as the new dollar day at the Salvation Army thrift store.  I was excited.  Buying great clothing for a dollar was a bit of a drug for me.  I don't know, maybe it's like cheating the system or something.  Some people cheat on there taxes and I buy clothing at discount/thrift stores instead of paying insanely high prices for something that might have costs five dollars or less to make.  Sometimes the deals I find are so ridiculous that I have to pull out my mad-scientist laugh ....." Muah-ha-ha-haaaaah.  I've done it again!"  And such was the occasion, this magnificent Monday.
      It was magnificent until I walked up to the door and saw the sign that knocked the wind from my sails "No More Dollar Days by order of New York".  Say what!!!! I almost pulled out one of my special words that I save for desperate moments.  I didn't much feel like shopping after that but either way, my son had a need that I was willing to meet and it still beat paying 20.00$ or more.  Furthermore, the half off tag of the day was still in play, so there was always a possibility for a "Fab-Find".
      While my son tried on shorts I rummaged through a giant bin of clothing that had been removed from the racks. They all had the half off color tags.  Sometimes I get the feeling that they don't really want us to find them so they pile them all in what seems to be, a giant garbage can.  After endless repetition of pulling out item after item like the illusionist that keeps pulling scarves from some unknown source, I came across a pair of black "ALFANI" dress pants with belt included.
       To my surprise, it had it's original tags marked down from 79.00$ to sale price of 55.30$ which had been marked down to the Salvation Army price of 6.99$ with another reduction of 3.50$ because it had the half off color tag.  Wow! The wind was blowing in my sails again.  That was a GRAND total savings of  75.50$   I was so inspired by that, I went back a couple days later for family day and found a matching suit jacket and fabulous purse.  The suit jacket was marked down to 3.00$  and the purse was 5.49$.  I had a complete outfit for 12.00$ all together.  You can't beat that!!

F.Y.I.  Looking Fabulous for Less is my business and I'm encouraging you............
You Can Fab Your Image 4 Less, too!    Allot less.