Extreme Beauty

I was watching the show Extreme Makeover last night, I always find myself morbidly fascinated. It amazes me what surgeons can do to a person to make them look more attractive supposedly. But I found myself thinking last night, how does God feel? It says in Psalm 139 verse 14, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works.” That being the case that we are all in God eyes a piece of extraordinary workmanship what a slap in the face that it must be to Him when people want nose jobs, bigger breasts, squarer jaws and straighter teeth. It is also true that my gender is the worst! Whatever happened to wanting to be unique?
Now I know that plastic surgery has done wonders for the medical profession, (I am having a limp corrected in the near future), so people who have medical conditions and will be healthier as a result of having plastic or corrective surgery I have no problem with. But shows like Extreme Makeover are taking normal people who have nothing wrong with them, (except a lack of self esteem) and putting them under the knife and turning them into Hollywood clones. In essence these people are saying that what God did wasn’t good enough. What an insult!
As a woman of the 21st century it is horrendous battle trying not to get sucked into the beauty myth myself. But having a correct sense of what it means to be truly beautiful helps. For me the Proverbs 31 woman has it down to an art. This proverb speaks nothing of looks. In fact it clearly states, “Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.” Proverb 31 speaks of doing good to all and giving of oneself to other without complaint. Beauty is not a way of looking, but a way of being, it is an attitude that we can all choose.

Slaving Away!

I went with a group of friends a couple of weeks go to see the film Amazing Grace, I thought it was fantastic and if you haven't seen it already then get on your bike and get down to the movies, because it is awesome.The movie was made to commenmorate 200 years since the abolition of slavery, a bill that was sucessfully brought to the House of Lords by William Wilberforce.The thing that gets me though, is that the illegal act of Human trafficking is worse in our time, today, than it was in Wilberfoce's day. There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world, that is more than the whole intire population of Australia! We should be outraged, what if it were you who was forced against your will to perform sexual acts, or to be a solidier an an army that kidnapped you, or forced to work in a rice field just to survive.Now I know this blog is confrontational, for that I make no apologies! But there is no need to give up on this issue because you feel the problem is too big, there are things we can all do. Here is a list: 1 . Buy fair trade coffee, tea and chocolate 2. Ask the cafes that you go to if they are using fair trade products
3. Buy Christmas gifts from places like world vision and oxfam 4. Buy only Australian made clothingThis list is only smal but it is a start! I will have more ideas as I find out more information, but if your'e interested in knowing more just google "abolition of slavery" and you are sure to find something. This was a huge issue in Wilburforces's time, and it is an even bigger issue in ours, but let's take the journey together, one step at a time, to abolish slavey for good!Shannon

First Blog Ever...knd of

Well this is my first Blog entry ever! It is kind of wierd because I am not that much of an interesting person, I live a rather mundane exsistence of a Theology student so why I need a blog is beyond me but I now have one so there you go!Feel free to comment and just say hi, I love ot when people want to talk to me so maybe this will be good thing after all.I will endevour to write something more interesting later, but for now that's all she wrote
Shannon