Last night I went to a church in
When I think of the wonderful parts of the word beautiful, the LAST thing that
comes to my mind is physical beauty. I think one of the worst uses
of the word beautiful is the way People Magazine and the like use it to define
the 50 Most Beautiful people in the world.
The problem with that is that they define beauty as an outward
characteristic. I don’t think God really
cares much about one’s outward appearance.
The thing that I really get excited about when I think of Amy aren’t her
outward characteristics. The things that
rank high on my list of what makes Amy beautiful are as follows:
- Her love and devotion to her faith—Amy
has always been someone who has challenged me in my faith through her
example and her careful encouragement and confrontation when I have done
or said something that just wasn’t in line with Christianity.
- Her care and concern for our marriage—Amy
is always thinking about what could make our relationship better and what
are those things we should do to bring us closer together. She is also respectful of what makes me
unique and my differences and has adapted to that by allowing me times to “be
myself.”
- Her love and nurturing of our children—I
am more of a “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” kind of parent where Amy
is right there by Abby and Madeline’s side to help them when they need
it. I think there are places for
both kinds of parenting that help to develop a child. I am so glad she is there to balance
that part of my personality.
- Her compassion to those less fortunate
than her—I may be the one who touts a lot of social justice causes and
concern for those who are poor and needy, but Amy is the one who really
helped push my heart in that direction.
- Her sense of morality and justice—Amy
knows what is right and wrong. She
is one of the nest counselors I have to bounce ideas off of to know
whether I am doing the right thing or not.
