The other day my son proceeded to tell me how large my nose is. Now, this is not a new concept for me. I have my grandfather’s Italian genes and apparently the Italian nose is a stronger gene than any other. My Mom and Aunt both inherited it, so when I grew up it was the family joke, that we had “The Nose”. But we are not unattractive people, so we adapted to it, and after high school and marriage I kind of let my nose obsession go.
Okay, thinking about it maybe that is not true. One of my friends last year was taking pictures at our women’s retreat. I told her no profile shots, only straight on shots, and when she said, “why?” I said, “The Nose”. But I don’t think about getting a nose job as often as I once did. Well that is until two weeks ago.
My son leaned over in his bed to kiss me (he sleeps on the top bunk), and said, “Watch so the nose doesn’t poke me. You know your nose it pretty long." Now he has teased me about this for a while, but for some reason that one really hit the core of my self-esteem.
I went to the bathroom, looked at myself from every angle and said, “Yep, he is right, it is pretty big.” Then when I took a shower I realized my breasts are shrinking (they will be non-existent by the time I am 50), but the nose is forever.
I was trying to talk myself down off the ledge of plastic surgery. You know, “Lord thank you for my nose. I know you gave it to me for a reason. I am sure it is there to keep me humble, Lord. I got the short and petite gene from my grandma, I guess it was too much to ask to get her little, lovely nose too.” You know that kind of stuff.
Finally, I did what any woman who is hoping to be a speaker/writer in the Christian world would do. I went and checked out the noses of other speakers/writers who have “made it”. Of course, when I shoot, I shoot for the big dogs, so I looked at Beth Moore’s nose. You see she has the nose obsession too. I have heard her make fun of her nose often, so it was a comfort to think I was in the same boat with her. I have looked at a lot of her pictures though, and not sure she should be at all concerned about “The Nose”.
The Lord used Beth to comfort me. Not because she has a nose like mine, but because of her heart. She is a beautiful woman, but her beauty comes through most of all because of her broken and contrite spirit before the Lord.
My nose, my eyes, my ears, even my breasts matter little to the spirit within me. I will rest in the body my Father has given me, because my purpose is not to be beautiful, but to have a heart that earnestly seeks Jesus.
The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7
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