9/21/16

Finding Beauty: Defying Normality pt. 1

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Let me tell you a story. 

When I was in middle school, everyone wore jeans to church on Sunday. And when I say everyone, I mean the cool girls that I desperately wanted to like me. Naturally, I wanted to wear jeans. I begged Mom to let me, but she stood by her Baptist-mother mentality and said "no." 

When my Dad started a church plant and we met in apartment complexes and coffee shops, Mom changed her outlook on Sunday dress code. Finally, I could wear jeans! 

But something differed in this new situation: I had no peers around me at church off of which to gauge my fashion. There was no "cool crowd;" there was only me. It was then that I discovered that, when there was no one to please, I preferred dresses. I liked getting dressed up and feeling the swish of a skirt, the flair of a dress. 

That was the turnaround point for my fashion choices. Ever since then, I've dressed according to who I am and how I like to dress. I wear pink. I wear skirts. I put on lipstick and pearl necklaces. And I love it. (See my Creed of a Girly Girl article that I just wrote for Odyssey.) 

With this lesson I learned about personal style, I am gladly aware that not everyone dresses like me. That's a good thing, because I'm pretty happy with their being only one style like mine (although my younger sister is quickly taking my style, aka borrowing all of my clothes). Some people wear t-shirts and Nike shorts, and that is great! Others wear cowboy boots and buttons ups. I love that too! 

What I desire in everyone's style is for them to be themselves. When there's no one to please, what do you like to wear? What makes you a bit happier when you wear it? Find your style and live it out gracefully. Experiment and wonder a bit at what your style is and what it can become. Defy normality for a bit and try on your unique fashion sense. You won't look back. 

I hope you enjoyed this little post that's been on my mind for a while. Stay tuned for the next post: Finding Beauty: Defying Normality Pt 2, where I will write about the struggle of dressing cute, a struggle many would never imagine existed. It's a bit uglier than you think too, full of pride and insecurity. 



How do you dress to show your personality? Have you ever struggled with wanting to conform your fashion to look like those around you? 

Have a fabulous week, 

Princess Hannah 
Hannah
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9/6/16

Honestly Hannah: Sometimes (Most of the Time)

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Can I be honest here?

Raw.

Open.

Plain and simply Hannah. 

 Sometimes (most of the time) my life doesn't look worthy of Instagram. I mean, I struggled for wayyy too long to even structure my own Instagram (follow Grace in Everything here), let alone make every part of my life look like that!

Sometimes (most of the time) my prayers are scattered and whispered heartbeats because I've lost the ability to make words.

Sometimes (most of the time) I feel too busy to slow down and take life in.

Sometimes (most of the time) I let this busy-ness steal my joy. I let it steal my ability to form useful blog posts. I let it steal my thoughts, breathing, and withness. 

Sometimes (most of the time) I compare myself to others. Is she skinnier? Is he smarter? Is she a better blogger? 

Sometimes (most of the time) I feel a conflict of what I say and what I do.

Sometimes (most of the time) I feel inadequate.

But guess what? There is hope in these sometimes (most of the time) moments. There is a hope that is stronger than death, larger than life, greater than the forces of this world, and gentle with the strings of my heart. There is a hope that asks to be seen in the sometimes (most of the time) places, in the honest, plain, and simple. In the homework and frustrated drives. In the tears streaming forth because I don't want to grow up. In the tired eyes because I can't quite wake up.

There is hope.

Not a sometimes hope.

Not a most of the time hope.

An all of the time, until the end of time hope.

And beyond.

And this hope is not that I can do it or that it will all work out. This hope has actually nothing to do with me and everything to do with the glory of God, the sure and beautiful glory of God.

So when the sometimes (most of the time) moments drag you down, look up and take hope in the glory of God.

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into the grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know what suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit." 

 Romans 5:1-5

What are some of your sometimes (most of the time) moments? And how has God revealed His hope to you this beginning of the school year?

Princess Hannah
Hannah
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