UPDATE! I’ve added a few more at the end so be sure to check them!

About 9 days ago I invited you to participate in a challenge. I asked you to write about beauty.  A lot of you took it, and can I say I had an amazing time getting to know so many of you even more.

This is YOUR beauty.

Grab your cuppa this morning and and prepare for some great reading. Go and leave some comments on these ladies’ posts.

• Jen (Frelle) at Pursing Harmony: Defining Beauty

I love what she says: “…I am full of beauty that is distinctly my own, and I try to radiate that into the lives of others with the love I show them.”

• Stacey at Proems on Not Yet: Beautiful Struggles

Stacey writes: “I want to see beauty as a feature of the heart and not just the body.”

• Kristine at Kristine Remixed: Beauty Deeper than Skin Deep

She asks, “...shouldn’t the opinion of the Grand Designer be taken as the final opinion on what’s truly beautiful?”

• Laura from My Heart is an Open Book: Picture Perfect

I love what she says at the end: “…As [God] chisels away all the junk, His true masterpiece is sure to emerge”

• Jen from Follow the Yellow Brick Road: Like This, Like That

Jen writes: “To see anything, anyone, as not beautiful, is to condemn them, and I don’t think that’s how it’s meant to be.”

• Traci from Ordinary Inspirations: You Can Feel Pretty as a Mom (A-Z)

Traci encourages, “Without being beautiful on the inside, we can’t fool anyone (at least not for too long) on our outward appearance.”

• Jennifer from Studio JRU: Beauty

She posts a photo and talks about “unfading beauty“.

• Reyna from Glamour Glory: Beauty Defined

She writes, “I think a true friend, one that loves you and wants the best for you is beauty defined.”

• Shannon at Min’s Musings: Beauty

Shannon writes, “I know in my head the world’s standards and the Lord’s standards. It’s just a struggle when it comes to resting the truth in my heart.”

• Kim at Happenings of the Drama Mama: Beauty

She talks about high school and shares, “I thought that being beautiful meant that you were in the “in” crowd and had a boyfriend so since I did not have any of that I was not cute.”

• Heidi from Find Me… The Real Me: That is Where the Strength Is

Heidi writes about poise: “For it is here that you come to identify the real beauty of your strength; the real key to your strength and power.”

• Mary at Mary Hess: It’s Scandalous, Really

She says about her journey, “When I looked at myself in the mirror, I saw plain.”

• Terri Lynne at Mommy to Brooke: Beauty

She writes, “I think showing the beauty of Christ far outweighs any worldly beauty”

• Mandy from Brokenness to Beauty: Beauty

Mandy says, “[God] makes no mistakes – and even though I do – I am still part of his beautiful, wonderful, marvelous creation.”

• Janet at Writing for the Pursuit of Sappiness: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Beautifully, Janet tells us, “But, what I do know is that the moments I have felt the most beautiful are those where mirrors do not exist.”

• Kathleen at Simple Silly Life: Dwell in Beauty

Something she says got to me, “Trust me, finding the real, true, inner beauty is worth the harrowing journey.”

• Laura from Laura Parker: Life Overseas: Lessons from a Skinnier Woman

She tells a story of a woman in a black bikini, “Secretly I wanted her to reveal some flaw–in appearance or in character–so that I could feel better about myself.”

• Noemi from Enjoy Simplicity: Finding Beauty

Noemi talks about developing early, “I wanted to run from myself.”

• Mela at What I Say in Between Songs: Song – You’re Beautiful

You can listen to Mela’s song in her sidebar and she writes, “I wanted an anthem for girls… that reminds us to guard our minds against all the messages that can beat us down.”

• Mom Loves Being at Home: Beauty…What is it Really?

She writes,”Treating others well is beautiful, taking care of our family is beautiful, showing others the love of Jesus is beautiful, and living our lives in a way that is pleasing to God is beautiful.”

• Denise from Keeping up With the Joneses: Beauty is a Homeless Man

(I’m still crying from her post) Denise tells the story of George. She says, “But George, a homeless man, was Jesus with skin on. And Jesus was beautiful.”

• Tessa from TV Clips: Beauty — Often Noticed, Often Felt

She talks about beauty: “It’s not always the ‘pretty’ things.”

• Lindsey at Living in Grace: The Mirror
  

Lindsey talks about beauty,  “…Beauty is a pure, clean heart. Beauty  is one that is surrendered to God and knows how much He loves her.”

• Melissa from In Fields of Grace: What is Beauty?

She writes, “It’s so simple, really. I feel beautiful when I am not striving  to be beautiful.”

• Gitz from Gitzen Girl: Beauty: Unqualified and Beauty: Surrendered.

Gitz writes from the vantage point of illness. She finds beauty in heart change and in adjusting to life with a different appearance as a result of medication.

• Chrissy at Life’s Not Always Fireflies and Hummingbirds: Beauty and the Beast

I love that Chrissy says that “mere mortals” may not give her a “second glance. But God does.”

• Prudence at Prudy Chick: In the Eye of the Beholder

Prudence writes, “I may …never think of myself as fancy, but [my husband] does and that makes all the difference in the world and makes me feel loved and beautiful.”

• Cari from Strings Attached Ministries: As Beautiful as Splintered Glass

Cari writes, “Beauty isn’t about having it all together. It’s about being brave enough to show the cracks to the world and let God shine His light through them”

• Nikkie from Hope, Coffee and Melody: Visiting Beauty

She talks about beauty, “Submitting my heart (sometimes over and over again each day) to the One who created it.”

• Mel at Faith, Family, Fitness and Fun: We Are Full of Beauty

I love what Mel did: “I took the list of all my flaws and threw it out the window. ”

• Mandy at All Things New: Defining Beauty

Mandy talks about the mirror, Italian women and her own daughter’s beauty after an accident. She says,  “I leaned hard into God to help me find [beauty] — for her, for me.”

• OneGirl at It Just Takes One: What is Beauty?

She writes, “Beauty is in the letting go. Beauty is in hoping.”

• Rachelizabeth from The Science of Music: Thoughts on Beauty

I love what she says, “When you find beauty in everyday things, you find God.”

• Janet from Janet Oberholtzer: Beauty

Janet writes, “I would rather seek soul-deep wisdom than skin-deep beauty.”

• Melissa from Melissa Brotherton: Beautifully Broken

She talks about beauty being brokenness. “God has broken me. I’m not capable. I’m not self-sufficient. I’m not independent. I’m not strong.”

• Sarah at A Little Whine and Cheese: The Beauty of Baby Steps

With a smile (it seems) she compares the end of her pregnancy with beauty, “In the end, I’m grateful for the baby steps. For time to let the anticipation build, and to be really proud of finishing something that wasn’t easy.”

• Mary at Giving up on Perfect: Beauty and Losing it, Week 4

Mary talks about her 5th grade self and says even though her husband calls her beautiful and her mother calls her “Beautiful Baby Girl“, in her heart she’s still “that ugly duckling and will never be a swan.”

• Mandi from Overflow of a Hart: Beauty

She shares in several short posts how 3 different women have shaped her ideas of beauty. She says, “It’s the beauty on the inside shining through that makes someone a truly beautiful person.”

• Charissa from Everyday Adventures: Beauty Defined

She writes, “He has taken all of the ugly moments in my life- physically, spiritually, emotionally, and draped them in his beauty that pours out from the cross.”

• Hope, Surfacinghl: on beauty

She writes about high school: “looking back, though, at that young age, i knew me. i liked me. i was happy. And i think that’s pretty beautiful”

• Colleen from Adventures of a Small Town Girl: Beauty

Colleen reminds us that we are all beautiful and that God gave us Beauty “in place of ashes. He wants us to own it, to rejoice in it, and in Him.”

• Sara at Simply Sara: Beauty in Brokenness

Sara writes, “But there IS a beauty that can only be found in brokenness. A beauty that has the chance to be seen… if only we’ll let it.”

• Kati at B’ahava: We are Full of Beauty

Read Kati’s beautiful poem about beauty and letting the “masks fall off“.

• Linda Z at Thoughts on These Things: Beauty Marked

I love the story Linda tells about beauty, “As much as the infommercials tell me that I can be flawless and airbrushed, toned and tanned, I am a flawed person.”

• Julie at Jewlz Sightings: A Mosaic in the Making

She says, “Therefore He takes the pieces that fit my life and fashions them to one day display my own Mosaic...”

• Claresa at Finding Inspiration: Confronting Beauty

Read Claresa’s head-on confrontation to beauty in the form of a letter (very creative!)

• Melissa at How High is Up?: Beauty from the Ashes
• Patricia from My Cup Overflows: Flaws

Here are the ones that were emailed to me. If I’ve left you off somehow, email me right away and I will get your link up.

What has this week helped you learn about yourself?