Beauty Tips

In an effort to bring some fresh energy to our blog we've decided that once a week we'll offer beauty and fashion tips. 

Stop laughing.

If you know Melissa or I personally you would know that neither of us are women obsessed with our looks.  I think I've worn mascara 3 times in my whole life (it might be 4), and Melissa is not a fashion plate either.

I'm happy to say on Monday we will be offering tips on a different kind of beauty.   Paul describes it this way:

Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness (1 Timothy 2:9-10). 

In case you missed it, he is suggesting that we should skip the bling, the new 'do, and the Louis Vuitton shoes and go straight for good works as an accessory.  I couldn't agree more.  But the practical application, that's trickier.

I have to be honest, before we went abroad, I thought of good works in terms of my job.  I was a case worker in a mental health facility and I was out among the "least of these" everyday and loving it (not loving the paperwork but that is a whole other story).  Once we were on the field, I thought of good work as part of my job.  I was reaching out to students and friends, ministering to my sisters, teaching bible classes.  I didn't have to go looking for good works.  There was more than enough evangelism to go around.

However, as soon as I got to America, I found myself at a bit of a loss.  I was a stay at home mom and I had a little more time on my hands than before.  But the good works that were suddenly a part of my life were not the ones I was most familiar with.  

For example, I had cooked for a sick friend before but in the last two weeks I have taken food 4 times to two new moms and 1 family with a sick mother.  You may be more comfortable with it than me, but I would have loved to have a list of inexpensive, casseroles suited to American tastes (Bizarre but true! There are people out there who don't like Kale. Crazy, I know). 

I've been working with our preschool class.  Speaking of unfamiliar!  You might be surprised at how little connection there is between a class full of American 2 year olds and a group of Asian students trying to learn English.  I had to dig deep and remember when my own girls were 2, and we were trying to learn Bible stories.

I'm guessing that you've been in a similar situation.  You know that you're supposed to be a woman of good works.  Dorcas made clothes for widows; Lydia hosted her missionaries; Priscilla was a business woman and a teacher.  You get it.  But how to make it work in your own life?  Money's tight and time is tighter.  You may feel unskilled, unprepared and uncertain what to do.  If so, we're on the same page sister. 

So what to do?

For a while this is what our Mondays are going to be about.  In the month of October we'll be covering issues like tips for carrying food into the sick, bereaved, or hungry, how to teach a preschool class, or how to encourage others.  Over the next several months we are hoping to cover other practical issues like offering hospitality, connecting with visitors, leading a ladies Bible class, opportunities in the community to do good etc. 

Monday's will be called "Make a difference Monday" from here on out, and Melissa and I will be taking turns to write these posts.  And we'd like to start opening this day up to those of you who are writing about similar topics.  If you're a blogger leave us a comment with a link to a post about how your readers can do good works and we'll be sure to come by and read them and leave you a comment! 

Helene

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), Copyright(c) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.