Barbie at fifty!    


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In honor of Barbie's 50th Birthday - You can buy "Barbie Make-up."
I'll admit it's kinda cute.
 

        

        

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Ruslana Korshunova plunged to her death after throwing herself off a balcony.

Three months ago Korshunova wrote, "I'm so lost. Will I ever find myself?"

According to www.Telegraph.co.uk 30/06/2008  "Korshunova's death is the latest to rock the fashion world, an industry often criticised for the pressures and demands it can place on models.

In February, the body of Katoucha Niane, the former supermodel muse of Yves Saint Laurent, was found in the Seine near Paris after an apparent suicide. Over the past two years, a number of South American models have died of suspected malnutrition, prompting international debate about eating disorders and "size zero" models.

But industry observers urged caution in assuming Korshunova's job was to blame for her death.

Life as a young model in a city like New York "can be a carousel ride or it can be a decent into hell," said Michael Gross, bestselling author of Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women."

As I read this story, I thought, this is how my story would have ended if I had taken my life 27 years ago. I never though of jumping out a window, but suicide was in my plans. What a tragedy for her family and friends.

This is part of an e-mail that I received from Models for Christ:
Pray for the thousands of fashion professionals out there that are feeling hopeless in their successes and their lack of success to share their silent pain with Believers and for the Gospel of hope to be shared with them and received. Pray for boldness as you go into the industry to share God's love with others...

        

The June 29th, 2008 issue of Parade (it comes in the Sunday Paper) gave the results of a poll they took.

The question was:
Should teaching credentials be required for parents who home-school their children?
The results:

5% YES "Just as you'd require credentials of a doctor, you should require them of a teacher, whether at school or at home.

95% NO "Parents have been teaching their children throughout history. Besides, a degree is no guarantee of teaching ability."

        

Download | Duration: 00:29:57

    

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physical beauty vs. spiritual beauty...

"People's standards, of course, differ. Usually, in things that do not matter, we set them impossibly high and thus guarantee for ourselves a life of discontent. In things that matter we set them too low and are easily pleased with ourselves." —Elisabeth Elliot

        

        

        

Are you making a To Do list: Lose ten pounds, Organize the house, Start saving money?

We should set goals and make plans to be healthier, de-clutter our homes, and be smarter financially. Let’s not forget to include God in our plans. My great-grandma would say what she was planning to do and then she’d add, “Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.”

We don’t know what tomorrow holds, but we know Who holds tomorrow.

Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

        

Famous fashion designers, like Liz Claiborne and Donna Karan, label all their creations and Barbie has 'Mattel' stamped on her back. The Master Designer created us and His label is imprinted on our souls - 'Fashioned by God, Designer Originals.'

        

This letter is shared with Whitney's permission:

Hello Tonya,
     My name is Whitney and I am 17 years old. I was watching tv today, and for probably only the second or third time in my life, I let the TV stay on CBN; I am not usually a fan of the 700 Club, but I left it there because something caught my
attention. I heard the words 'defintion of beauty'. So I started
watching. I listened to your story, and I felt the need to e-mail you
and tell you a little bit of mine.
     I have spent the majority of my teen years struggling in the fight
for a healthy image of myself and fighting against the definition that
our culture has placed on beauty. So this past year, my senior year in
high school, we were given the opportunity to write a definition paper.
We were allowed to pick an object or concept and define it in an
original way. Seeing my opportunity to take another step in fighting
the battle, I defined beauty. So, when I heard you say something about
our culture's distorted definition of beauty, I felt the need to e-mail
my paper to you. So, here it is...

*****

"A Skinny Definition"

beauty [byoo-tee] n: the quality of a person (particularly a woman)
having absolutely no  physical imperfections, skin blemishes, or
visible fat on a single part of her body.

 Our culture defines beauty as perfection. We see this
definition in all kinds of media: television, movies, commercials,
billboards, and magazines. Say 'beautiful' and super-models and movie
stars fight to be named number one. The media sends out this distorted
version of 'beauty' (scantily clad, digitally altered women wearing too
much make-up and air-brushed tans) in magazines, advertisements, and TV
shows. It offers these women as role models for young girls, presenting
their beauty as some kind of goal, or a promise of what they too can
look like if they just buy whatever product it’s selling. Meanwhile, in
its efforts to make more money or get higher ratings, it leaves nothing
but destroyed girls behind. Through the presentation of the models’
beauty as attainable, the media leaves girls who don’t resemble them
wondering why they don’t, and desperately trying to change.
 It’s no wonder our hospitals are filled with anorexic and
bulimic young girls. Studies show that one or two of every 100 students
(ages 12-25) struggle with either Anorexia or Bulimia at some point in
their lives (KidsHealth), and maybe it’s because they strive too much
to look like the women on TV and in magazines. The main problem with
celebrities is they really aren’t as ‘beautiful’ as the pictures lead
people to believe. Between make-up, hair-color, spray-tans, tummy-
tucks, and digital-alterations, their appearances are completely
changed. The final product that reaches the public may not look
anything like the original person. Magazine editors even air-brush
excess fat out of pictures. Because our culture has placed such a
skinny definition on the word ‘beauty’, very few women fit into it
without being unhealthy.
 In a country where obesity is the most rapidly growing disease,
people are now focusing more on dieting and exercising, and rightly so.
A national study indicates that the percentage of overweight children
and adolescents has more than doubled since the early 1970s (Overweight
Teen). But there comes a point where the focus gets out of control, and
we reached that point several years ago. The goal of dieting and
exercising has become more directed towards looking good, instead of
being healthy. When we turn on the television or look through a
magazine, we encounter multiple health-related ads. One ad may be
saying ‘Lose 10 pounds in 10 days!” and another promises ‘get back into
your skinny jeans in just 2 weeks!” And all these ads use the same
guaranteed method of deception. Pictures. Pictures of ‘beautiful’
women. They’re the same kind of women that are paraded in front of the
adolescent girls, promising happiness and joy if they buy a certain
product, or shop in a specific store.
 And it’s nothing but a lie.
 And I am no stranger to it. I once bought into this lie. I’ve
never been the model-sized girl. When my friends or my parents asked if
I wanted to ‘get into shape,’ I laughed and replied, “Round is a
shape!” But all my laughing and joking covered up the fact that I, a
girl who succeeded in almost everything, always failed at one thing:
losing weight. Even now, thinking back through the years, I can’t count
the number of ‘diets’ I tried. I remember one time, one or two failed
diets into my short life, my mom promised to give me Pocahontas II if I
lost some weight. With nothing but good intentions, she tried to help
me slim down, more for the sake of my health than anything. For some
extra motivation, she even bought it for me (it was brand new in
stores) and set it in the kitchen. Sometimes I stood staring at it,
propped up on the counter, for ten or fifteen minutes straight. It
begged to be opened.
 When that movie was released, I was only seven years old.
 The years went by and the bribes became new clothes instead of
movies. Then I started playing high school sports. While my mom still
only wanted me to lose weight for my health, I started obsessing over
my look, my ‘beauty’. The summer before my sophomore year, I lost
nearly 25 pounds in three weeks. My days started at 5:30 am, before the
sun rose, and cycled through volleyball, band, more volleyball, and
finally softball until 10:00 pm when I collapsed into bed. I didn’t eat
much that summer; I didn’t have an eating disorder, I just didn’t have
time to eat. But because I had bought into the lie, I finally started
to feel good about myself and to fit into cute clothes. Then all too
soon, October came, softball and volleyball ended, and the pounds came
back.
 After that season, when our slave-driver volleyball coach left,
I knew I didn’t have a chance at losing all that weight again. So I
gave up. Sure, between then and now I’ve tried some fad diets; one in
particular stands out as the reason that to this day the smell of
grapefruit turns my stomach. But even when the crazy diets worked, I
wasn’t losing weight in a healthy way, and I wasn’t doing it for the
right reasons.
 My motives were all wrong. Instead of dieting for my health,
and for my future, I did it to look like the girls in the prom dress
magazines that my friends and I never went anywhere without. I wanted
so badly to look like them; I wanted to feel like Cinderella on my way
to my ball. But at sleepovers, when excited chatter about prom dresses
filled the room, I feigned sleep, not wanting to falsely participate in
a conversation that I felt didn’t apply to me. It killed me to watch my
friends go out and buy whatever dresses they wanted, while I was forced
to settle for a dress that simply fit.
 But no matter how much effort I put into trying to look like
the girls in the magazines, I didn’t, I don’t, and I never will. It’s
not the way I was made. And besides, being skinny doesn’t translate
into being beautiful, and being chunky isn’t synonymous for being ugly.
Dove recently launched their ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ and in their
mission statement they say, “For too long, beauty has been defined by
narrow, stifling stereotypes. Women have told us it's time to change
all that. Dove agrees. We believe real beauty comes in many shapes,
sizes, and ages” (Dove).
 It’s time we get away from this skinny definition of beauty and
re-define it.

 beauty [byoo-tee] n: the quality of a person (particularly a woman)
loving who they are, being thankful for their unique shape, and not
caring about what other people think of their bodies.

        

King Edward the 8th abdicated his throne to marry the woman he loved—the twice divorced pencil-thin Wallace Simpson. She is long remembered for her view on the impossibility of being too rich or too thin.

Can you be too skinny?

Twenty years ago it was headline news when Karen Carpenter died. She was a famous singer of the 1970s who had toured the world, been on TV shows, and on the cover of many magazines. Her story was news again when it was discovered why she died—from anorexia-related heart failure. Anorexia (an obsessive fear of being fat) was common, but rarely talked about. After Karen’s death—eating disorders became the hot new topic. Since then, other celebrities owned up to their eating disorders including actresses Jane Fonda and Tracy Gold, and former gymnasts Cathy Rigby and Nadia Comenici. In a 1995 television interview the elegant, glamorous Lady Diana—the most photographed woman in the world—shared about her struggle with bulimia nervosa (an obsession with bingeing, purging, and dieting).

On October 30, 2000 the cover of People magazine read “Special Report—Dying To Be Thin—Desperate for a better body, more and more Americans are taking bigger risks—and paying with their lives.”

The worlds of fashion models, beauty pageant contestants, gymnastics, ballet dancers, and figure skaters are full of tales about young girls risking their health and their lives to fit into a preset standard of perfection.
Young girls, in their desire to emulate their role models—start to lose weight—by exercising excessively, restricting calories, making themselves vomit, taking appetite-control or weight-loss pills and laxatives.

In May of 2000 Ladies’ Home Journal printed the results of a poll. It said 60% of high-school girls are trying to lose weight.

TEENAGE GIRLS ARE LITERALLY DYING to meet the standards that they see on television and in the movies and magazines. Advertisers pay millions to reach their prime audience—those between 12 and 34 years old. They are targeting our teenagers. Our daughters watch beautiful women, with surgically modified bodies, carefully styled hair, and custom tailored clothing. How sad that many of our young girls are imitating women that are not real. Many models and actresses live in worlds of promiscuity, drug use, eating disorders, and depression. They are NOT good role models for our children.

The news program 48 Hours had a show titled, The Price of Perfection. It showed a teenage girl who had been struggling with anorexia and bulimia for years. When she was 13 years old, she weighed 28 pounds! She actually went blind in one eye from the stress that constant vomiting put on her body.

The closer I get to thin, thin, thin, the closer I get to perfect."
—Teenage anorexic, 48 Hours

During their first commercial break of the news program, after showing this “prison camp” thin child, was an ad for Victoria's Secret. A beautiful model, with a flawless, very thin, body was dressed only in a bra, underwear, and angel's wings.

Where did that little girl get the idea that thin is beautiful? Is TV to blame?

I read a Harvard study regarding eating disorders in girls from Fiji. It said that symptoms of eating disorders have increased fivefold among teenage girls on Fiji since television came to the Pacific Island nation. TV was widely introduced in 1995, and since then, the percentage of girls that vomit to control their weight has greatly increased.

The study went on to say that the teenage girls look to television characters as role models. The increase in eating disorders was dramatic because Fiji was traditionally a culture that had focused on the importance of eating well and looking robust.
One news show said that eating disorders might be genetic. I think they can be passed on in a family—through example and criticism, not genetics. Our behavior—good or bad—affects how our children see themselves and others.

We need to educate ourselves about the seriousness of eating disorders and realize they can have long term consequences on our bodies—and are sometimes fatal.

If you or someone you know has an eating disorder - check out Remuda Ranch

        

Barbie’s got the goods.  (Houses, and jet skies and cars oh, my!) You want it? She’s got it! Hey, Barbie, I would look more attractive too, if I was spinning around town in a $100,000 pink convertible.  This thought occurred to me recently as I was driving to my high school reunion in my—look at me, I’m somebody’s mom—mini-van with the squeaky brakes and missing hubcap.

Recently, I found annoying evidence of termites eating away at my house. (Lions and tigers and termites, oh my!) Only twenty-eight years left on the mortgage and those little guys were busy munching away. I was very unhappy. How dare they eat my house!

I thought back to when we first moved into our termite den. I was like the cartoon mermaid who sang about having gadgets and gizmos aplenty and whozits and whatsits galore. I never realized exactly how much “stuff” I had. My family of six had accumulated mounds of stuff, boxes of stuff, and truckloads of stuff. (Boxes and truckloads and mounds! Oh my!) I moved my gadgets, gizmos and thingamabobs from the old house directly into the new one and filled every cabinet, drawer, closet, nook and cranny. (What is a cranny? It’s not in my dictionary but whatever it is, I put stuff in it.) I squeezed all the leftover doodads into the attic and garage.
Then a light bulb came on. I just knew this wasn’t what the Bible meant about leading an abundant and overflowing life. I longed for the simplicity of “Little House on the Prairie.” Non-essential possessions were cluttering my house and filling my life.

I read the world’s philosophy reduced to a T-shirt, “He who dies with the most toys, wins.” The reality is that I’ll leave it all behind when I die – everything from my toothbrush to my wedding ring. The Egyptians had make-up, riches, food, and even servants buried with them in hopes of using them in the afterlife. People have even been buried in their cars! (Note to my husband: Please DO NOT bury me in my mini-van. I hate that thing!)

Jesus taught, Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. This world is not our eternal home. We have termite-proof mansions waiting for us in heaven. Sometimes we forget that this life is temporary and we start living like permanent residents. It all stays here when we die. In the meantime, do you know a good exterminator?

        

My teenage son, Jeremy, took a CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) class. So we took a tour of the crime lab. We were shown the various ways that criminals are identified. The most common - they leave their fingerprints behind. The forensics’ people can dust door knobs, duct tape and even gloves. That’s right. The oh-so-dumb criminals use gloves and then leave them at the crime scene. At the lab, the scientist turns the gloves inside out and retrieves the fingerprints from the inside of the gloves. The information is fed into the computer system and eventually the criminal is busted. This all got me thinking about fingerprints. I’m the only person in the world with my fingerprint. I am unique. God formed me that way. I didn’t always want to be unique. For many years there was always someone else I would rather look like, be like. I’m finally happy to be me. Most days.

        

Finding Balance Web Site

"Who We Are    FINDINGbalance is a faith based health and wellness organization with an emphasis on eating and body image issues. We are also the first national organization dedicated to creating consumer awareness and understanding of EDNOS (Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified).

Our Mission      To proclaim a message of love, hope and truth to all who are in bondage to eating and body image issues, that they might find freedom to love themselves, and others, without condition—and fully embrace God's purpose for their lives."

        

Barbie is perfect. Who can compete with plastic? In 1959 Mattel introduced their version of Barbie—the fashion model—and she ended up in almost every home in America. Her anatomically impossible figure of: 36-18-33 measurements, long smooth legs, large pert breasts, cub-scout-sized-hips and minuscule feet have set an unattainable standard for generations of girls.


Well—over in England, Cindy Jackson has had over $100,000 worth of surgery to make herself into a living Barbie.
CBN news article on Cindy Jackson.

        

I read in the paper about a man from Australia that was born without arms and legs. The photo accompanying it shows this handsome young man, Nick Vujicic, giving an inspiration message in front of a church group. In telling his story, the article said “He can walk/hop almost anywhere (including up steps), using his only foot. And he can type with his only two toes (43 words a minute, thank you very much)…And he writes, gets dressed and opens doors with his mouth.” Talk about someone “doing the best you can with what you’ve got.” It made me realize what a baby I am. His story makes my getting upset over a bad hair day or pimple look very vain and shallow indeed. Nick is thankful to God that he is alive. I think we could all learn a lesson from Nick.

        

I love Chinese food, I even like opening the fortune cookies and laughing at the predictions.  Once I opened a cookie that said, “You’ll be receiving a gift.” That day, someone gave me a car. God generally speaks to me through the scriptures.  Did He use a fortune cookie to speak to me? Yes. He can do what ever he wants – He’s God.

It’s funny that Fortune cookies are more American than Chinese.  Most of them are manufactured in Queens, New York. People are paid to write the fortunes, which are always positive and encouraging.  They aren’t prophets, just people who get paid to write little sayings like, Something Wonderful Is About To Happen To You!

Jeremiah was a prophet.  In the book of Jeremiah (29:11) it says For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

I didn’t find that in a cookie, but in the Word of God!

        

        

I’ve suffered from paleness all my life. When I was young, my Aunt Judy told me “brown fat is prettier than white fat,” as we slathered ourselves with tropical oil and sunbathed down by the creek. A few decades later, I know that cooking in the sun damages my cells and increases my risks for skin cancers so I now avoid sunbathing. According to medicinenet.com “Skin cancer is the most common form of human cancer. It is estimated that over 1 million new cases occur annually. The annual rates of all forms of skin cancer are increasing each year, representing a growing public concern. It has also been estimated that nearly half of all Americans who live to age 65 will develop skin cancer at least once.” In Search Of The Perfect Fake Tan I wore shorts once this summer. My family called me “mayonnaise legs” and put their sunglasses on to shield themselves from the glare. My red-skinned Indian husband called me “pale-face.” So I began a quest in search of the perfect fake-tanner. “Are you okay?” Nancy asked while we were out to dinner. “Yes, why do you keep staring at me?” “Because you were pale during hors de’oeuvres, coral during dinner, and orange by dessert.” “Oh, it must be my new tanner.” “What’s it called? Shades de’ Orange?” The product’s ad promised that I’d get gradually darker; it didn’t explain that at midnight I’d turn into a pumpkin. It hasn’t always been fashionable to be tanned. Back a few centuries, white was in. Women applied mercury and lead to their skin and even sipped arsenic to attain a lily-white complexion. Some even applied leeches to drain away the color. A tan was a sign that you were lower class and had to spend time outside working in the fields. It wasn’t until the twentieth century, when celebrities and millionaires began flocking to the Riviera for vacations and their brown hides were photographed that it became fashionable to be tanned. If you still crave that tanned look, without the skin cancer, there are dozens of over-the-counter products. Obviously, I’ve tried a few. My most recent experiment - Jergens natural glow.

        

My best friend, Nancy C. Anderson and I discuss our body types.

        

I often speak with my best friend, Nancy C. Anderson
Our Website is:  FunnyChristianWomen.com

        

        

Learning to Live Beyond Barbie
Psalms 139:13-14

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall... Can we compete with plastic? I lead women on a comical tirade that will help them understand that Barbie has "Mattel" stamped on her back and the Master Designer created them and His label is imprinted on their souls - "Fashioned by God, Designer Originals"

Time: 43 Minutes
 

Download | Duration: 00:43:13

Back to website: Speaking Engagements Page

        

Beauty Quest
1 Samuel 16:7

This humorously candid talk covers inner and outer beauty issues including plastic surgery, body image, make-up, clothing, dieting, etc... I encourage women to "Be attractive!" "Do the best you can with what you've got!" and "Throw away Vogue and use the Bible as your beauty manual!"

45 Minute Message
 

Download | Duration: 00:45:04

Click Here To Go Back To Website:  Speaking Engagements

        

The Fragrance of Beauty
2 Corinthians 2:15

Advertisers want us to believe that a fragrance alone can change our lives by selling us the illusion of youth, glamour, excitment, romance and luxury. In this talk, I use silly perfume ads and personal stories to teach women that the ingredients for their spiritual "signature" scent should include: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

44 Minute Audio Message
 

Download | Duration: 00:44:35

OR Watch Video
 
Click Here To Go Back To Website: Speaking Engagements

        

So many times, I’m driven by how I feel and not what I think.
God wants us to be smart. He wants us to use our brains and “Consider” what we do. To make good decisions using logic – not our emotions.

Do you ever felt like you’re not smart?
The Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz said “If I only had a brain.”
I’m here to tell you that you have a great brain.
God formed you in your mother’s womb.
In Psalm 139:14 He says that you are fearfully and wonderfully made

You have a great brain. It weights approximately 3 pounds
Scientist report that it feels like butter. It has no pain receptors. Doctors can operate on the brain while the patient is awake. Yikes!
It’s your most amazing organ! It’s irreplaceable.
With it you learn and reason. It control’s all the functions of your body
It’s better than any computer ever built.
Scientist are trying to discover the mysteries of the brain

We are born with approximately 100 billion brain cells – more or less.
Remember in school some kids are labeled “the brains?”
Some people do actually have bigger brains, but that doesn’t mean they have a higher IQ and there are many people with high IQs who never do much in life. Some people with average IQs are smart and become quiet successful. It’s not the size of your brain that counts or your IQ, what matters is if you use it. We use a very small fraction of our brain’s potential.

There are many smart people that are not wise-
Wisdom is brain knowledge – guided by understanding.

Proverbs 2:6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding

Barbie's head is empty - Yours is not!                                                                                                       
Pray and Ask God for knowledge, wisdom and understanding.
That would be a very smart thing to do!

        

COVER STORY: Tyra Banks Speaks Out About Her Weight

Originally posted Wednesday January 24, 2007 04:40 PM EST

article From People Magazine:

On her hit show America's Next Top Model, Tyra Banks has always stressed the importance of body confidence – but it still hurt when tabloids ran an unflattering photo of her in a bathing suit under headlines that screamed, "America's Next Top Waddle" and "Tyra Porkchop."

Now, for the first time in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Banks, 33, is publicly discussing her much-buzzed-about weight gain. "I get so much mail from young girls who say, 'I look up to you, you're not as skinny as everyone else, I think you're beautiful,' " she says. "So when they say that my body is 'ugly' and 'disgusting,' what does that make those girls feel like?"

As for how Banks feels about her own 5'10" body – which she says is at 161 lbs. these days, about 30 lbs. heavier than when she landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue in 1997 – she says: "I still feel hot, but every day is different. It's when I put on the jeans that used to fit a year ago and don't fit now and give me the muffin top, that's when I say, 'Damn!' "

In other words, yes: She has put on weight, though not nearly as much as those recent tabloid stories suggested. (Banks believes the pix were snapped at an unflattering angle.) "She has a very womanly, gorgeous body that goes up and down," says her good friend Heidi Klum.

In fact, Banks says that since she retired from modeling in 2005, the number on the scale has fluctuated from 148 lbs. to 162 lbs., depending on how well she is taking care of herself. "I feel more comfortable when I'm lighter – I sleep better, I snore less, I have more endurance when I work out, my arms look better," she admits.

Still, she isn't freaking out about wearing size 32-waist jeans or about "the fat roll" she claims to have on her back. (Her biggest source of figure angst is her size-DD breasts, which she says make it hard to find clothes that fit: "I would love for them to be a size and a half smaller.")

But, she adds, "I've made millions of dollars with the body I have, so where's the pain in that? If I was in pain, I would have dieted. The pain is not there – the pain is someone printing a picture of me and saying those (horrible) things."

In fact, it appears that by adding a little padding, Banks the businesswoman has earned a bit of credibility: Her talk show is now entering its second season, and the most recent season of Top Model delivered its strongest ratings ever. "(TV execs) think it's better when I'm at 155 lbs. – at 145, they feel I'm not as relatable," she explains.

Besides, Banks is having a lot more fun these days eating the pancakes off a friend's plate at IHOP than trying to fit into designer sample sizes. Of course, if someone would come up with a miracle cure for cellulite, she's not above admitting she'd be first in line. "I think every woman," she says, "would want to do something about their cellulite!"

        

Thou who hast the fatal gift of beauty. – Lord Byron

The news shows are full of reports on Anna Nicole Smith. Because of her beauty she poised for cameras, married a billionaire octogerian, and became a celebrity. Her beauty was fatal.

Her pretty face opened the doors to modeling, money, and more. She became a commodity to her agents, arm candy for men, and was included on exclusive guest list because of her good looks.

Sure there are beautiful women who have thrived in celebrityhood, but for every Cindy Crawford and Elizabeth Hurley, there are thousands whose beauty has caused catastrophes. Some get sick from drugs, many are waylaid by eating disorders, and others can’t handle the stress from their constant pursuit of perfection and end their lives.

In the celebrity business, women have a sell-by-date, because it’s only a matter of time till their beauty fades, they gain a few pounds, or the next new star comes along and they’re pushed out of the way. Then what? A reality TV show? A drug overdose?

Psalm 49:14 ...and their beauty shall be consumed in the grave...

        

Little Jude made a big mess eating spaghetti at my house and I enjoyed it.

Being a grandparent is really great because:

1. You realize that anything can be cleaned up.

2. You aren't exhausted from being up with a teething baby.