Releasing Beauty

My older girls are participating in a great Bible study with this name. It got me thinking this week about just what releasing beauty means, and how it relates to my role as a mother. For some insight I peeked at an online dictionary and found the following:

release

1. to free from confinement, bondage, obligation, pain, etc.; let go

2. to free from anything that restrains, fastens, etc.

3. to allow to be known, issued, done, or exhibited

beauty

1. the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest).

Most Christians know that God is in control of their lives, yet we often allow fears and anxieties to cripple us. Though I worry daily about the fallen world that my girls are subjected to, I must resolve to trust that God is BIG enough to handle their futures. He has a plan for them, a plan to release their beauty. I'm here to help them learn to trust in His perfect plan for their lives.

I don't know yet what specific roles they will play in His plan, but I can't wait to find out! Until God someday reveals the big picture I hope that they'll live each day reflecting and releasing their beauty to the world as a powerful testimony to His love for them and for us all.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity."
~Jeremiah 29:11-14a (NIV)