#les

If you are ready to trade the hollow self-made beauty of this world for the glorious Christ-built beauty of a set-apart young woman, this is where it all begins. Denying self, taking up your cross, and following the Lamb wherever He leads. In other words, letting go of all preoccupation with self: our comfort, our pleasure, our agenda, our popularity, our ability to gain the world's approval, even our own dreams and desires. And, as Paul did, treating all those things as rubbish for the excellence of the knowledge of Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings (Philippians 3:7-9). ↗

— Leslie Ludy

#denying-self #letting-go #philippians #selflessness #set-apart-femininity

I’d thought I knew what beauty was in women; but she’d surpassed all the language I had for it. ↗

— Anne Rice

#anne-rice #lestat-de-lioncourt #queen-of-the-damned #beauty

Beware a kiss, he told her. Kisses are powerful things. You expose part of your soul. ↗

— Ruth Frances Long

#fantasy #kisses #beauty

Once we have accepted the story we cannot escape the story's fate. ↗

— P.L. Travers

#fairytales #sleeping-beauty #beauty

My tears are like a whole pack of dogs on leashes; no matter how I try to tug them back, they just keep barreling forward. ↗

— Holly Schindler

#beauty

And without further argument he unsheathed the sword and cleaved Miss Foxe's head from her neck. He knew what was supposed to happen. He knew that this awkward, whispering creature before him should now transform into a princess - dazzlingly beautiful, free, and made wise by her hardship. That is not what happened. ↗

— Helen Oyeyemi

#reality-sucks #beauty

The fairy tale is not the conclusion, but the doorway to a more brilliant reality. Pushed onto a pedestal as the final answer their worth is misshapen and distorted. The world’s story may end with a couple living happily ever after but our life in Christ enables the intimacy of the human relationship to illuminate an eternal perfection. In a balanced perspective, neither denigrated nor exalted from their intended place, fairy tales are a lovely and exhilarating part of life. ↗

— Natalie Nyquist

#fairy-tales #beauty

But this is a story, and in a story there is always someone beautiful enough." - 'The Girl with Two Skins' from A Guide to Folktales in Fragile Dialects ↗

— Catherynne M. Valente

#beauty

The older I get, the more I realize that what other people think about me has little to do with who I am. … We can’t change other people, and we can’t force them to see us the way we would like to be seen. ↗

— Mari Serebrov

#change

Ecclesiastes names thee Almighty, the Maccabees name thee Creator, the Epistle to the Ephesians names thee Liberty, Baruch names thee Immensity, the Psalms name thee Wisdom and Truth, John names thee Light, the Book of Kings names thee Lord, Exodus names thee Providence, Leviticus Sanctity, Esdras Justice, creation names thee God, man names thee Father; but Solomon names thee Compassion, which is the most beautiful of all thy names. ↗

— Victor Hugo

#god #les-miserables #spiritual #beauty