God, The Original Transfiguration Professor

I remember back in the old days...

*flashback to Adam and Eve*

No, not that far!

*fast forward to a year or two ago*

Back in the days when I was a lowly fast-food worker, I would stand around in the kitchen with a lot of other guys. Most of these guys were non-believers. You know, the types who believe in sex before marriage, drugs, and stuff like that. A lot of them were very derogatory towards women. By that I mean judgmental. They'd talk about which co-workers they thought were hot (in other words, which women they'd f***). They'd also talk about any physical flaws they could find and laugh about them. I would think to myself just how stupid they were.

What a hypocrite I was.

You see, I was pretty similar in respects. I was more judgmental than I care to admit. I was capable of finding even the most minuscule flaws in women. Whether their hips were just a little too big for their body or their nose was a little off center, I could typically find something. Whatever I could find would bother me. Now, I say "flaws" in the context of my way of thinking back then.

I also used to be big into make-up. I thought it was a sign of maturity. I thought that without make-up women were most likely ugly. I say most likely because I was literally surrounded by women who wore make-up.

I don't know when it was that my viewpoint started to change. I started to despise the country's standard of blond, thin, supermodel photoshopped image that doesn't actually exist. I thought it encouraged everyone to look like everyone else. What was so great about that? Wouldn't it be better to have a girlfriend or a wife who looks like herself and NOT like every other girl you know?

I started to think make-up was stupid. What was the point of it? Aren't people more beautiful how God made them? Interestingly enough, I wound up with a woman who rarely even wears make-up in the first place and looks very pretty with or without it. Maybe God wanted to change my way of thinking for her. Or maybe bringing her along was His way of saying, "Since you don't want a woman who wears loads of make-up, here you go." I like to think it's a mix.

I also stopped caring so much about "flaws." In fact, I started to not view them as flaws, but as differences that made them who they were. It's a process, one that I think is still ongoing.

I can only attribute this change to God. Thank You Lord, for changing the way I think. And I really mean thank God! I look back at the way I thought and I'm disgusted. Sometimes I worry that that old me will come back. But I have faith that God really does change hearts and minds.

Here's my way of thinking now: Everyone is different. And every single detail, whether physical, mental, or otherwise, is of the full intention of God. That's what makes beauty beautiful.

'Nuff said.