Buy Books Locally

Check out this FABULOUS video about why to buy books locally! If you're in Durham, visit the Regulator. : )

First Winner in Orange Dress Contest!

InterVarsity Press is giving away five copies of The Girl in the Orange Dress to those who enter the What's Your Orange Dress Contest.

Our first winner is...(virtual drumroll please).....

Robyn Beckley Vining! Robyn's name was chosen at random from the prestigious white plastic salad bowl by an impartial ten-year-old! Congratulations Robyn!

CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW TO ENTER!

Our next drawing will be on August 15, so enter now! (All entrants remain in the salad bowl until all five books have been awarded. Or until we eat salad.)

Overboard

I was really convicted this weekend that sometimes I go overboard about the hair and the shoes. My intentions are good (seeing women set free from the pressure to appear physically attractive), but I might go too far.

This weekend I was loved SO WELL by gorgeous women with fabulously colored and coiffed hair.

This simply reminded me that God's eye is on each our hearts, not our hair.

Thank goodness.

Conflicted

I just got some feedback, from readers, on my new book (on BODIES).

Basically, I want to see a shift away from being consumed with how bodies APPEAR so that we're freed up to live into what bodies are FOR (relationship). Good stuff, right?

EXCEPT, that I really do enjoy dressing in bright colors. I LIKE to wear clothes that make me feel like ME. So although I don't spend a lot of MONEY on my wardrobe, I will invest some labor into designing some fun funky clothes.

This was referenced in the feedback.

It's so hard to be strident AND human.

Operation Beautiful

So, blog-readers, whadda ya think?

Learn more about Operation Beautiful at http://operationbeautiful.com/.

Specifically, I'd love to hear which messages are MOST helpful & which ones might not feel helpful to you?

Ubuntu

Today my friend Tamara used the word "Ubuntu" & that's exactly what's so compelling about the video I posted yesterday. (I couldn't put my finger on it, perhaps because we DON'T have a word like that!)

Tamara explains...

Archbishop Desmond Tutu (2008):
"One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu - the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality - Ubuntu - you are known for your generosity.
We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity."

Don't Watch This...

Warning: Don't watch this if you don't want to be changed. Changing will cost you. You've been warned.

I'm not saying that watching this will change you--quite the opposite, in fact. Watching will demand that you DO something differently than you're doing right now.