Beauty Manifesto {Day 24}

Beauty manifesto

I will dare to bring beauty to a world of gray.

I will dare to live in the messy middle, where courage and hope come alive.

I will dare to be myself, even when voices say I’m not enough.

I will dare to color outside the lines when redemption is at stake.

I will dare to offer beauty in the form of forgiveness and love.

I will dare to know my Father’s intimacy above all else.

I will dare to surrender, to a greater story.

I will dare to invite others in, even when we don’t understand.

I will dare to remind others of their beauty buried under ‘shoulds’ and ‘ought tos’.

I will dare to speak of what is true and noble and right

I will dare to stand for my sons skin of brown when others want to define him.

I will dare to hold your hand and walk with you through the night.

I tried something a little different last Friday and thought I’d repeat today.  Have you heard of Five Minute Friday?  Check it out right here. Write for 5 minutes on a one word prompt. No over-analyzing or over editing. It is an amazing community and I love to see where the word takes people. This week’s word was Dare.

And so I decided to combine it with my 31 days series….and see what Beauty would surface from the prompt and five minutes of writing!

blog button final 100I am participating in The Nester’s 31 Days of Series. Click right here to see all the amazing topics!  I am writing on 31 Beauty Full Days.  You can read the intro post here.  And you can also always click on the button on the sidebar to see all posts in the series.

Comments

  1. Beautiful . . . and inspiring. Thank you for sharing how you will be daring!

  2. Andrew Budek-Schmeisser says

    Love this!

    Can I put it on my refrigerator?

  3. Powerful stuff. Beautiful. Cried when I got to, “I will dare to remind others of their beauty buried under ‘shoulds’ and ‘ought tos’” and then couldn’t stop. Amazing response to the prompt. [Popped over from FMF and iwillbloom.wordpress.com]

    • Hi Helen
      Thank you so much for sharing how you were impacted. I know I can get buried in all the ‘shoulds’ and what I think my life should look like. Praying alongside you for freedom to be who you are made to be…and to see the beauty of that.

  4. ‘I will dare to surrender, to a greater story.’ This phrase hit me hard. We so often wrestle with God about ‘please work it out for /me/’ and not surrender to His plan, working it out His way. Thanks for these beautiful words – they’ve enriched my day.

    • Hi Ruth
      The idea of a greater story has been on my mind a lot lately. Not always sure why…but knowing God seems to be reminding me of more that what I see.
      Thank you for your encouragement.

  5. love this! So many of your dares are the same things I’ve been learning to try this year. 🙂

    Stylewithacee.blogspot.com
    This month I’m writing about learning to try for 31 days.

    • Hi Chelsea
      A 31 days series on learning to try…sounds like a great idea. There is always so much to try, from big to little things. Thanks for stopping by and for your encouragement.

  6. What a beautiful response to the prompt “dare.” Love this!! Thank you for sharing His beauty with our needful souls.

    • Thank you Renee. I didn’t realize how much thoughts of beauty and what a life marked by it…were rolling around in my head. It has been a good month to focus on it!

  7. Melanie, I love this. Especially the line “I will dare to live in the messy middle, where courage and hope come alive.” Thank you for encouraging me to dare this Friday, when the week has me worn down.

    • Hi Liz
      I am sorry you have had a week that has worn you down…Praying this weekend is restorative. And that even in the messy middle places…even in the tiredness, that you have glimpses of hope coming alive.
      Blessings to you.

  8. Anita Ojeda says

    What a beautiful manifesto of ‘dares’! I especially love the ‘dare to let others in’–that’s a tough one for me. I’ve been doing FMF for about a year now–did you know there’s a twitter party on Thursday nights? #fmfparty –it starts up around 6 pm pacific time (I think, I live in Arizona, so I’m always out of sync with the rest of the world 😉 ).

    • Letting others in, really in, can be a hard one for me too.
      I need to join in on the Twitter party…I am east coast time, but I’m sure I can stay up for one.
      I have done FMF in the past, but has been a while.
      But these last two weeks were the first in linking the prompt to my 31 days series. (think i wasn’t clear about that!)

  9. Susan Shipe says

    Definitely refrigerator material – Andrew’s got that right!

  10. I will dare to color outside the lines when redemption is at stake.
    I will dare to surrender to a greater story.

    Those are so good. I’m glad you took part in FMF. I’m really challenged to try it again today myself.

    • Janice
      Coloring outside the lines surprised me as I wrote it, and yet can see in this season of my life why it probably came to mind.
      Thanks for your encouragement…I would love to read yours!

  11. Oh I love this and how you approaced the word prompt! Love that you are joining in with FMF’s!

  12. Jennifer Camp says

    Dear Melanie, what a beautiful series. What a beautiful heart you have. I love these declarations, these stances of courage in conviction in love. So awesome, sister. Thank you Bless you.

    • Jennifer
      So good to see your face pop up here!
      Thank you for your kind words….writing this series has been good for my heart. It has brought forth good reminders….
      Thank you for your encouragement!
      Blessings to you

  13. Kelly Marie says

    Stopping in from FMF. I was very happy I randomly clicked on your link up!

    http://www.sendkelly.wordpress.com

    • Hi Kelly
      So good to connect with you. I just checked out your journey in Tanzania and am so grateful you are sharing it. Thanks for randomly clicking over here!

  14. What a beautiful manifesto! I keep seeing 5 minute Friday, I will have to check it out.

    • Melissa
      You would love it. Each Thurs a word prompt is posted. I am always amazed where God leads in the writing and always love seeing what others write about. You are a great community builder, you would like it!

  15. Rachel Shewmaker says

    This is wonderful. We should all strive to be as daring as we can. Thank you for sharing.

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