Beautiful--A Shocking Word.

James. He's my best friend, though he lives in Arizona. He trusts me with the world, I trust him with that and more. He's my go-to guy with anything. But there is always the question, why? I've never met this guy face to face, never talked to him anywhere besides through the phone.

The reason is, James was the first to call me beautiful. Not hot, sexy, or any of those other words guys use. (Believe me, I'm not called those either) But beautiful. He said it with meaning, and he said it with clarity. It stunned me. Every time someone uses that word, I get a chill up my spine. I think "Me? Beautiful? Me?" And I denied it before thanking him. I just didn't believe it. Reason number 1, my parents have never used that word.

Nice. To them, I've always looked "nice." But other times what I'm wearing is "unattractive," "not very pretty," so on and so on... That killed me. Every time those words came out of their mouths it killed me. I learned to accept the fact I wasn't beautiful enough to impress them. I stopped trying.

But then, more and more people this week have been using that word to describe me. Even my parents have used it! Random people. People I barely know! What do they see in me that I don't? What features do they see that put me in this classification?

I guess only they know and God knows. He'll slowly show me what they see. I just have to shut up and listen.