The Lipstick Tube

My new lipstick tube was ruined!  It was the perfect color, which is hard to find! I had owned it less than 24 hours before my 3 year old found it on the kitchen counter (placed there by me on it's way up to my bathroom) and screwed it up into the lid so that the lipstick was all smashed in there.  So sad! It is actually still functional it's just that I only buy new lipstick like once every 3 years and I use it so infrequently, because I am always rushing out the door....that it takes those 3 years to use it all!! Also, I was so excited to have one that was pristine AND one that I wasn't using a Q-tip to reach into the bottom of the tube for because it was my favorite color!

I started thinking about how it is hard to live a life of beauty with small children around....how the pillows that I put on the couch in the morning are on the floor again by 10:00am...the crayola marker on the kitchen floor tile...the finger marks on the windows and walls....the books/CDs etc. that don't stay on a shelf....the sippy cups all over the counter....those horrible slimy grow-toy things in bowls of water in the bathroom (ok, those have got to be my most unfavorite toy invention - if you have no idea what I am talking about that is a good thing.)

Then, of course came the light bulb moment.  Wait a second!!  These messes are all things of beauty!! Would I trade my kids for a perfect, clean house? Not in a million years. I still have to teach them to clean up, but I love how God uses little children to help his own children grow. I certainly had some growing up to do (mentally and spiritually) even after I was all grown up and I think children have been one of God's most useful tools in that process. So thankful that God only cares about our inside beauty (and He helps it to grow) because all I have here is smashed lipstick! At least when I use that one, it reminds me of the beauty of his goodness-turning our messes to joy.