Welcome to the beauty within...

The Beauty Within...

It's time... Mirror Mirror on the wall who is the hotest after all... LOL i truly don't want to know what my mirror would say. Why are we so conserned about the beauty outside. We wear make up to hide the flaws, and they say that the clothes make the man or woman, in my case. But do we really need it, any of it? I am not saying that wearing make up is bad I am not saying that wearing nice clothes is bad. What I am saying is that maybe we focus too much on the outer look than we focus on the inter beauty.

Welcome to Redefining Beauty.. Where the wonder of God’s Love is more than you could ever imagine. My name is Hope Bolton. My 15 year old daughter, Cheyenne, started this ministry. She was watching a news program that featured a group of girls who decided that they wanted to show their high school and the world that it’s not all the makeup and clothes that make you beautiful. So they started a club called Redefining Beautiful. They take a day out of the week and wear the club t shirts and no makup. As Cheyenne watched this she decided that it was a wonderful idea and she wanted to start it at her school, Strawberry Crest. While Cheyenne was getting her information together, thanks to Pastor Randy Humphrey, she decided that this was something much bigger than just her school. While she pondered the idea of taking this out to the world she got a few friends to do No Makeup Mondays. . I truly commend her because in school I thought you needed makeup to be beautiful. But my daughter goes even further and doesn’t just do the no makeup Mondays she doesn’t wear makeup most of the time. My husband and I have raised her to know that you shouldn’t care what others think of you, you care how you feel about yourself and always remember that God thinks you’re gorgeous.
So when she came to me and said that it was too hard to start a club at the high school and that she wanted to start a ministry called Redefining Beauty. I thought awe how wonderful ,my daughter is gonna start a ministry. Wooooo Hoooo… then I sat back and realized that this isn’t just a ministry for teen girls, it’s a ministry for all women no matter what shape, size or age. So, we set off on this wonderful mission for God. Our first luncheon to introduce the world to the Redefining Beauty ministry was a very wonderful success. 20 people came and we were excited. I was especially excited because I only had enough food for about 25 people. We were nervous but things went well. At the end we had women telling us it was fantastic and that they wanted us to come speak with their women and teen girls groups. Wooo Hooo… but realizing that this could spread to be a larger ministry shocked us to the bone. But as I spoke to my daughter about how large this could be I found things running thru my mind such at wow we could do a drama to our theme song. We could get shirts made. This will reach ….. Wow a lot of women and teens. Now I don’t do well in front of large crowds. I get nervous and start to do the ummmmmm thing. But I sat down and thought hummmmmm God what is it that you want from this ministry. I feel that you wouldn’t have got it started if you didn’t want us to go out into the world, wait let’s start small, go out into Plant City and let women know that it’s you that makes us beautiful. So we started this ministry to help all women know God is love and the love we have for him radiate out of us and make our beauty shine through all the worldly things.
High school, we all have either been there or are going there and it’s not what we expect. I went to high school in the ‘80’s. MC Hammer pants, big hair, polo shirts, baby blue eye shadow, Duran Duran in the cassette player. Yea it was a crazy time. I went to school always self concise of my weight, my clothes, my makeup. Will I see “him”… who ever “him” was that week. And will he notice me. I remember walking by the “him” it was that week and he looked at me and I said hi and smiled my biggest smile I could and he just looked at me with this look as if I was an alien. Okay so maybe he didn’t know my name but hey he could at least have said hi. I remember thinking maybe I didn’t have the right clothes or makeup on. I would stand in front of the mirror and ask that person in the mirror what she was doing and why she wasn’t skinny. Why her hair didn’t look as good as the other girls and why she couldn’t get a boyfriend. Funny thing was she never answered me she just waited for an answer from me. But time went on and I graduated. I got out of school and found out that being out in the world was no different. I still wondered why I didn’t have a boyfriend, why I was so fat, why my makeup didn’t look like the girls in the magazine and why I didn’t have the fancy clothes. Granted out in the world I never made anyone think I was unhappy with what you saw. But deep inside I wanted to be noticed. I did get a boyfriend and married and have to wonderful children.
But I didn’t realize till I had a little girl how my high school experience affected me. My husband and I taught her from 4 years old that she was beautiful no matter what anyone said. Well as much as you can teach a 4 year old as she runs around you…She didn’t need makeup to be beautiful if she was happy with herself that is all that mattered. She was to look at herself and ask do I like how I look and would God be proud of it or like how I look. I could talk the talk but didn’t walk the walk. I always wore makeup and wanted to be skinny and needed the approval of people. Granted it is nice to have the approval of your husband, boyfriend, family & friends. But I didn’t realize how wonderful it was to have God’s approval. How great it is to have God say you are beautiful just the way you are my daughter. He put in the bible, in his word, that you don’t need the adornments to be beautiful. I’m not saying that you can’t wear makeup, have the nice clothes, get your hair or nails done… No these are things that you can do but don’t base your life on this. God puts an inter beauty in you. The light that shines from a woman or teen age girl who has Christ in her is more beautiful than anything you will ever see. My daughter has made me realize this. It is wonderful to know that I went through all I did in school to learn at the age of 44 that God was all I needed. What is more precious is that God used my 15 year old daughter to help me realize that I don’t need makeup to make me look special and beautiful because God made me in his image and he is wonderful and beautiful. God doesn’t make mistakes and everything he makes is beautiful. He tells us we are fearfully and wonderfully made. That we are more precious that jewels.
Wear makeup don’t wear makeup, have fancy clothes or just ripped up jeans and a t-shirt, your hair in a pony tail or all made up it doesn’t matter, what matters is the inter beauty that you illuminate for the world to see. The light of God.

The Construction crew and a Trust Card

There's a new movie coming out " the Grace Card". The trailer is wonderful everyone should check it out. thegracecardmovie.com. After watching this trailer I realized that God gives grace to us every day. But there is something that goes along with this. We must trust. Trust is essential to a good relationship foundation in all aspects of our lives.



We learn at a young age that we must trust our siblings, parents and other family members. They are our source of nourishment (physically and mentally). This trust is built, cultivated and grown. It grows through out our lives as we learn to trust others outside our family circle and many times the trust we have in others is broken. But we have a choice to either try to rebuild that trust or move on. If you have gone through the broken and rebuild era in your life your not alone. The world is full of the trust construction crews. One thing I have found in my life is that trust reconstruction is hard but can be torn down and rebuilt in many ways and many times. I live my life every day trusting people i don't know, trusting those that have broken my trust and those that the trust construction crew is working on. But it is my choice what to do... rebuild or move on. It has been a long and up hill road to this but I am starting to ask myself what would God want me to do? How many times has God had to rebuild his trust in me? "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23 His trust in me has been broken so many times I can't count but he still loves me and takes me back no matter how far I stray. I know he says Hope haven't you learned your lesson yet.. I trusted you to listen to me and you went your own way and now your back. Okay so let's try this again ... Will you trust me and know I am Lord and I know what is best for you????

I realize that it is hard to forgive and trust and how many times do we need to forgive and trust someone before we just say move on. I say pray.... Pray hard and a lot. God is there and he will help you make the decision. Just remember we are flesh and when enough is enough God will tell you. He never gives you something you can't handle.


Wow, How do you trust in something you can't see. It all comes down to Faith. But that's another blog. LOL


God doesn't need my trusty little card but I do so each time my trust has been broken I pull out my "trusty" Trust Card. What is that you may ask. It is a small card that has one thing on it that helps me through it all. TRUST in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5. Things happen in life that no one understands. But when you think about it we see only our little part of the BIG PICTURE. God sees the whole picture. So what happens to us effects everything in the world even if we don't see it. So putting our trust in the Lord, no matter who we find we can or can't trust, makes trusting a bit easier. I am not saying that trusting isn't hard but if you trust the Lord you will find that your construction crew doesn't have to work as hard and you may even send them home for a vacation.




On our journey through life you will have to pull the trust card out and read it. You may even have to pass it on to someone else so they can use it. Our journey here is a long and hard one make it a God filled one. Pass on his word.

Walking with no one around

This blog is about me, my life and my walk with God. I will have some pages with my thoughts, loves, my sadness, my joys and my opinions but I do this to show how God has and will work in my life and to glorify him. I have had some extremely bad times in my life, but I have also had wonderful times in my life, I have made decisions, some good some bad. But I learned from each and every situation (and keep learning). While I might not have learned my lesson in each situation, I have discovered that I have the chance to learn from each experience. Things keep replaying them selves in my life and I think it's God's way of saying "you haven't gotten it right yet, let's try again. Ask me for guidance and wisdom and you will make the right decision".

... squirrel... HEEHEE... back on topic...



Have you ever stopped to think that even when you're by yourself you're not alone. Which is kind of scary but also very nice. Big Brother isn't watching yet! BUT our Father God is...

While you sit at your house doing what ever it is you do when you're there.. God is there. Watching!!!! Scary because what if you're doing something you shouldn't be, talking to someone you shouldn't be talking to, looking at something you shouldn't be or reading something that shouldn't be read.

WOW, as I sit here I'm thinking I should be reading more of my bible and less of my Facebook posts. You know when your younger you think about making your parents proud, now that I am older I think "is God proud of what I have accomplished, is he happy about the decisions I made". Since I didn't pray about a lot of my decisions is he truly proud of them or is he just giving me little blessings. Little blessings that could have been huge if I would have just turned to him when I was alone and ask him for guidance.

But isn't it great that you can sit alone and know that God is always there. Know that if you need someone to talk to that he is there and know that if you need to read something he is there in his word. Isn't it great that he gives us the chance to turn to him no matter what time the clock says, no matter where we are, who we are with, or what we are doing we can just chat with God. Shouldn't we all treat him like he is our best friend. I admit I talk to my best friend a lot more than I talk to God.

I always wonder, if he knows everything why do I need to tell him anything? Tell him my pain, my sorrows, my wishes, hopes, dreams, my happiness, my love, my joy, all that I am. Why do I need to tell him. He asks us to talk to him, he wants that closeness with us, each one of us. Even Jesus prayed to his father so why is it so hard for us to take the time, it only takes five minutes, to talk to God? He is our father.

I walked to my car this morning to take my daughter to the bus stop and thought about texting my best friend. How wonderful is it that we don't even have to pick up our phone to talk to God. No long distant charges, no call waiting and no busy signal. We can just talk to him like we are talking to a friend. I have, though, picked up my phone and acted like I was on it when I was talking to God so people wouldn't think I was nuts. :)

WOW... now that I see this written out I think my connection with God has gotten few and far between. I'll be checking out my Godbook status instead of my Facebook status.

One step at a time

Following me is like following a squirrel crossing the road when a car is coming. You never know which way it will go but eventually it either makes it to the other side or gets squashed.
Like a squirrel some times I get squashed but a lot of times I make it to the other side and do the happy dance. Wooohooo!!!! Thank you Lord for your timing...
Either way I learn something about myself, my life and what I can do better to make sure I make it to the other side again. Faster, stronger and more in tune with what the Lord needs and wants me to do . I found that it is much easier for me to understand my life when I write it down. So as I came to this realization I begin this blog.
Through good times and bad I will write and I hope that maybe this will help others that might be facing that car coming towards them ... help them see that the only way to the other side is one step at a time holding close to God. Sometimes you have to be quick and determined but sometimes you have to sit back and think do I cross the road now or should I wait... Many times "hurry up and wait" is the best way to go. But as I cross the road my thoughts are, now and will always be from now on, "Lord what do you want me to do?"