It seems as though lately as I’ve been introducing myself and people figure out whose daughter I am they have just one thing to say, “You look just like your Mom!”  And who wouldn’t want to hear that they look just like the most beautiful woman in the world?  Actually, I wish I looked more like her – I’ve always wanted her legs!

It’s not surprising to hear that I resemble her.  There’s a picture of us at the same age, both sitting on a tree stump, and you could swear it was the same girl.

And the little girl who always loved the fact that she looked like her mom is now the woman wishing she really looked like her mom.

Let me tell you exactly what my mom looks like.

She is beautiful.  She has a gentle wisdom – she is so wise and it never ceases to amaze me.  She is full of knowledge about the Lord and about His Word and uses that to encourage and inspire and guide those around her towards Him.  She is not proud or arrogant in that wisdom but offers it with such grace.  And it never fails that when I’m in a situation or struggling she has just the right words, she knows God’s truth, and she shows me how to deal with whatever I’m going through by relying on Him, never making me feel like a failure for messing up or discouraged for not getting it right, but feeling empowered knowing that God is bigger than anything I might be facing.

She is beautiful.  She has this quiet strength that has given me hope that no matter what I go through I am not going through it alone, and that God will take me through whatever has been placed in front of me.  She has experienced such pain and hardship throughout her life and yet shines with the joy of the Lord.  Never blaming Him for difficulties but yet embracing them in order that she might grow and use whatever has happened in her life to bring Him glory.  She has shown me what it is to truly count it all joy when we face trials of many kinds, and she has shown me what it is to develop perseverance through those trials.

She is beautiful.  She has such humility.  She gives and gives of herself and doesn’t want acknowledgment.  She is so gifted in her words, in speaking and in writing, and yet gives all honor to God.  She has done so many things, touched so many lives, spent her life serving God in every way He has called her, and she would never take credit for it.

She is beautiful.  And I want to look just like her.

Emily