You Are Perfect!

Makeover madness, plastic surgery, and being happy with who you are.
I just saw something really sad.
I was flipping through channels, trying to see if there was anything on, and I landed on what I found out was MTV. The show was "I Want to Look Like Someone Famous", or something like that.
I've noticed that there has been an onslaught of such shows.
Everyday people going under the knife to look like someone else. Not subtle little changes like hair coloring or whitening their smile, but drastic makeover changes like chin implants, nose jobs and complete body changes all in the course of a few weeks to look like someone else.
These are perfectly acceptable looking people wanting to look like someone famous.
They are so uncomfortable with who they are, with being in their own skin, that they are willing to put their lives and faces in danger for a makeover to "become" someone else.
I look at the stretch marks forming across my nine-month expectant-mother frame and think how with just a flick of a laser they could be gone.
The wrinkles around my eyes and mouth are reminders of all the laughs and giggles I've had in my life.
I wouldn't change a one.
Look at your imperfections for what they are, YOURS. You are you, individual and beautiful.
I don't want to look like someone who is famous this year for their 15 minutes. Ten years from now, no one will know who they are, much less who you look like.
I don't want my children to think that their value is found in someone else's fame. They are loved for who they are. They are special for who they are. A makeover will not make them more special.
I heard it best put by the man himself, Fred Rogers. People are like fish. Everyone is fancy in their own way; some on the inside and some on the outside. You just need to figure out how you're fancy and know that no one can take that away from you, unless you let them.
With words of wisdom like that, perhaps in this makeover crazed world we would all do well to spend a little time in "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood".

Identity Theft - Defining Who We Are

Identity theft! What defines you in life?
We've all seen them!

The commercials use the voices of people clearly not the ones speaking to relay what can happen when someone else becomes you. Almost everyday another story is reported on this growing intrusion into our lives.

No, we're not going to talk about that kind of identity theft.

I want to talk about how we are being infiltrated by a foe so dangerously subtle that most of us don't even know it is happening.

What defines your identity?

What do you feel best identifies you in life?

Are you a victim of identity theft?

Some of the ways our identity is being defined today:

* He who has the most "stuff" wins.
* See you at the top.
* Money, Money, Money, Money. (Isn't this a song?)
* It's all about me and my need to be happy.

I wonder, do we sometimes confuse popularity with success?

If we ran every noted and famous person through the test of NOBLENESS and DIVINE, how many would pass? Is what many define as success today really gold, or, is it "fools gold"?

My parents never used their status quo, position or income to determine their identity. Money was a means for enhancing the identity they found at home and not the home for their identity.

Don't let the cultural trend and persuasion define who you are in life.

Climbing the corporate ladder, accumulating "stuff" and making money is only a mirage for real success. Careful, this type of subtle indentity theft foe is lurking in the shadows of all our lives.

May we often be reminded that the greatest gift we can ever give the world is a home with love, stability, faith and character.

My wife and I will continue to tell our children over and over again that they are our greatest claim to fame