Becoming beautiful

In the past couple of months I've been witness to dramatic transformations in two strangers.  The first one was at an amusement park.  There was a dad who looked like a military man on leave pushing a tired baby around in a stroller, waiting at the exit gate for a ride.  After a few minutes the mom came out of the ride with two older sisters, all looking hot and disheveled.  The mom traded the dad places and sat down on a bench.  She checked her phone for messages and then put it away and focused her entire attention on her baby.  She poured a little water in the tray of the stroller and smiled and played with her baby in the water.  In that moment, she became gorgeous.  I noticed that she had red curls that were delicately escaping from her sunglasses and ponytail, and her face was luminous.  Her body, with the soft curves of a mom who has had a baby in the last couple of years, looked like something from a Raphael painting.  She was stunning.  I think the dramatic change happened when I saw the love in her face for her child.  But it made her every feature shine and become more than it had been just seconds before.

The same thing happened when we were at Sky Zone for Wyatt's birthday.  I was hanging out with a motley collection of moms who were waiting for their kids to have enough jumping.  One of the women waiting looked like a frumpy librarian.  Her nose was in a book, she had slightly graying long hair parted harshly in the middle and sported wire rimmed glasses.  She was wearing a big gray-green sweater and some dark comfy pants that showed white socks and comfort shoes at the bottom.  At one point I looked back at her and a pudgy tween boy had sat down by her and started talking to her.  Her face was alight.  She had put down her book and was talking to her son and it made her face change into something lovely.  Her outfit that hadn't done her any favors before this just disappeared.  Her whole attention was on her boy, and you could tell that both he and she were really enjoying whatever it is they were talking about.  In that moment she became beautiful.

I've been a mom for a long time now.  I often feel worn down and definitely un-lovely as I try to keep up with busy twin babies, a pair of dueling middle kids, a house, a dog I don't really want, the bust-a-move kind of guy I'm married to and the texts from my fair maidens who are away at college.  I'm really noticing the lines that are showing in my face, the dry patches in various places on my skin and the gray in my hair that drives me to dye it yet again when it starts to show every couple of months.  I'm hopeful that at least to some, the love shows in my face and covers some of that other stuff up.  I know I need to work on focusing my attention more on these dear people I love so it's more visible and there more of the time.  Hopefully one day it can be there all the time.

"I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?"
Alma 5:19