What Makes America Beautiful?

Denali_Sunshine_-_Mountain_-_Alaska

Katherine Lee Bates said it well: America the beautiful. Our spacious skies, fields and mountains certainly are majestic, not to mention the music-hearted seas that grace our beautiful shores-but really, every nation has some kind of beauty to be appreciated. Perhaps America’s greatest beauty is the very thing we celebrate this weekend: our independence.

When I was eleven, my family set out on an adventure to begin a new life in Maine. On my first day of school I had kids snubbing me because they thought I was rich (kind of ironic, don’t you think?). I remember going home and asking my mom, “why do they call me ‘rich girl’? We live in a tiny shack, I don’t even have my own room!” Mom’s response baffled me. “Honey, that’s because we come from Cape Cod. People travel from all over the world to vacation there.” Call me naive, but I had no idea I had grown up in a resort area.

 During my junior year of high school, we returned to the Cape and I found myself dumfounded at my friends’ lack of gratitude for our surroundings. I guess it’s not uncommon to take for granted the beauty that is right in front of us-until it’s gone.

I never intend to move off-Cape again; I enjoy every break in landscape that gives a glimpse of the water and I miss it even when I go away for a week.

But I take my country for granted all the time because I don’t know what it is like to live without all that America has to offer. Scenic views may be what draws tourists to places like Cape Cod, but it is the freedom to BE and LET BE that draws so many cultures to the USA. We would all do well to remember that this weekend, as we celebrate Independence Day, because God-forbid we should ever have to go without it.

Independence makes a country beautiful, but it also what makes you beautiful! To celebrate the Fourth of July, I am giving away a copy of my devotional book, Supreme MakeOver, to anyone who buys an autographed copy of Confident Beauty (from my website). Why? Because I was born on Independence Day and I want you to be able to declare your independence from all the Confidence Conflicts that you face, and these two books are designed to bring Confident Beauty, which doesn’t wear off like makeup does!

 

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Catrina Welch is an inspirational author and speaker whose personal experience with overcoming rejection, betrayal and loss–as well as her expertise as a cosmetologist, image consultant and Biblical life-coach–is empowering women to BE and LET BE.

Her latest book, CONFIDENT BEAUTY: Reflecting the One Who Made You, with the Images in your Mirror and in your Soul, is now available in your favorite bookstores. Autographed copies of all her books are available on her website at www.CatrinaWelch.com

 


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