|
Every Day is Precious: Help another find their inner beauty
By ROB PAYNE
For Williamson A.M.
It used to take my wife Marcy a long time to get ready to go anywhere. Judging from what friends say and the TV I watch, she's not alone.
She has beautiful, naturally curly hair. But it seems human nature is to want what we don't have, so her typical day started with washing and styling her hair so that it was straight. It took time to put on makeup, pick out the proper outfit for the day, the perfect shoes, the right jewelry, even which perfume to wear.
One of the by-products of her diagnosis is to gradually lose the ability to do these (and other) things most of us take for granted. She now has to settle for whatever I can do to get her ready for the day. I have never been accused of being fashionable, much less able to help someone else look good. Now Marcy has to live with my ''spritzing'' her hair with water (spritzing is her word, not mine) and pretending like I can control the direction it goes. Most days her wardrobe for the day involves my picking from one of 3 hospital gowns that she has worn home from our various hospital visits. She sometimes asks for jewelry. Her wedding ring hasn't fit in two years, though she asks me at least every other week to try to get it on. And she has finally spared us both the torture of my having to put makeup on her. When I applied makeup, she always looked worse than when we started.
But almost everyone who comes to see Marcy tells her how good she looks.
Her color is good. Her complexion has a baby-like clarity. Her eyes sparkle brighter than any man-made jewelry.
And when she smiles, it warms the whole room.
Her mother often asks her, ''How can anyone so sick look better than most healthy people?''
I'm not a Bible scholar; I haven't found a passage that describes what Jesus looked like. Most people picture him as handsome with brown hair and eyes, but I think we get this image from artists, not from the Bible.
My theory is that none of the apostles described Him because His outward appearance was eclipsed by His inner beauty. I believe we are supposed to try to see an inner beauty in every person.
1 Peter 3:3-5 tells us that wives' beauty ''should not come from outward adornment Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.''
I have never had to search for Marcy's inner beauty. I saw it on our first date.
Over the years many other people have seen it as well, especially in her work with animal shelters. But now that there is no veil, no outward adornment, many more people are understanding that her inner beauty has been what they have been seeing all along.
Hearing others admire her inner beauty makes me realize I don't tell her often enough how much I admire her and just how beautiful she really is.
If you know a person or family in need, consider finding something you can say that is a genuine, heartfelt compliment something you see in them that they may not see in themselves.
On second thought, everyone you see today is in need of a gift like that.
Please join us Monday, Oct. 20, at Mulligans for Marcy, a golf and dinner fundraiser for Marcy's care. Go to www.EveryDayIsPrecious.com for more information. Every Day Is Precious is a column to remind us to treat everyone we see today as if it could be the last time we see them. It is written by Rob Payne, whose wife, Marcy, was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) in August 2000. Now 40 years old, she has gone from winning 5K and 10K races to being quadriplegic and on a ventilator at home. For more ways to help others, to find more about Marcy, or to receive email updates on her condition, visit www.EveryDayIsPrecious.com. Readers may contribute to her care by sending donations to Every Day Is Precious, 2051 Harvington Drive, Franklin, TN 37069. If you have helped someone without being asked, or know of someone who has, share it with others. Send to rob@everydayis
| 
');
post yXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXcate ɋ"ly ݄< H ntry (^(~P4}դg5oT< url 7http://tennessean.com/graphics/shell/greySrchArrow.gif bsrl Uhttp://tennessean.com/williamsonam/archives/03/10/40342535.shtml?Element_ID=40342535 mime
image/gif hntt "78646-6c-3ca3baee" hvrs data GIF89a ≈ ! , @1
A)XMrMmUijU: lW]ꌶ" ;post 4}դXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXcate 4}դ ॸkn l ntry (cD~Ver1(E.$وfk`
url khttp://gcirm.tennessean.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_jx.ads/news.tennessean.com/williamsonam/index.html@Top1 bsrl Uhttp://tennessean.com/williamsonam/archives/03/10/40342535.shtml?Element_ID=40342535 mime
text/html hvrs data document.write ('
');
post E.$XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXcate cDE.$ ӻ; { ntry ( mz{dsby0`] .s>W s url )http://tennessean.com/graphics/trans.gif bsrl Uhttp://tennessean.com/williamsonam/archives/03/10/40342535.shtml?Element_ID=40342535 mime
image/gif hntt "78a7c-2b-3ac2cf31" hvrs data GIF89a ! , D ;post 0`XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXcate m0` ( s + ntry (iGR:bْVe% BC OK url khttp://gcirm.tennessean.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_nx.ads/news.tennessean.com/williamsonam/index.html@Top1 bsrl Uhttp://tennessean.com/williamsonam/archives/03/10/40342535.shtml?Element_ID=40342535 mime
image/gif hvrs data GIF89ax Z 1 wqt¾ĶTXYߏۺ YD=1. E.մըp|dyC΄\{! NETSCAPE2.0 ! , x Z '&h
$I\TdC}<x9x:d:$Pة^ fzgLV3AE8`;! BIvALM@PSU aZ_ef"/
..0o03;xHE@}?Fy>MOQSaY\ad'(h%o/ ;uw6M2|~>=PYW
)+ ngo,5Ex6A-k,ppYD\0 {aSٍjMeo ) V 191N5:
X۸-wfb9 1o0B= )(PY@XjA"`A2,Ǖ baIpiZTK '
4Z^-0`hJSlu <܄;r#`Y $<۠ZuAX S+abYz]g o@eݹ/ ,ZP\
AlӧB$uD"К
P mg }
QH_0W9љbc VwY[F)X;T@@̝NmdcPI0 h≺` x$ q_2 7 5 sN£O55B D ^j=KXt>@ b>齔ehc57( 4bq]qVdtxMqUזS
iPNPeGYwM"ORpHBjI
)sWkƌL8Ayig| zeI*5[XQ1ֵآoF TY"ꗖ
Q$/u(F&Ro M= 9, md[r DPs [($\U F5 s\8[Dv<\$PǍ&)(4 hWru] mA>S l7[éo%1/x>J WRӘO}f9ux=g
P>$GzTh̤ӨBOZ+SR2@q;wne05eV2tx]m<kp# )Ĵre&jk5D5[V1IcbS@@)'|_kP8Cfj҉ECu %
`H ZT0g@Fq؆TY'hމT xme!C\0Њp6?_6D.Ȉ\ h %Ĥ!_;uzq0rS$Ѝ O\bb%ԕt@dWe In,%)_WI h P_[/IyJ9.
