Section I — Growing Seeds of Faith
I’ve never been what you would call “model material.” I wasn’t voted Homecoming Queen or named “Cutest” for my high school yearbook. In fact, in middle school I probably would’ve been chosen “Most Awkward” if they’d had that category! And you know what? It was hard to be the tallest, the one with the most pimples, the one with the haircut most likely to be laughed about when all the Very Cool Girls were gathered in the bathroom. Nobody ever used “Nancy” and “beauty” in the same sentence, unless it was to say I wasn’t one.
About grade nine, I started accepting that I wasn’t headed for the Miss America Pageant, and I decided that the one thing I had going for me was being able to make people laugh. Since people like to laugh, they liked me. Then I discovered that I just automatically encouraged people and helped them see the good in themselves, so I did that more. Pretty soon, people who had problems (even the Very Cool Girls) were coming to me to vent. Eventually, I thought less and less about how not-so-cute I was next to the VCG’s.
I didn’t realize while all that was happening that God was behind it, that the changes in me were happening because I believed. I was simply showing the beauty within. My life pretty much revolved around the church and I prayed every day and hung out with other believing kids. But it still didn’t occur to me until years later that it was all God’s doing. I had the beauty of believing and I didn’t even know it.
If I had known it, I could have avoided some mistakes, like sneaking the makeup my mom said I couldn’t wear and hurting two really nice guys by secretly dating both of them at the same time because they both said I was cute (seventeen can be a very clueless age, just so you know). If I’d been even closer to God, I would have been aware that the beauty of Christ’s light shining through is better than mascara and compliments. I hope what you’re about to read will teach you the same thing.
— Nancy Rue