FRANKLY SCARLETT

OH How I LOVE/HATE Scarlett!

Such a mixture of what I admire most in strong women

and dislike most in pretentious women!

Remember the scene in "Gone with the wind"---when Scarlett went to town to shanghai Rhett?  She is dressed to the nines--in her beautiful dress made from the draperies.  Rhett EVER SHARP notices everything---he looks at her and says, "What have you done with your hands?  Those don't belong to a lady.  You've worked with them like a field hand."  Scarlett was on a mission to save her beloved Tara and NOTHING was going to stop her from pulling that off.  She had all the trappings of being the spoiled Southern Belle---but do not let that fool you for a second--a woman of steel was under all that velvet and satin.  A woman who dug in the fields---drove those around her ruthlessly--to save them all from starvation and the "Yankee Devil".  Her field- hand hands---gave away her big secret.

If you saw my hands today, you would think I had joined Scarlett in the fields.  Scrubbing, cleaning, raking, sweeping, packing and unpacking, and let's not forget painting have taken their toll.  I finally cut my nails all the way back, but I am afraid that is the tip of the iceberg.  Work needs doing and I am the straw boss--and the field hand all wrapped in one.  No time to think about what this is doing to my nails and hands--no time to worry about the bumps and bruises--driven trying to get the job finished.

My hands and Scarlett's hands do not identify us--they are only a outward sign of who we are.  Hard working---women determined--without concern for the outward appearance-but with great concern for the job before us.  If you saw me with my paint clothes on--often in the aisles of the hardware and Lowe's, you might mistake me for a street person--or a field hand.  My outward appearance is not who I am--my heart is who I am.  

Under those beat up hands, bruised arms and legs, old clothes covered in paint - there beats a heart filled with love for God and all of you.  NEVER judge a book by its cover---there is so much more when you bother to turn to the first page and begin to read.  SO MUCH MORE!

" But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

I Samuel 16:7