As a child from a single parent home growing up in Mississippi I spent a lot of time with my Grandma. To me she was this strong, funny, genius of a lady who could stretch a dollar from here to kingdom come. I was (and still am) amazed that she birthed and raised 10 kids and still had a heart big enough to love on all the grandchildren those kids gave her.

As an adult the lessons I learned while spending time in my Grandma’s house have proven to be lifelines for me. So when Pam, a friend of mine shared with me her vision for a ministry to women and girls called Beauty By God, I immediately thought of my Grandma. I still call her for advice on all kinds of things, to learn how to cook certain dishes that I’ve never tried, and just to share  few laughs. Anybody who will take the time to listen to you go on and on for hours on the phone about stuff they’ve already tried to tell you but you wouldn’t listen before is the epitome of Beauty By God.

When I think about the sacrifices this lady made, I also think about the millions of other women who make similar sacrifices everyday and never have this beauty celebrated. This thought pressed even harder on my mind recently after hearing of the death of Ruby Dee and that of Maya Angelou a few days earlier. These beautiful women spent much of their lives working to make the beauty in others known through their art and their activism. I had been trying to decide when and how to release this song. Should I try to get a producer to spruce up the music (which would take awhile) or should I go ahead and release it as is?

For me the matter was settled when I learned of Ruby Dee’s passing. You see earlier that day  I was in a store where the salesperson pulled up my customer information and found that it erroneously listed me as having been born in 1922. We laughed about it and then I went home. At home, I checked Facebook messages and discovered the news. In one of the bios that was posted it stated that Ruby Dee was born in 1922. Coincidence? Maybe. At any rate, I offer you Beauty By God in hopes that our definition and understanding of beauty will be enlarged. When you hear the phrase Beauty By God, who do you think of? Tell me in a comment below!

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