Her weapon of choice? Sticky notes.

Some Sweepstakes lady just called me, telling me I was eligible to win $100,000, or something like that. This, friend, is why you shouldn't fill out surveys for Facebook offers that require your phone number and address. Now, Sweepstakes lady might just haunt me until the day I...tell her not to.

This, however, has nothing to do with the story I want to tell you.

---

My friend Dotty and I went shopping at JC Penney yesterday. As I chatted with her and ran my hands across lines of colorful shirts and dresses (a habit of mine; I feel like I'm not looking at the clothes unless I'm touching them), I began to contemplate looks. That's a slippery slope for me.

First, I sighed inwardly and berated myself for past clothes-buying decisions, wondering, "Why didn't I pay more attention to what flatters me and buy this style instead of that one? I bet that shirt I wear looks really cheap to people. I have a lame fashion sense. If only I had chosen this cut of jeans instead of that one, I'd look way better..."

Rooted in this mindset, I looked in the mirror to tug the wrinkles out of the bottom half of my shirt (another habit of mine). Reflected there was the person I dreaded most to see. I saw myself. I frowned at myself. I felt my heart falling into despair as those perfidious, lying voices told me how pale, short, tired-looking,unattractive and [the list goes on] I was.

I've fought this battle a hundred times over. I've given in more times than I can count. It led to slow self-destruction in the past--though I praise God that's not the case anymore, the battle still isn't easy for me to fight, or even to want to fight. I sat there in JC Penney, gritting my teeth against the lies, clenching my fists as I threw out a desperate spiritual S.O.S.

By God's grace, my mind moved on to a new train of thought, shelving the old one to deal with later.

Ten minutes later, as I wandered through the clothes racks again, I encountered another mirror. The first thing I noticed was a yellow sticky note rather than my reflection. It said:

"You are beautiful! :-)
operationbeautiful.com"

It was such a small thing, yet it was like a small smile from God.

I checked out the site later today, and it made me smile. Movements like this, gestures like this, may seem cheesy at times, but they can be a real blessing. So, thanks, random girl, whoever and wherever you are, for taking the time to put that sticky note on a mirror in a JC Penney in Moore, Oklahoma. Your operation was a success.