Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” I said to twelve, six-year-old girls this weekend at my niece’s art-themed birthday party as I taught them how to paint a pink flamingo. (My niece loves anything pink.) I also emphasized this concept when I used to teach elementary art students. I wanted them to understand it wasn’t okay to say something negative about anyone’s project.What some see as ugly, others find to be beautiful.

• Artist Vincent Van Gogh only sold one of his paintings during his lifetime. While alive, Van Gogh was considered a failure as an artist. Yet, according to Widewalls auction results, Vincent’s paintings, Portrait du Docteur Gachet, sold for $75 million, and Reference.com estimates the value of his painting, Starry Night, is now well over 100 million dollars. If only Van Gogh could see the price tag now.
• Dr. Seuss’s first book, And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street, was rejected twenty-seven times before he bumped into a friend on the street who happened to work for Vanguard Press and told him to send him a copy.
• Thomas Edison was deemed a “difficult” child by his school teacher who believed Edison’s brain to be “addled.” His mother pulled him from the school and decided to teach him herself. Edison became a famous inventor holding over 1,000 patents including the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the movie camera.

Many of us deal with naysayers, rejections, and failures, but I want to shout, “Stay the course!” Charlotte Gambill in her a book, The Miracle in the Middle, writes about how many people quit in the middle when fear and doubts seem the greatest. But, it’s in the middle where our character and strength are forged along with a deeper trust in God. I wish Van Gogh could see how the raw emotion displayed in his bold brush strokes created a new era of post-impressionism. I’m thankful that Dr. Seuss didn’t give up on writing because I’m not certain my children would have enjoyed learning to read if he had. And, if Thomas Edison believed what his school teacher thought of him, we all might be sitting around in the dark.There is beauty in what you do. Don’t stop believing in yourself. 2 Peter 1:3 says, “He (God) gives us everything we need for life and for holy living.” We have what it takes to fulfill our purpose, so turn a deaf ear to the naysayers. Sometimes it just takes time to find the right “beholder.”