 Photo by Lawless Capture The Farmer and The Belle" Funny Christmas movie for the family..png It is no secret that comparison is a thief. It will take away whatever it can from you. Comparison is something that has always been around no matter the era. Royals, socialites, movie stars, and models could be found on any media like newspapers, magazines, TV, runways, etc. But it wasn’t until the digital age that the average Joe could also look like they just came off the cover of Vogue. It is now easy for anyone to look like what society describes as perfection. With apps that can easily smooth skin and define body parts in under 5 minutes – photoshop is no longer a skill that takes years to perfect. And the scariest part: you can’t even tell the images were edited.  Photo by Guilherme Stecanella I often catch myself mindlessly scrolling through social media sites. And if you’re anything like me, 5 minutes turns into 2 hours within the blink of an eye. At first, it was an escape from reality… the ideal life, with the ideal look, and the ideal friends – just like a fairytale. Scrolling was a way for me to entertain my bored mind; I just didn’t notice how over time my mindless scrolling turned into the comparison game.  Photo by Fabio Alves It’s easy to look at someone else online and say, “I want that.” The flawless blurred-too-perfection skin, the photoshopped abs, and the smile no one can obtain. We are being fed these images we think are real, and our immediate thought is, “I should look like that.” Here is the secret Hollywood doesn’t tell you though: not even the celebrities look like the photos you see. Pores are REAL, wrinkles are REAL, and everything else you think is a flaw, is REAL. The truth is: beauty is not perfection.  POSTER - “top 10 Christmas movies” “The Farmer and The Bell ... llmark Christmas Movie” and “Christian Christmas Movies”.jpg Whether we want to admit it or not, what we see and what we hear shapes who we are. This starts at a young age. Ask a little girl the least favorite part of her body and it will most likely match her mom’s answer. So, when I was decorating my Christmas tree with the movie The Farmer and The Belle: Saving Santaland playing in the background, I sat down when the message of what true beauty is came into play.  "The Farmer and The Belle" Funny Christmas movie for the family.png Young Belle Winters, played by actress Jenn Gotzon, was constantly told by her mother that she was beautiful because of her hair, her flawless young skin, and her figure, and that these things would bring her joy in life. So, it was no shock Belle thought true beauty was a thing that appeared on the outside. Being surrounded by images of beautiful women on the cover of magazines and being told your looks are going to take you far in life, set the stage for a young Belle to want to be a model in order to gain society’s acceptance.  Funny Christmas Movie for the Family (copyright The Farmer and The Belle: Saving Santaland).png Belle does become a model but is left with an empty void because maintaining a certain image hasn’t fulfilled her. You can’t fill voids with worldy things, we all know that. This movie follows Belle’s journey of figuring herself out by stepping into grace. She realizes while looks are beautiful, they don’t make you a beautiful person. True beauty comes from within when you decide to be completely yourself. But this journey wasn’t an easy one for Belle to figure out. It took some self-work, a lost bracelet, the grace of God, and a lot of pig’s mud (you’re going to have to watch the movie to figure that one out) for her to understand what makes up beauty.  "The Farmer and The Belle" Funny Christmas movie for the family.(copyright The Farmer and The Belle).png This movie came at the right time for me. I have been playing the comparison game for far too long now and putting my worth in others is exhausting. My insecurities of not being loved because I don’t look a certain way has consumed me. The world telling me this is what I should look like, this is what I should have, and this is what happiness is has truly destroyed me. I started looking to the world for validation instead of to God.  Christian Christmas Movie "The Farmer and The Belle".png As humans, we are filled with questions and curiosity. Sometimes, I think we forget we were given the answers. God tells us, in writing, what beauty is. 1 Peter 3:4 says, "Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." He tells us that what’s on the inside is unfading beauty. In today’s world, I think we need to remind ourselves of this more often than we actually do. As true beauty can’t be taken by comparison or anything else. So, this is me saying I quit. I no longer am a pawn playing in the game of comparison. I wasn’t winning, but I was hurting. Just like Belle Winters, I have learned that beauty is not something that can be seen; It is something that is felt. The Farmer and The Belle: Saving Santaland is available Digitally, OnDemand and DVD. You can also purchase items seen within the movie such as the #BeautyBracelet which has 10 motivational inscriptions that were selected by psychologist and pastors for women of all ages (selling on QVC), the devotional book that teaches how to apply the 10 motivational inscriptions called “Divine Beauty: Becoming Beautiful based on Gods Truth” written by Hallmark devotional book writer Michelle Cox (When God Calls the Heart) and Jenn Gotzon (Co-creator of The Farmer and The Belle), and the children’s book by Mike Nawrocki (co-creator for VeggieTales) for kids to help them learn beauty is on the inside through kindness. All of these items are available at www.TheFarmerandTheBelle.net/shop. By Morgan Threadgill  Morgan Threadgill is a graduate of The Fashion Institute of Technology, where she studied Advertising, Marketing, and Communications. She currently resides in her hometown of Austin, Texas and works in Public Relations and Digital Marketing. Ms. Threadgill is a fashion loving, constant traveling, probably reading, and definitely dreaming kind of girl. She hopes to inspire others with her writing whether it is published or not.
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