My dear friend Merrie is a Christian author and wrote this amazing letter I thought was very appropriate for the coming Valentine's holiday. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.


To my precious daughter,

You are so beautiful.  I love you so very much.  You are a delight to me.

I remember as I was weaving you in my own image within your mother’s womb.  I selected those special eyes, ears, nose, and lips to fashion your lovely face.  I knew that your smile would tickly your mother’s heart. I gave careful consideration to the color and texture of your hair to compliment the contour of your face.

I molded the shape of your body knowing all of the ways that you would utilize it.   As I formed your fingers and toes, I smiled, as I knew your parents would count each of them.

As for those special talents and passions of your soul, I want you to enjoy them.  They are for My pleasure and for yours.

My child, you are fearfully and wonderfully made.  My hands fashioned you in a secret place.  You are my workmanship, my design.

I numbered your days even before they began.

It made my heart rejoice the day you accepted my Son, Jesus, as your personal Savior, and my gift of eternal life.  On that day, I sent my Holy Spirit to take up residency in your body as His Holy temple.  Yes, your body is a temple, a temple of My Holy Spirit. 

I sent Him to guide you and teach you My ways and My thoughts.  He will assist you in handling those talents and passions to glorify Me, your Father, your Creator.  It was for My good works that I gave them to you, to be zealous for My Kingdom.

Therefore, it is extremely important that you take very good care of your precious body for the furthering of My work.

May My peace continue to increase in your heart as you take comfort in this knowledge.

With all My Love,

Your Heavenly Father

(Paraphrases of Psalm 139:13-18 and 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, by Merrie Hansen, Christian Writer)

When I was growing up, my Sunday School teacher was Ms. Esther Carpenter. And she LOVED it when we learned Bible verses. She loved it so much that when you got your verse learned and recited it perfectly to her, she got you a book mark that had your name on it. For some reason, the store she went to never had bookmarks that said "Paula" so I always got one that said "Phyllis."

Besides the wrong name, the only other thing I remember about those bookmarks was the verse that was writtin on the bottom "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches" (Proverbs 22:1). For years, I puzzled over my "Phyllis" bookmark with this strange verse I didn't understand. I am named after my dad (Paul) and I knew that he got to choose the name, not me. So that verse made no sense at all to my small mind.

It wasn't until college that  I finally understood what this verse was talking about. My dad is the Physical Plant Director at Friends University, like his father was before him. They have spent well over 40 years in that department taking care of the physical needs of the university. In those 40 plus years, the name Winchester has grown to be very well respected. I didn't realize how much so until I started working along side my dad. People respect him and find it an honor to work with and for him. It means something special to be able to say that I am Paul's daughter, or Ray's grand-daughter.

Too many times I think we come to believe that the sign of success is having great riches. We think that flashing our riches to others means something. In reality, it is more important to be a person who is respected for their integrity; someone who is known for being a stand-up class act.

I want to be that kind of person. Someone, who when my name is mentioned, people respect. Someone people want to do business with. I want to have integrity and value truth and honesty and all things good. I also hope you are able to find those things true about me and about Simply Beadiful.