The Myth of Beauty
Flawless skin, full luscious red lips, long flowing hair, big gorgeous eyes draped with long dark eyelashes and all perfectly set on a thin silhouette. That's what beauty is, isn't it? That's what we see in magazines at Walmart, on the posters in the stores at the mall, and even on t.v. Everyone is always showering the people that fit into these "beauty molds" with praise and admiration. So many people say that these traits are beautiful and worship those who have them, so isn't that what beauty is? According to the dictionary, yes that is basically what beauty is, but according to God, beauty is so much more.
"...The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV).
"...And I want women to get in there with the men in humility before God, not primping before a mirror or chasing the latest fashions but doing something beautiful for God and becoming beautiful doing it." 1 Timothy 2:9-10 (The Message) .
Those two verses show that God doesn't determine beauty by your hair, your clothes, your eyes, your make up, or anything else that we look at to determine beauty. God looks at who you are on the inside, not what you look like on the outside. He looks at your heart. But how exactly do you get a beautiful heart? You can't put make up on it or put fashionable clothes on it. You achieve a beautiful heart through a relationship with Christ Jesus, our Lord and savior. Only through a relationship with him can you cultivate true beauty that grows and blossoms in your heart.
Have you ever noticed that when you spend time hanging out with your best friend or your mom or sister you guys start to act a like? Or you end up wearing matching outfits completely by accident? Well that's what it's like with God. The more time you spend with him, the more you become more like him. Through that friendship with Christ, God will teach you things like compassion, kindness, honesty, loyalty, love, forgiveness, and other good character traits that make up true beauty. Through reading the Bible, praying, and obeying Christ he starts to transform your broken and blemished heart with one that is whole and pure and beautiful. :) This is the kind of heart that true beauty lives in. And though you may not fit into the same "beauty mold" that the world has created you posses something much more valuable; the beauty that is found through Christ.
"A young woman who is deeply, passionately, intimately in love Jesus Christ glows with a radiance that overpowers even the most noticeable of flaws. I’ve seen many a godly woman light up an entire room with her presence. To study her closely, you would not think of her as beautiful; in fact she might even have major physical blemishes that would normally be distracting. But when a woman’s passion for Jesus Christ is so deep that it is the focal point of her existence, it effervesces from every corner of her being—and she glows with Heavenly beauty. No matter what her physical flaws might be, they are unnoticed when Jesus Christ is center stage in her life." Quote by Leslie Ludy