Beautiful Lady

I meet once a month with a group of ladies to Bible journal.  I thought I would start sharing some of the devotionals that I write for those meetings through my blog as well. Hope you enjoy!!

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

I’m not sure about y’all, but there are certain places and times of the day when I do my best thinking.  For me it’s in the shower, folding clothes, and cooking.  I guess those are my quiet times when I’m by myself usually and talking isn’t really required.  One day during one of these times, I got to thinking and the topic of beauty came to mind. I got to thinking about what beauty means.

As a woman I feel like I can safely say that we all want to feel beautiful in one way or another. When we determine what we think beauty means to us, then we judge ourselves accordingly. Often, our definition of beauty comes from the world and comparing ourselves to what the world says is beautiful. Beauty by the world’s standards usually consists of having all these things:

• perfect hair
• perfect body
• perfect teeth
• perfect complexion
• perfect clothes and probably many more

The problem with all these standards is that they begin with the word perfect. We as human beings are all imperfect. I struggle with this constantly because I have been trained by the world to see beauty as perfection.  Beauty according to the world is only seen one way.  When I view beauty in this way, I see myself only for the things that I am not. I bet if you ask any woman, she can instantly name three things that she doesn’t like about herself but ask her to name three things she loves about herself she will probably struggle to come up with just one.

The world tells us to compare ourselves to other women to see how we measure up. We see them as competition. So instead of seeing that person as a creature made in the image of God, we see them as an opponent who we must try to look better than in every possible way.  This way of thinking can cause feelings of jealousy, judgment and condemnation, things we must steer our mind away from.

In high school, I struggled with my identity feeling like I wasn’t beautiful enough. I wished to have blonde hair and blue eyes.  I thought that would make me more attractive. I also always wanted to be a cheerleader because I thought they got the attention that I wanted.  However, sports were my thing.  That’s what I excelled in and I loved playing But what guy really wants to date a sweaty girl who spends her time competing and getting dirty?  Beauty just didn’t seem like it was something I was capable of achieving, but I was starving for the world’s attention. Starving to feel beautiful and noticed for all the wrong reasons. 

I’m at a point in my life now where I want to embrace my abilities, talents, and my beauty. I want to see myself for who I am and stop seeing myself for what I’m not. The days are hard. The devil will tell you all kinds of things, you’ll never have the perfect body, you’ll never have the perfect hair, you’ll never have the perfect look, and you will never be “her”.  But let me tell you, whoever the “her” is in your life real or fake, you must realize she is just as unsure of herself as you are of you.  She is just as unhappy with something on her body as you are with something on yours.

When we judge ourselves by the world’s standards, we will never be good enough. We will never be beautiful, because something bigger and better is always going to come along.  The good news is we don’t have to live in the ways of the world. We get to live in the ways of the Lord, if we will just choose to do so.

God delights in beauty; it just might not be the beauty that we are used to hearing so much about. God has given us many beautiful things to look at; the oceans, mountains, flowers, clear skies, starry nights, but I don’t believe that is all that beauty means to him, pretty things to look at. No, I think it is much deeper than that. Beauty is more than skin deep. If God only had one way of looking at beauty, he would’ve made all of us the same; there would be no need to have any differences because there would only be one definition of what is beautiful.  But he didn’t do that, so it tells me that we all have beauty inside of us that makes the outer shell shine brighter. He loves us no matter what, just as we are, and the people who matter to you will love you flaws and all. They will see the beauty in you and will encourage you and build you up genuinely and whole heartedly.

 Read 1 Peter 3:3-5

Embrace your beauty, inside and out. Find what you love about yourself, what features make you feel beautiful? Delight in those things; you are beautiful because you are God’s creation! Let go of the things you don’t like; fight them away. The world will not stop telling you what you don’t want to hear, but you don’t have to listen to it.  Remember it is a lie! 

What do I think God defines beauty as? Perhaps it is this: beauty is ultimately that you are embracing the qualities and assets God gave you and using them for his glory. So that being said; do whatever it is that makes you feel beautiful, just make sure you give God the glory.  Wear the makeup; buy the dress; workout/exercise; these things are not sinful or wrong; they can actually help show the world the Lord. Just always remember it’s not for people to praise you, it’s to show God that you recognize he has given you a blessing in creating you and you want to show your appreciation by taking care of his creation. You want to be the best, most beautiful person you can be starting from the inside out.  People take notice of changes and when you begin to look and treat yourself like the blessing you are, they will want to know what you’ve done.  Simply say, “I started seeing myself the way God sees me. I know my worth and I wanted to show it. It’s all because of him.”

Ladies we can’t do this alone. The devil is out there lurking at the chance to jump on us to feed us lies. Let’s fight back! Beauty that builds each other up is the kind of beautiful we need to be.  Smile at another woman you pass by.  Give another woman a compliment. Encourage them. Build them up. Support them. I read a quote before that said, “Be the kind of woman who helps fix another woman’s crown, not the one who tells the world it’s crooked.”  Let’s show our God-given beauty to the world. We must begin with loving our self, embracing our qualities, and letting God shine through us to help others along the way.  That’s when we will be able to show the world what it really means to be beautiful.

The verse for tonight is one of my favorites and it’s one I go back to anytime, I’m feeling down about the way I look, or when I just choose to listen to the world rather than God.

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord, is to be praised.”  Proverbs 31:30 

How do I want to be remembered? For my charm? For my beauty? No. I want to be remembered for my love of the Lord and love for others. It’s through him I find beauty in myself and in everyone around me. 

With love,
Tori