Do You Want to be Beautiful?

Ladies, think back to when you were young and how you defined beautiful. Did you possibly watch as a sister, mom or maybe even grandmother put makeup on and did her hair? Did you admire her sense of style? Did you hope to grow up and be just like her? Maybe there was a celebrity that you admired and tried to mimic her style. But I bet if I asked you then you would have said they were beautiful and you wanted to be just like them.

If I asked you today if you want to be beautiful, what would you say? How do you define that now? Is there still a celebrity you admire, or do you still think back to your younger days and who you admired as beautiful then?

Today young girls have not only their moms, sisters or other family members to look up to, they have YouTube. They can find hundreds of thousands of videos in seconds that can teach them how to be beautiful. Unfortunately, lost in all of this is the true meaning of beauty and we are failing this younger generation. We are allowing them to be deceived into thinking perfection, or at least the appearance of, is beautiful. And they aren't the only ones being deceived, every generation is falling into this trap. We are believing that lipstick, eyeliner, a perfect complexion, trendy clothes or a chiseled body are the definition of beautiful.

Just take a look at our Facebook and Instagram feeds, you will see lots of people portraying their perfect, "beautiful" lives. And the young eyes are watching. Scratch that, all of the eyes are watching. We are often setting our goals based on our perceptions of other peoples lives. Forgetting the time and effort it to took for many people to reach their goals.

I've been reading in Ecclesiastes this week and this verse stuck with me:

True beauty comes from a mature faith in Jesus Christ. We will never find it in our makeup, the clothes we wear, our complexion, or a chiseled body. God does not judge our character or beauty on these things. But God will make you beautiful.

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

"But the LORD said to Samuel, 'Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.' " 1 Samuel 16:7

As a matter of fact if we let these thing become idols in our lives they become the opposite of beautiful.

Here is where I think we are failing. We aren't sharing this with others. We aren't having conversations and building those relationships with the younger generation or other women around us. We aren't sharing our struggles and asking them about theirs. We aren't encouraging them to seek the Lord to find their worth.

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded of you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20

We are called to disciple. We are called to bring out the beauty in others. We are called to walk in obedience beside them and share our insecurities and how God is using those things too. Encouraging them to embrace their own. We do not have to share of all of our struggles and temptations on social media, but we need to make sure we are being real. And we need to make sure that we have genuine relationships where we can share those struggles, where we intentionally tell people what's going on. Where we pour into the younger generation about the reality of growing up and becoming beautiful in Christ.

So let me ask you again, do you want to be beautiful? If you do let me give you a 4 step guide on how to do it.

1. Pray
Pray day and night, have constant conversation with God. Give him all of your insecurities over and over. There is no decision, temptation, or idea too big or too small to bring to him.

2. Read your Bible.
This is how we get to know our Father- through reading His Word. We cannot share Him if we don't know Him.

3. Take care of yourself.
Eat healthy food to fuel your body. Move more. This keeps your mind and body functioning and ready to serve Him.

4. Share
Our lives should not be meaningless but a reflection of Christ. Christ is beautiful. When we reflect Christ, when we share about Christ, our true beauty is going to shine through. Share about whom your beauty comes from.

No physical flaw (by our definition) can steal true beauty. You are beautiful in the Lord's eyes.  Take refuge in that today. Find someone to share your beauty with. Be truly beautiful to the eyes that are watching. Be someone our daughters, sisters, nieces and other young people desire to grow up be just like, not based on our outward appearance, but based on our Christ-like appearance.


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