Beauty By God
Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)
10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Psalm 139:14 (NLT)
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.1 Peter 3:3-4 (NLT)
3 Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. 4 You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.
I was introduced to the world of beauty at an early age. You see my mother taught school for thirty-one years, and for a few of those years, she had a small home-based business. She sold cosmetics for a direct sales company to make some extra spending money. Little did I know then, that someday I would grow up and have my own home based Beauty Business selling cosmetics also. Although I work for a different company than my mother did, I am still amazed at how my life has come full circle.As I reflect on my years as a young girl, I vividly remember how much fun it was to play in makeup. My mother would give me samples to play with, while I was assisting her in getting her orders ready to deliver to her customers.
I grew up watching my mother always look nice when she left the house, so I wanted to do the same. Some would say that is just taking pride in your appearance, and that’s a healthy and a normal thing for any woman to do and I totally agree. However, today I want to address a different issue, regarding the quest to look beautiful.
Being in the beauty business for the past twenty-two years has made me very aware of the struggles that many women have with their self-image and self-confidence.
There are women who are turning to drastic measures to be accepted and to feel beautiful in ways that are not so healthy.
Just the other day, a couple of college girls shared with me that they had friends, who were photoshopped and airbrushing themselves to look better in a photo. These young ladies were insecure about their looks and size etc. Some were making themselves look way thinner and even changing other features for themselves. Others risk everything financially to have plastic surgeries that they can’t afford, just to change the features that they are unhappy with.
In today’s world there is so much pressure for women to be thinner and look better, and in an effort to achieve this some women go to extreme measures. Measures that can be physically and emotionally destructive.
My main concern regarding this is that the focus is on the external and not the internal. We are not spending enough time instilling great values and character traits into our young men and women. On every TV channel, the focus is on the outward appearance. Our young people are being bombarded with messages and images that are sending false signals, that they are accepting as reality.
Although I played in makeup and desired to look pretty as a young girl and as a teenager, it was not where I found my source of value and self-worth.
I was introduced to God’s word long before I was introduced to cosmetics. I was really blessed because my parents took their job as parents seriously. We were taught things that are rarely being taught these days.
I thank God that I had parents that taught me not only who I was, but whose I was.
Our identity should be in Christ not in our looks or the next designer label that we wear.
There is a special confidence that comes with knowing that you are a daughter of the King. It is not the displaying of arrogance. It is simply being confident of the security that we have in Christ. This confidence dismisses the fear of not being accepted.
When you are clear on who you are in Christ, you do not respond in unhealthy or negative ways, when you feel that your appearance is being judged by others. As a daughter of the King, you do not have to rush to meet the demands of society’s expectations. The only expectations that you should be concerned with are God’s.
Ladies know that you are God’s masterpiece, therefore you have value, and because God has placed His stamp of approval on you, no other approval is really necessary. He is the final authority and he has the final say.
Be clear, no amount of makeup or type of diet, money or clothes will make you be more than you already are in God’s eyesight. You are His masterpiece, His best creation! Believe Him when He says that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. Drown out the other voices. They are not of him.
We all see areas on our bodies from time to time that we would love to have tweaked if we are honest about it. Remember, God created all of us differently and we should embrace our uniqueness.
The sixty pounds that I need to release, should be because I want to be a great steward of what God has blessed me with, which is my health. It should not be something I am stressing over because I want to fit in or be accepted. God accepts me and loves me just as I am.
When we finally realize that we are enough our confidence come back, and we are able to dismiss the lies that Satan whispers to us on a daily basis. His lies are designed to make us feel inadequate and inferior and if we are not careful we will start to believe him.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a woman wanting to look her best.
Ladies wear your makeup, look great, take care of your bodies, go to the gym, go to the beauty salon when you need to, but by all means remember that none of this makes you better, only God can do that.
Work on your heart issues also. Check your spiritual heartbeat. Do you love others and does your life reflect that you do? Are you compassionate and kind? Do you love the Lord and do you spend quiet time getting to know him better? Do you have a sweet quiet spirit? (In all honesty, I am still working on that one). Are you respectful? Are you hospitable? Are you generous? These are the things that make a woman more beautiful than anything she could possibly do to her physical appearance.
When you get dressed each day, always make sure your inner beauty surpasses your outer beauty. When that happens you will know, that you have got your God Glow on, and that is by far your best beauty accessory. When God’s light is shining through you, it is beauty at its best! That is the beauty I desire. What about you?
1 Samuel 16:7 (NLT)
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Proverbs 31:30 (NLT)
30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last, but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised
