Beauty

God is cool because He speaks to me even when I'm being barraged with attacks from the enemy. He speaks right to the heart of what I'm struggling with and reveals truth to me like a burning torch in the midst of dark lies that the devil tries to use to smother me.

Is it wrong to want to be considered beautiful? There is no girl on earth today that has not had this desire before. We all want to be considered attractive in some way, especially physically. My whole life I've been hearing things that are hard to reconcile. Physical attraction is important to a relationship, but it shouldn't be the main focus of it. In Proverbs, it says "Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised" (31:30), yet Song of Solomon has several verses devoted to the lovers praising one another for their various physical attributes. How do you know when to draw the line on physical attractiveness? How do you know when it's okay to turn down a date because you're not attracted to the person or when you're just being shallow?

And why does every girl in the world want to be beautiful? Is that wrong to want? We are getting so many different messages about our physical appearance from so many different sources -- some Biblical and God-fearing, some not. How do we know what to listen to, what to take to heart, and what to throw aside as lies?

I think that we're getting bits of the message, but not the whole message itself. That's why it doesn't always line up all the way, nor do all the pieces always fit together. I think we also easily forget the main purpose and original intent of beauty.

God created man and woman in His image. Both are reflections of the Almighty, but I think that there are two genders for many reasons, one of those reasons being that each gender reflects certain characteristics of God in special, unique ways. Men are especially designed to reflect God's authority and leadership, for example. That doesn't mean that women can't reflect those aspects of God... but I think men were designed in a unique way regarding those characteristics for the glory of God.

It's the same with women and beauty. We were created to be beautiful. It's not our main purpose, but it was infused into the blueprint of who we are. We are specifically designed to reflect the beauty of God, especially in such a way that is attractive to men. It is an aspect that makes us uniquely female: we are beautiful, attractive, and intriguing to males. The only problem is that the world has taken what it means to be beautiful and twisted it to have a solely (or largely) physical definition that varies from culture to culture, era to era, and opinion to opinion.

But true beauty, the kind of beauty that God intended to infuse into females to make them intriguing and captivating to men, is all-encompassing; it requires the participation of spirit, mind, and body. Each of these aspects of a woman interacts in such a way to give her a timeless, holistic beauty that is ultimately attractive to men because it sings the praises of her Creator. Her beauty is glorifying to the Almighty God because it is a reflection of the beauty of the Savior of mankind.

If a man finds a woman beautiful, it should ultimately be because she reflects the beauty of his Savior, whom he should love and adore above all else. She reminds him of the One he's already devoted to -- and not just her speech, not just her habits, not just the way she dresses or the way she carries herself, but ALL of her. A woman should choose to speak and act and dress and carry herself in a way that reflects the beauty of her Creator and lift the minds of everyone around her back to God. Ladies, we have the power to put our brothers' hearts back on Jesus simply by choosing to glorify God and draw the attention back to Him (instead of putting it on ourselves) with everything we do. Let your beauty shine in such a way that it fixes others' gazes on Christ.

Beauty should be all encompassing. It should not be limited to physical appearance, but neither should it exclude it. What is more attractive than full immersion in Christ?

So, yes - physical appearance is important and should not be neglected. But only because we want to give EVERYTHING back to Christ, not just parts of us. We want ALL of our beauty to be a reflection of the Savior's beauty. Why would you give Him just your mind, or just your body, or just your emotions? Deuteronomy 6:5 - "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."

Jesus, make me beautiful because of Your light touching every area of my life. I want to be a bright and dazzling spotlight pointing back to You and Your never-fading brilliance. I want You to restore the original meaning of beauty through me, Lord; show the world what true beauty is - the beauty of who You are.