Let's just say that the last few days, I've learned a lesson about what it really means to be beautiful. It all started with a conversation I had with my younger brother Titus...
My four-year-old brother Titus loves girls (even more than boys.) He has crushes alllll the time. So I was asking him what he likes about some of the girls he has crushes on. His answer: they're pretty. And this simple response sent me on a quest to figure out how physical beauty is determined. The rather obvious yet somewhat alarming answer: by the world. Physical beauty is determined by the world's standards. After all, Proverbs 31:30 says, "Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain; but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised." So outward beauty is not based on God's laws or commands, but rather on the world's standards. Physical charms are not what God desires, He desires for young ladies and ladies of all ages to fear HIM. So, the world determines what "beauty" means. And we are not to be like the world. 1 Peter 1:16 says, "Be holy, because I am holy." The world holy literally means "set apart." So we are not to be like the world. We are to be set apart for God. I've been thinking about it, and what if every Christian girl wanted to be more like her heavenly Father rather than worrying about what the world thinks of her? 1 Peter 4:11 tells us, "If anyone speaks, let it be as the words of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as of the ability which God gives, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ, to whom is the glory, and the might forever and ever. Amen." I sometimes worry about what people think of my appearances. But then I realized, it doesn't really matter what people see when they look at me. The only thing that matters is what they see in my heart. If people can honestly look at me and say, "Wow, Jesus has come into that girl and has changed who she is," and if God is glorified in all my words and ministering, then it doesn't matter how pretty people think I am.
I pray that God would replace any desire that I have to be beautiful on the outside with a sincere desire to be more like Him. HE IS MY KING.
I pray that instead of worrying about outward appearances like I sometimes do, that I would rather be worried about speaking the very words of God, so that HE should be glorified in EVERYTHING.
2 comments:
I could say a deal of things to this but instead, I'll just say- HOW TRUE. I LOVE YOU. No, I am NOT tacky.
Reading it over... that was tacky. Whatever. I just had a big long agreement for your post and it got deleted, so I went with tackiness. But- thanks for being an encouragement.
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