Beauty. Beauty is NOT measured by how white your teeth are, how perfect your hair is,how cute your clothes are that you are wearing, how tan or long your legs are. It is not measured by having a big chest or a six pack of abs,having money, or a nice car. Beauty is not measured by how much makeup you wear, how long your eyelashes are, whether you have stretch marks or not, if you can fit into a size two,if you have blue eyes or a perfect jaw line. Beauty is NOT measured by how much you work out, what your weight is or what you want it to be, whether you have a double chin or not, or if you always wear your hair up in a pony tail or if its nicely done everyday.
Realize girls, beauty is NOT about us changing ourselves to become someone we are not, but beauty, TRUE BEAUTY, the BEAUTY that COUNTS, is found underneath. It is hard for us to believe this, to listen to this when are are living in such a broken world, with pressures that cause us to believe we are only beautiful if we conform to the things listed above. I struggle myself with wanting to look my best, which in truth is to look like what society calls beautiful. I am constantly allowing my own insecurities to overwhelm me and pressure me to change, to conform, or to cause me to feel like I am worthless, that I am not beautiful. BUT let me tell myself as well as you, I AM BEAUTIFUL, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL, WE ARE BEAUTIFUL IN THE EYES OF THE PERSON THAT MATTERS THE MOST, GOD’S!!!!!!!!! I have realized that true beauty has nothing to do with the outside, with our appearance. But beauty lies in Gods creation, in the moments that can take your breathe away, and in everything that can bring God glory and praise!
For example, last night at like 2am, we randomly decided to go to SF to Ocean Beach to enjoy the sunrise and the sandy beach. Once we arrived there, I was memorized by the smell of the ocean, and the beauty of the ocean waves that were visible by the beautiful moonlight. As everyone fell asleep one by one, I was wide awake because I could not stop staring at the moon. All alone in the sky, shining its light all around. The waves were glowing because of the moons reflection, and I just could not stop being amazed by Gods beauty.
Every wave crashing down and ship horns were music to my ears. I would take in deep breaths just to smell the sea, and allow the wind and mist to blow against my face. I could not help but to start to praise and worship God for His beauty, for His creation. As I sang some worship songs to Him, I could not stop the tears from falling down my cheek, tears of amazement and pure joy. My eyes were opened and I was reminded of what true beauty is, and since then I can not stop thinking about all the beautiful things of this world hand created by God himself. Now there are millions and trillions of beautiful things in this world, all of which can be lifted up in praise to God, for he created every single one of them. Some of my thoughts:
Beauty. Beauty is: A newborn baby holding it’s parents hand with his small soft hands. A woman leaving her abuser. A helpless man who finds Christ’s love and HOPE. A father on his daughters wedding day. Waking up sick as a dog and finding your husband right there taking care of you. Watching your children learn how to ride their bikes for the first time,throw a baseball, or learn karate. Receiving a home cooked meal after scrounging around just to get by. A doctor saving a car victims life in emergency surgery. Having a roof over your head. Beauty is being able to stand up for what is right, even when you will be persecuted or looked down upon for doing so. Being honest and truthful with yourself and your spouse. A sunrise. A sunset. A puppy being loved by its owner. Flowers growing in spring. The wind that grazes your face on a hot summer day. A father holding his daughters hand to her first day of school. Allowing your imagination to go wild as you stare into the sky and discover the shapes the clouds form into. The ripples of a skipping rock in a still lake. The laughter of a grandparent. Beauty is helping those that need the help, not because you are better than them but because Jesus would do the same for you. A single parent mother establishing a HOME for her children. Having food on the table. The colors of this world, from the radiant green grass, to the white covered mountains, to the crystal clear ocean, to the desert. Beauty is having a humbling and caring heart. Being pregnant. A child in Africa drinking clean water. Loving others even when they do not deserve it. A child who is sick who gets cared for by their parents. Running a marathon with one leg. A cancer survivor. Saving a person in a fire. Being in poverty but full of HOPE and TRUST.
When I went to bed this morning, I had a dream of this woman. She was at least 80 years old, with missing teeth, marks and scars all over her arms and face, she had eye brows that were as bushy as a squirrels tail, and she smelled like nasty old gym clothes with a mixture of pee and poo. She had nails longer than any other person I have ever seen with more dirt inside them that it was disgusting. She could barely stand up on her own without a bone cracking, and she was wearing holey clothes. I cant help but to connect this with what I saw at the beach; beauty. It did not matter what she looked like or smelt like, it was her heart that made her beautiful. I woke up before my dream finished, but I can imagine her telling me about her life, and I am sure I would be able to see that the beauty was not about how physically attractive she was, about the expensive clothes she wore or the amount of makeup she had on her face.
*Just a side note we sometimes forget, we DO get older, and as we grow older, we will lose our attractiveness. So do we want to waste our life and time on trying to be as attractive on the outside as we can be, or do we want to live a life worthy and purposeful of Jesus, full of attractiveness on the inside, someone with a HEART of COMPASSION and LOVE, someone who works on their heart rather than their face or body?*
I can imagine this 80 year old woman sharing about her experiences in her lifetime, about her childhood memories with her parents and siblings, with her free spirited heart that lived life for other people. Her wedding day, the day her first son was born, raising her children with complete selflessness. As a mother, she would share her fears, the hardships, the pain, but then the joy of seeing her children be raised up into respectful men and women, children and leaders of God. I can imagine this woman, living her life for others, taking care of her neighbors even when they did nothing for her. I could see her helping someone carry their groceries in for them, helping someone with their work,volunteering her time and money to her community and church. I could imagine her being someone full of CHARACTER and HEART, full of JOY and HOPE. Someone who would put time aside in her busy day to be with her children, her parents, her friends, and especially a stranger who needs to be loved.
With her wisdom she would say to me, the most important thing in life is not what you look like on the outside, for who are you trying to impress? There is no one more important than Jesus Christ and he already loves you the way you are!! You do not need to change your appearance, or try to impress someone by changing your waist size or by adding makeup to cover your natural beauty that He created you with! You can spend your life by not changing the outside but by growing and changing yourself on the inside, to make yourself more and more like Jesus himself. To serve humbly and with joy, to love other BEAUTIFUL people, to praise Him for what He has and will continue to do in your life;things that makeup or a 6 pack cannot do! Live life like this, with this compassionate heart I speak of, and when you get to my age, the beauty is clearly NOT on the outside (unless you find my missing teeth attractive) but on the inside; the beauty is in what Jesus has taught me, in the woman He has created me into, and in the precious moments and memories that I have been blessed with.
So let us all rethink about what we believe it means to be BEAUTIFUL, because in the eyes of Jesus, we ALL are beautiful! No matter what we look like on the outside, or what kind of life we have lived in the past, we ARE all BEAUTIFUL. The greatest BEAUTY is seeing some one come to Christ for the first time, and having them be blessed in experiencing His beauty in this world, from a child being born to serving our neighbors, from teenage years to old age, from immaturity to growth and passion,from the stars in the sky to the waves that peacefully roll off one another. This is the BEAUTY we all can experience in this world through the eyes of Jesus!
Jesus, I ask for your eyes in seeing your BEAUTY in this world around me and in the people around me. Please construct my heart into a heart that sees only the beauty in your children so I can love them like you do. Let me life up my voice to you in praise and thanksgiving for the beauty you show me every day, from seeing your children grow into BOLD followers of you to the rising of the sun and the chirping of the birds. Thank you for creating a world so beautiful! Amen.
