Thoughts on Beauty

"Do not let your adorning be external - the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear - but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious."

1 Peter 3:3-4

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I don't have a lot of sin issues that are out there for people to see. Yes, people often see that I struggle with gossiping and laziness among others. But my most deeply rooted struggles are hidden in my heart. A lot of my battles are fought on the inside.

I often fall prey to believing the lies of the enemy. He whispers thoughts into my mind that take root without me even realizing it. Before I know it, those lies have grown extensive roots that have made their way into my heart and poisoned it. Even though my head knows what has happened at this point, my heart struggles feebly to see past the lies that encompass it.

One such lie that I and many other women struggle with is regarding beauty.

I believe Satan loves to attack women with the lie that they are not beautiful because he is very jealous. He was once beautiful, and then he fell. Then God made woman in His likeness, to image His beauty, and the enemy hated that. I believe Satan is now on a desperate mission to make women believe his lies because he cannot have what God has given us.

I have seen these lies take so many forms.

The form that his lie takes for me is that my worth is dependent upon my appearance. 

I look different than other girls. I am bigger than I would like, and I don't like what I see in the mirror most days. I don't wear a lot of makeup, and I can't tame the mess I call hair. I like to wear t-shirts most days, and I couldn't put a cute outfit together for the life of me.

I am therefore not deserving of love. Since I don't dress nice or strive to be a particular size, then I am worth less than girls who do fit that mold. Nobody could ever love someone who looks like me. Nobody could ever care to look beyond my outer appearance to see who I am on the inside.

I know that this is a lie, but I often struggle to remember that it is one.

Just recently, I was having a conversation with a dear friend who I consider to be very attractive, and I'm sure most of the world would consider to be very attractive too. She left me dumbstruck when she told me that she hated the way she looked. 

"Maddie, the way I look is a curse."

A curse? Let's pause for a second. You're gorgeous, but you think you're cursed because of it?

This is her reply to me.

"I know that I'm attractive and that other people see that. But I hate it. I hate it so much. People only like me for what's on the outside. To them, I'm just a pretty girl. They never want to see me for who I am on the inside."

Ouch.

Here is a girl who wants the world to know that she is special on the inside. That she is smart. That she has thoughts and beliefs that demand to be shared. That she is kind and believes in the power of unconditional love. That she wants more out of life than the superficial. That she has big dreams.

But she feels that no one cares about those things. They only see what is pleasing to the eye. They only see her big brown eyes and long brown hair, her long legs, and her curves in all the right places. Everything that is screaming on the inside to be heard is muted by her appearance. No one cares to look beyond the outside to see the beauty that is dying to be cherished on the inside.

She knows that all of this is a lie, but she often struggles to remember that it is one.

These lies are different, but they have something in common.

Both believe that physical attractiveness is what defines their worth. They either believe that people won't love them because of the way that they look, or they believe that people won't love them for anything else but their looks.

Both are wrong.

Both are preoccupied with what man thinks, and we all know that what people think doesn't matter. Only God's opinion of us truly matters. It is only his thoughts toward us that give us our value, our worth, and our identity.

I'm tired of believing the lies. Let's look at the truth. Let's look at what God thinks about us.

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Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.

1 Samuel 16:7

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made [...] How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. 

Psalm 139:13, 14, 17, 18

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Proverbs 31:30

I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. 
Jeremiah 31:3

But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason that the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

1 John 3:1

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God loves you, my dear sister. His opinion of you is the highest. You are His creation. You are His daughter. He thinks about you all the time and delights in you. He sees your heart, your dreams, your passions, your deepest desires, and He loves you. It is because He sees your heart that to Him, you are so incredibly beautiful.

Jesus proved that you were worth something. He came to earth as a man and suffered through all of the things that we suffer through, but He did so without stumbling. He lived the life we could never live and died the death we all deserve.

Why?

What did He have to gain by dying on a cross?

What did He not have that He had to die in order to win?

You.

That's right, you.

Jesus had nothing to gain by being crucified, except you. 

Let that sink in. 

Jesus thought you were worth something. He thought you were worth exchanging His perfect life to redeem yours. To Him, you are precious. To Him, you are valuable. To Him, you are worth everything.

People are flawed, so their opinions carry little weight. Satan is a liar, so his lies are unfounded. And we are easily bought with his lies, so our opinion of ourselves is skewed.

But believe this truth: Jesus died to gain us. 

That matters.

That means something.

That gives us our worth.

That gives us our identity.

What Jesus did makes us beautiful. There is so much beauty in a story of redemption. That is who you are. You are redeemed, so believe that because of that, you are beautiful.

Blessings,

Maddie