Thoughts on Beauty

In this era, many people (especially women), worry about the way they look. This is a good thing, as the Bible says

"What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

1Corinthians 6:19-20

From this verse, we see that we need to take care of our bodies, as they are not our own, but the Lord's, and we need to glorify Him through our bodies. This includes looking presentable and decent*. However, in America today, women spend too much time on their physical appearance. They do this not that they might glorify God, but so they can draw attention to themselves. They are looking to movie stars and models as their sources for the way they should look. In those movie stars and models they see perfect looking women who have no physical flaws. However, what they do not see is those same women without their caked-on make-up** and photo editing. When you take those two things away, you most likely will have a normal looking person, someone you would see walking down the street.

My point through saying all of this is: it is not through being physically perfect and flawless that we attain true beauty, but rather through portraying Christ, not only outwardly, but also inwardly. We need to always be ready to smile, be cheerful and kind, so that when people look at us, they can "see"Christ in us.

This video put out by Dove soap shows you how our culture's view of beauty is distorted. When we saw this, it left us speechless and stunned.

*I realize that there are exceptions to this, where you have to simply get dirty. Examples of such things would be re-modeling a house, roofing, gardening, lawn care, etc.

** Please note: I do not believe that make-up, in-and-of-itself, is wrong or sinful. However, there is a point where it becomes too much, and I believe, is wrong.

~S~