Beauty
You have heard many times that social media only shows people at their best, or that it is not a realistic or full representation of our lives. However, we often find ourselves saying things like, why can't I look like her, how does she look so good when she has a child too. They travel everywhere and I can't even seem to get out of bed. I don't know about you but I can easily fall into the comparison trap. The desire to be more, do more, and look more the part can consume my mind and become idolatry.
I have been on this journey to discover beauty for a while now. Like most women I always wanted to feel beautiful on the inside and also look beautiful on the outside too. I didn't really know how to achieve that so I would look to magazines, celebrities, and even on social media to see how I could keep up with what society identifies as beautiful. Many times I found myself loosing who I was, but The Lord reminded me what beauty looked like to Him.
I love the idea of women being beautiful on the inside and out. I believe we are called to take care of and present ourselves in a way that glorifies The Lord. We can achieve that by wearing makeup or dressing in a way that expresses who we are. Maybe you feel that being natural is beautiful and that's OK because we all have our own definition of what beauty looks like!
My mom use to always tell me you can try your hardest to be beautiful on the outside but if you're ugly on the inside it doesn't matter what you look like. What we put in will come out of us. Matthew 15:18 states, But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart . For example we may watch whatever on tv or listen to music that we really don't agree with (even if we just like the beat), and then we wonder why we start thinking the way we do. Or maybe we hang with girls we know we have no business hanging with even though they gossip and cuss like crazy because they have been our friends since we were young. We do these things and then wonder why we feel like we are far from God. Sometimes we really have to focus on our inside and see what is affecting how we feel and how we're portraying ourselves.
When I think of a beautiful woman I think of a woman who serves the Lord. I just see how much serving the Lord in full surrender changes who we are. You desire more Him and less of the world. I am still on this journey but I pray my transparency can encourage you to join me on this journey.
