It Depends on Your Viewpoint

It is impossible to miss what this world thinks about beauty. Everywhere we look - in magazines, movies, and malls - we are bombarded with the world's standard of fake, unattainable, physical perfection. To the world, value is measured by physical, outward beauty. However, according to the One who made us, beauty isn't measured by appearance. “But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘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). True beauty is a life fully surrendered to God's will and content to follow it. Outward beauty comes and goes, but authentic beauty is that of the heart. “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful” (1 Peter 3:3-5).

Shortly before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, He was having dinner in the home of a man named Simon. While He was there, a woman approached Jesus and anointed him with a bottle of very expensive perfume. Indignant, the disciples protested, saying that she should have sold the perfume and given the money to the poor. Jesus, however, understood her act of worship. “‘Why do you trouble the woman?’” He asked His disciples. “‘For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me…Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her’” (Matthew 26:10-11, 13). Jesus could see her desire to seek Him and He declared her worshipful heart as one of beauty.

When the world sees our lack of concern for their standards, they won't know what to make of us. The lives we live solely for the glory of God, seeking His will and pleasure, will radiate a beauty the world isn't used to seeing. In God's eyes, the truly beautiful heart has a devotion to God and a love for others. They care more about others and most about God's glory. The truly beautiful person is humble and seeks what God says is important.

So what's a girl to do? There is a constant pull for us - will our focus be beauty as the world dictates or that which is truly beautiful in the eyes of God? It is not an easy choice. The hardest part is that we have to answer the same question every day; it is a daily decision. However, as we follow God’s standards of beauty and obey His calls for obedience, we will find ourselves rejoicing in the blessing He has given us. We will find new freedom in bucking the world’s standards and submitting to the words of Christ. Submission to the way of God brings joy...and beauty.