True Beauty

I was asked to do a guest blog entry so I wrote this blog to inspire and encourage those who struggle with where true beauty comes from. This blog entry is featured on http://becominggirls.blogspot.com/.

Who ever coined the phrase "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" was very wise, but sadly whose "eye " has been debated for centuries.

Webster defines beauty/beautiful as the following: generally pleasing, excellent aesthetic pleasure.

Our world defines beauty as something quite different. So I would ask this question....What does the world say beauty is?

Two years I searched for this answer.....You see here is some history about myself. I am 24 years old and have never had a boyfriend or been kissed for that matter. I have always been overweight and up until two year ago, hated the person I had become. I felt like the ugliest and least desirable person in the world.

I would ask people "When will I EVER have a boyfriend?" "When will I ever feel desired?" "Why do I not have a boyfriend?" And the constant answer, in some form or another was this...."Well Emily, guys are visual people, and if you lost weight and were pretty, you would have a boyfriend."

For years this plagued my soul. I was lost and sadly felt STUCK in the body I was given. I had no hope. I turned to the world to help me identify beauty. Everywhere I turned was another magazine telling me "how to lose weight," "how to get that guy," "beauty tips," and the list could go on and on. I would walk into the mall and see clothes, purses, makeup, and hairstyles that I could not afford, and leave feeling worse and worse.

I fell into a depressed life striving to meet the standards of the world's beauty.

What I realize now, is that I was looking in the wrong place. I felt like I was looking for clothes in the candy aisle and seeking answers from an infant! Clearly I was in the wrong place! So I decided to look into the place that truly matters, God's Word.

Two years ago, decided to write down every Bible verse that talked about beauty. What did God really mean when He talked about beauty, and where did I fit into this plan?
Sure, it is quite true that the Bible discusses beauty in the form of "outward appearance," but I was more surprised with the verses that discussed beauty in such an opposite way that I had ever thought.

Mark 14:6 is a perfect example. Jesus is anointed with oil from the woman with the alabaster jar. The people in the house are mad at this woman because she has "wasted" this perfume on Jesus, when she should have "sold it for money to give to the church." But I was in awe as to how Jesus responded to her. Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. This woman's sacrifice was accounted as beautiful to Jesus! That means that my sacrifices for the Lord are seen as beautiful to Him!!!!

1 Peter 3:3-4 also spoke to me about where our beauty really should come from. "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." The writer is not saying that it is particularly bad to have the outward adornment, but that our true beauty should come from what our inner self, our spirit conveys. This inward beauty is also an unfading beauty. A beauty that never goes away! God finds GREAT WORTH in our gentle spirit, our kindness and our desire to serve Him.

After reading these verses and MANY more, I realized something

I AM BEAUTIFUL!!!

God created me beautiful! Sure, maybe God's way of conveying my beauty is not in the outward appearance, the nice clothes, perfect hair, perfect skin, and a thin body, but God did create me as His child whom He is well pleased. My Father, has created me to glorify Him, honor Him, and praise Him with my whole heart of hearts, and that is what he calls Beautiful.

So sure, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," but whose eye are you seeing yourself through?