You Are Beautiful

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."
(Psalm 139:14) NIV

I asked myself “What is the biggest deception/ lie that a woman face in finding herself?”

Thanks to the media, magazines, TV commercials, Internet and even people around us, our definition of beauty is synonymous with severe diets, hyper exercises, branded stuff, sleek outfits and cosmetic surgery.  We are constantly confronted with images of how we should act, look and speak.  Our culture shouts to us every day to conform to the world’s standard and popular norm.  Beauty is reduced to a perfect external form and feature which few of us measure up. 

As women of God, we don’t need more procedures and miracle diets.  We need a new understanding of beauty.  True beauty should reflect something greater than itself.  God intended for beauty to be both internal and external – to reflect Him.

In the Old Testament, the temple furnishings were wrapped in gold and brass.  So when the candles and oil lamps burned, the splendour within the temple is glorious.  The building’s glowing gold reflected God’s bright glory presence.  God designed the temple so lavishly to mirror His beauty.  The physical structural beauty became an icon, a sign pointing to Him.

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.” (1 Corinthians 16:9)

The Apostle Paul tells us our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19).  In the same way, our face, body and outward appearance are icons and signs directing  others’ attention to God.  All the more reason we have to take care of our bodies because it belongs to God.  Therefore, we are to honour God with our bodies.  So then, there is nothing is wrong with wanting to look good – but it should be for the right reasons. 

We care for our bodies and set extreme sexual boundaries in order to keep us from dishonouring God; not because we want others to approve us, to love us, marry us or hire us.  Somewhere between ignorance and obsession lies good self-care - exercising regularly, eating well, getting enough sleep, dressing well and not seductively.  This is ‘Beauty.’  And as we care for our bodies, our external ‘glory’ will point others to an even greater glory – God. 

Therefore, true beauty is more than the external ‘manicured beauty’ which our culture bombards us daily.  A woman is beautiful not because of who she is, how she looks and what she does.  It is because of who she belongs to.  A woman of God belongs to God; she is a child of God and she is deeply loved by God.

True beauty radiates outward from a heart of being loved and enthralled by God alone, reflecting not a ‘manicured beauty’ but God’s transforming love.  As a result of that security, we see ourselves as beautiful and becoming more so – externally and internally, every day.

That kind of love is more than enough to make a lady feel beautiful. 

Our part is to learn to live in God’s transforming love.