If there were one thing you could change about your appearance, what would it be? I bet your list just rolled off your tongue and you probably didn’t stop at just one. But if I was to ask you to write down three of your greatest physical attributes; would your response be as bold or would there be pauses of hesitation? I often have to catch myself from falling into that trap of only seeing what I believe to lack and putting it under a magnifying glass. The woman is an extension of God’s beauty and we have been given the gift to beautify; whether it is people, surroundings or situations. There is nothing wrong with our desire to be captivating but the gift can become a curse when we distort our perception of beauty and then make it the object of our affection, causing it to become an idol.
I watched a documentary on South American beauty pageants, which really highlighted the relentless modern day pursuit for physical ‘perfection’. Similar to the word ‘love’, the term beauty has been thrown about so carelessly that it has begun to lose its value and meaning. It was disturbing to see the extent to which some ladies would go through in order to meet this imposed standard of ‘beauty’ and probably more disturbing was hearing girls who could be no older than five associate picture perfect faces to success. Now don’t get me wrong a lady needs to groom and take care of herself but there is a thin line between adornment or maintenance and obsession. Tamper with a masterpiece long enough and you run the risk of defacing and devaluing it.
Understand that when God put the finishing touches on you, stepped back and called you beautiful; He was not only referring to your infectious wide smile, piercing eyes or signature freckles. The Creator beamed with excitement at the thought of His precious daughter boldly stepping into all that she had been ordained to be. He knew that you could change atmospheres with your striking looks but His use of the word beautiful transcended that. To be captivating and beautiful is to walk in your own God given path because no one else can. Beauty is simply YOU to the fullest capacity that includes your quirks and personality; it is more than the human eye can see. To fully grasp the depth of beauty we need the eyes and heart of Father.
But how can we adopt this mentality when we are constantly bombarded with images of beauty that we are encouraged to aspire to? My first suggestion to you would be to analyse your definition of beauty – where/who did this definition come from? And how has this been translated into your daily thoughts and motives for doing certain things to pertain to this definition. It is important that you feel at your best in your simplest form. My second suggestion would be to make a proactive attempt to bring glory to things that pertain to God’s definition of beauty and this would involve the celebration of differences. And my final suggestion would be to speak words of affirmation to yourself as a process of renewing your mind. You are beautiful all by yourself. Your heart is captivating and you radiate that glow.
So lets revisit one of my initial questions. List your beautiful attributes? You’ll probably need a while to complete this question now because the list should be endless and there may even be times where you can’t find the right words to describe the depth of beauty God has placed inside of you. It will take a lot of re-programming but soon you will grow comfortable in the fact that you are beauty personified. So take off the mask and detach yourself from the misconceptions and ‘beauty’ addictions. Just be YOU to the full, because that is the real definition of beautiful!
See below for more information on how to watch the BBC documentary presented by Billie JD Porter|
Secrets of South America – 1. Extreme Beauty Queens
By Dorcas Kissi