Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder...Beauty IS the Beholder!

We have been doing a series of purity talks with the teens for the last couple of weeks. Our group separates and Jake speaks to the guys while I speak to the girls. My topic for this week is based on modesty...modesty of how we dress in particular. As I was writing and searching for some information, I found this quote about women's self-esteem that I think is so amazing...so true...and at the same time, so hard to hear. Check it out...

Truth be told, what we all deserve is not to feel beautiful but rather to be condemned to hell for sinfully seeking to attract the worship of our fellow creatures instead of living to bring glory to God.
God did not send Jesus to this earth to die so that women could get over their self-esteem problem and feel better about themselves. No, He sent his Son to die to rescue us from our sinful, futile quest for physical beauty and to reveal to us the satisfaction that comes from knowing God—whether we are beautiful or not!
What freedom and hope is found in Christ! We don’t need to feel beautiful about ourselves to find happiness! In fact, we’re better off not even thinking about ourselves. Rather, God has offered us in Jesus Christ forgiveness, hope, freedom from sin and a joy that never ends.

This quote was a huge kick in the pants for me...never had I thought about desiring beauty this way before. I struggle so often with trying to buy the "right" clothes, wearing the "right" make-up and doing my hair the "right" way. So much so, that it isn't even a conscious thought for me anymore. It has been ingrained so deep down in me that whenever I get ready to go out of the house, I need to look the part. Sure, it's okay to slack off if I'm staying home, but if anyone were to see me...

But it is here in these harsh words that really ring so true biblically that I find that my appearance...my desire to have people think I am attractive...is selfish and takes full attention away from the glory and praise that God deserves. I am in no way saying that taking the time to make yourself look nice is a sin or something that you will have to answer to God about. I believe that God wants us to know that we are beautiful, simply because we're created by the Almighty Creator. But maybe it's our heart condition toward the way we want people to look at us. Have you ever thought about it to the core? I know I haven't. Praise God that we have so much more to be thankful for than whether or not we feel beautiful! Praise God that we can be delivered from this thorn in the female gender's flesh because of Christ's death!

With so many books out there about self-esteem, it seems like there must be one that can give us the answer to end this terrible battle we have within us. There is, but we pass it up for others with more catchy titles and intriguing pictures. We've got the answer in our hands. It's called the Bible. Man! We take the Gospel so lightly, don't we? I feel sometimes like we see it as Christ died so we could go to Heaven, and the rest we have to figure out on our own. NO! Christ's death, moreover His resurrection gives us the freedom to be rescued from these things that we allow to ensnare us! The only thing is...we have to want to be rescued. We have to want to give our struggles to God. We have to want to learn what it means to do that.

I know when I'm having a "low self-esteem day" I am not thinking, "I want to have the glory that belongs to God put on me so that I feel better about myself." But in reality, when I really think about my attitude on the situation, that's exactly what I'm doing. So again I say, Praise God that He is greater and more important than the little imperfections I find in myself. Praise God that He is perfect and He is the essence of all that is Beautiful!!