“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” has been a saying used by many prestigious writers in ages of old. How many times have we, as women, heard this quote, yet it doesn’t resonate with our souls? Beauty is very subjective, as the quote indicates, but if we are honest with ourselves, we want to be looked at and sought after as beautiful by those we love. Biblically, the concept of beauty is from the very start. God’s hand in creating the heavens, Earth, land, sea, animals, and people shows how much beauty is a part of our existence. We can merely take a 10-minute walk outside and see proof of beauty. The sad part of this truth is that many of us can agree that our surroundings are beautiful, but to agree that our bodies, hair, and face are is a whole other story.
Confidence in the beauty we possess is always a target of our enemy, Satan. Technology often gets the majority of the blame in our current culture because of the idea of filters that can change your physical reflection to others in seconds. What we see online is not always the truth, and with the advancement of AI and applications devoted to filtering pictures, it’s getting harder to know what “standard beauty” can look like. I will never claim that one way to look, body figure to have, or make-up application and hairstyle could be labeled as the blueprint of “beautiful.” The diversity we hold in ourselves is God’s intention when we see beauty for what it is. Just look at how diversely beautiful our world and its people are! In this article, I hope to encourage you to understand what beauty is without the filters we place on ourselves with biblical truths that can heal us from the inside out.
Before we delve into body image and beauty, I must make one central point: Our bodies are a miraculous sign of a perfect Creator. Sitting in a science or health class, it wouldn't take very long to notice how our organs, muscles, and nerves all work together in such a miraculous way. As it says in Psalm 139:13, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” A perfect Creator created us. Let that sit in your soul for a minute and see what starts to heal. When we really let it sink in that God chose to be amongst us in human form through Jesus Christ, we can begin to appreciate the significance of our human bodies.
We understand that valuable objects have a cost. God saw that our bodies, our spirits, our souls were important enough to save from the trenches of Hell. In Colossians 2:13-14, we learned that, “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.” I don’t know about you, but I can start to feel a bit silly when I begin to criticize my thighs or gray hairs when I truly take a step back and think about the price that Jesus paid for my salvation and the new body I will have in heaven, one day.
For many of us, the heart of insecurity about our individual beauty and the image we have of our bodies stems from a place of insecurity that needs the healing love of Jesus. Maybe you were never asked out to a dance back in school, or didn’t have a boyfriend until you were in your mid to late twenties. Whatever your story is, feeling rejected or unchosen can damage our hearts. While there is undoubtedly a place in our hearts God created to want to be wanted by a spouse, we must remember how we are already chosen, wanted, and that Jesus paid for our salvation at the cross. As it states in 1 Peter 1:18-19, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”
I love the parable in Matthew 18:12-14 that reminds us of our uniqueness to Jesus: “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.” From this, I see just how worthy I am to be pursued. We are precious to Jesus and matter to His will for our lives and how it interacts with the lives of others. If we see and carry ourselves through this Biblical lens, we will not take offerings from lesser options and will hold our values and healthy boundaries high.
I love good make-up and hair tutorials with the best of them, but if I only see my value when having a good hair or skin day, I will live a very sad existence. 1 Peter 3:3-4 reminds us of how the Bible defines beauty: “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, 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.” Will I take care of the vessel I have been given and present myself as respectfully as possible with what God has blessed me? You bet. But give anyone 5-10 years of aging and you will find that the inner self's true traits grow, shine, and become more spectacular as our physical self declines.
As stated above, knowing the most essential facets of our true Biblically based definition of beauty keeps us focused on what is most important. Doing so, this does not give license to ignore the outside, but it places less internal value and emotional bondage on the ever-evolving status of our outward appearance. Beauty treatments are not a 21st-century idea, as we see in Esther 2:12: “Before a young woman’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics.” It’s okay to respect yourself and your Creator by caring for yourself; just don’t let it become a source of vanity.
Modesty is a beautiful way to carry ourselves, but it can get a bad reputation if used as a guilt trip or a way to shame others. Keeping your heart, mind, and soul in the palms of Jesus can help to carry you into a new way of seeing how He sees you. We are lights of the world and are called to shine as they do. In Proverbs 11:22, we see an interesting analogy: “Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.” This showcases the polarity of beauty against indiscreet actions. Watching how we dress, the words we choose in our conversations, and harnessing the power behind a woman who understands the true Biblical definition of beauty is inspiring.
In the book of Song of Songs, we hear from two people who are clearly in love and smitten with each other. We don’t hear about the beauty of the selfies or the way their hair looks in the vivid warm filter, but we do read about their bodies just as they are, and the draw they have on the other person is strong, as we see in Song of Songs 1:15, “How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves.” When was the last time you were complimented like that?! Learn to say these true and lovely remarks to yourself and the one you love, and see what God might do for your self-esteem!
One of my favorite Bible verses is Ecclesiastes 3:11: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Our desire for beauty, to be accepted, wanted, pursued, and loved as we are, is all from God. He makes everything beautiful and has it in the season for its time, including our lives. Our hearts know that this life is not our final home, and the ache for the beauty and glory of Heaven is inside of us all. We are too human to understand all that God has done for us before our lives, during our lives, and even after we are gone, but how beautiful it all is because He is the Creator, Orchestrator, and Savior of us all. May our hearts keep burning for Jesus, Heaven, and joy here on Earth through the beauty of his workmanship.
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