My life-long best friend and I sat on the floor with our legs crisscrossed. My friend was getting married in just a few short months, and I had flown out to visit her before she left the single years behind and entered into the married season of life. Our conversation turned into a discussion of what we (as twenty-first century girls) tend to struggle with. My friend went on to explain that she struggles comparing herself to the Victoria Secret models. Although she understands what true godly beauty is, she sighed and said, "It's hard to not compare myself to them."
Isn't it amazing how we, as Christian girls, still get caught up in comparing and basing our beauty on the world's standards, even though we understand the truth of God's Word and what He has to say about true beauty? I am guilty of doing the same thing at times. Whenever I take my eyes off of God's design for my beauty as a woman and lock my focus on what the world has to say, I get discouraged at my lack of perfection. One tiny pimple or bad hair day, and I fail to match up to the perfectly Photoshopped models.
I've noticed in my own life that the less I focus on what the culture is doing, the less I struggle to give in to the lies of Satan about beauty. I know that Satan wants me (and you) to believe that our beauty is based upon our outward appearance and that our worth is only as good as our cutest outfit. Thankfully I also know the truth of God's Word, which says:
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb (Ps. 139:13).
That verse reminds me that God is my Designer. He created me exactly the way that He wanted me to look. If He wanted me to be shorter (I'm 6'1 and 1/2 to be exact), He would have made me shorter. If God had wanted me to have brown eyes instead of blue, I would have brown eyes. As a uniquely crafted child of God, I can rest assured that the color of my eyes and hair, my height and body type were all a part of God's design for me. He created me exactly the way that He wanted me to look. When I remember those truths, I am refreshed to know that I don't have to compete with Hollywood's one hundred hottest people. I can trust that God knew exactly what He was doing when He created "my inmost being."
I love what Mary Kassian has to say about beauty in her book Girls Gone Wise in a World Gone Wild:
The Lord wants His girls to be stunningly beautiful. But He repeatedly stressed that a woman's beauty (and her beautification) is something that primarily happens on the inside. "Do not let your adorning be external ... but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart" (1 Pet. 3:4). The heart is where we put on Christ and the clothing of Christ. A wise woman commits more time and energy dressing herself up on the inside than on the outside.
Are you caught up in comparing yourself to the girls in the magazines and movies?
Do you spend countless hours stressing and worrying over your outward appearance?
How much time do you spend on your inner beauty rather than the outer?
Remember, the world's standards of beauty are always changing. It's a never-ending fight. When you choose to gratefully accept the way that God designed you, your heart and life will go from discontent to truly beautiful.
Leslie Ludy put it this way: "Once we exchange the world's value system for Christ's eternal priorities, we can begin to reflect the beauty of heaven."
What can you do in your own life to remove the lies of Satan and put on the truth of God's Word?
Is there anything in your life that constantly tempts you to compare yourself to the culture's standards of beauty?
Contributed by Bethany Baird
