Whose voice are you choosing to listen to? Your Creator who cannot lie or voices influenced by this world's false standard of beauty?

When I lifted the bathroom blinds the other morning, it nearly took my breath away—a delicate, flowering tree of purple God-glory reaching up, up, up. Each morning since then, while washing my face and combing my hair, I keep glancing out at its beauty, drinking it in. Yesterday, the tree's Creator whispered two things to me: 

"I make beautiful things." 

And,

"You don't have to listen to his voice. You don't have to believe him." 

See, a few months ago, a guy who had shown interest in me for quite a while confessed "the spark came and went" for him. And with that admission, the Liar who wants to steal and kill and destroy me implanted a big, hairy lie. 

"You're not beautiful" has been ringing in my ears ever since. But God used the tree outside my window to jolt me back to reality this week. Since when am I to believe every voice I hear? Last I checked, there is only One Voice I can trust as the reliable truth: 

"The sheep listen to his [the Shepherd's] voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice" (John 10:3–5).

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well (Ps. 139:14, emphasis added).

So how about it, beautiful girl? Do you know full well that God makes beautiful things—including you?! (If you doubt this, just take a walk outdoors for a glimpse of His beautiful world!) 

Whose voice are you choosing to listen to? Your Creator who cannot lie or voices influenced by this world's false standard of beauty?

Me . . . I've decided to listen to the voice of the Maker of that beautiful, flowering tree outside my bathroom window.