On Beauty

I think that basically every female on the planet has thought, at some point or another, that she's ugly.  Some have only struggled with this minimally.  Some, on the other hand, have been haunted for as long as they can remember by the fear that they will never be beautiful.  Some girls live every day terrified that they will never be loved as much as they would be if they were pretty.

Most girls do everything they can possibly think of to improve their looks.  They spend hours in front of the mirror with products and tools to make them look better.  They apply and reapply liquids and powders and gels to their faces. They pluck and wax and brush and straighten and curl and pin hair.  They try putting their hair up, then they take it down, then they leave it half up and half down.  They paint lips and eyelids and fingernails and toenails.  They try on outfit after outfit after outfit, searching for one that doesn't make them look "completely horrible." They tell the waiter, "I'll just have the salad," and spend hours upon hours in the gym-- not in the name of healthy, but in the name of skinny.  They pull their skirts up higher and their shirts down lower.  They go to a special doctor and pay thousands of dollars to get implants put in them and fat sucked out of them and collagen injected into them.  They do all these things, they labor all these hours, they spend all this money-- and why? For "beauty."

Women want to be beautiful.  More than that, women want to be told that they are beautiful.  They wanna hear it.  So oftentimes, when some guy waltzes in and tells a girl that yes, she is beautiful, she listens to his next words.  Then, eventually, she falls for him, even though he has a different value system than her, or he's only using her to quench his lust, or he's headed in a completely different direction in life than she is, or he's abusive, or he isn't even the same religion as her.  And by the time she comes to realize that the relationship will inevitably end, it's too late.  She's given him her heart, and sometimes, unfortunately, she's given him her body.  Often, a girl in this situation delays ending this broken relationship because, even though she's hurt by it daily, at least it makes her feel a little bit beautiful.

How truly, utterly, devastatingly heartbreaking.

Ladies, we were not meant for this.

I was driving to class today, when the song "Beautiful" by MercyMe started playing on the radio.  I'd heard it dozens of times before without much notice, but this time its lyrics caught my attention, especially these few, simple words:

"You're beautiful,

You're beautiful,

You are made for so much more than all of this,

You're beautiful,

You're beautiful,

You are treasured, You are sacred, You are His,

You're beautiful"

Girls, stop looking to men to make you feel beautiful, valued, whole, and loved.  You will always end up disappointed and hurt.  Men can never satisfy you, and they weren't meant to.  If you're desperately clinging to that empty relationship that you know has to end someday, then hear this: that guy may tell you that you're beautiful, but you know what else?  God, too, is telling you that you're beautiful.  The difference?  He'll never hurt you.  He'll never turn away.  He will give you a lifelong romance.  His love for you is real.  It's not based on something that you have to fight daily to attempt to maintain and will inevitably fade away.  No.  His love is based on your innate value that can never fade away or even be reduced at all.  For that reason, His love for you, likewise, will never fade away or be reduced at all.  

Hear me when I say that you are beautiful.  You are made for more than this.  Stop, turn around, and run to God.  He is your Satisfier.  Remember, He knows you in totality.  He knows every single detail of your thoughts, actions, words, and physical appearance-- all of it; past, present, and future-- and still, He loves you so incredibly much.  Still, He loves you more than anyone you know or ever will know.  Is He really not enough?

Yes, you are beautiful.  You are sacred.  You are treasured. Please-- be His.

1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and cry to her

that her warfare is ended,

that her iniquity is pardoned,

that she has received from the LORD’s hand

double for all her sins.

...

6 A voice says, “Cry!”

And I said, “What shall I cry?”

All flesh is grass,

and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.

7 The grass withers, the flower fades

when the breath of the LORD blows on it;

surely the people are grass.

8 The grass withers, the flower fades,

but the word of our God will stand forever.

-Isaiah 40:1-2, 6-8