True Beauty

I have been seeing and hearing a lot about the beauty of a woman lately. After years and years of identifying beauty as the unrealistic images of models we see in media, it seems some of us are trying to challenge the lies about what makes a woman beautiful. This is a good thing.

However, in this fight, I think we must remember how pervasive these lies are. Both men and women have been duped. Even in attempting to challenge the definition of beauty, I think we have unintentionally, at times, reinforced the idea that true beauty can be illustrated through certain shapes, sizes, and colors. Truthfully, beauty cannot be limited in such ways.

One of the saddest things I have noticed is that some of us perceive that a woman somehow loses, or diminishes, her beauty after childbirth. In attempts to reject the images they know they don't resemble, I have witnessed some disregarding beauty altogether. When this happens, they are in bondage to the same lie a woman believes when she attempts to copy those same images.   

Saturday Night Live once did a mock-commercial for "Mom Jeans". The slogan went something like this, "...you're not a woman anymore...you're a mom". Although meant to be funny, this is actually a profound look at one of the most devious lies a mother faces. The Enemy has done an exceptional job of creating a false image of beauty and calling every woman on earth to the unattainable goal of being carved into that very image. Ladies, either you chase after it with everything you've got, or you do like the SNL commercial says and accept that you cannot attain it. Either way, you have bought into the lie because the focus is on that false image of beauty.

In order to break free, we desperately need the truth about beauty. This world may give hints at times, but it will never satisfy our longing for true beauty. And if we are focused on external sources showing us what that is, we are doomed to be in bondage to whatever lies Satan wants to pitch us through those very sources.

If we are truly created in the image of God, in each of us is a reflection of everything that He is. One of those characteristics is beauty:

"Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth." (Psalm 50:2, ESV)

Therefore, in each woman there is an inherent beauty that flows from who God created her to be (who she truly is). If she doesn't see it, or even if those around her fail to see it, that does not mean it's not there. It only means that she, and possibly those around her, have been deceived. Perhaps she has learned to conceal that which she doesn't even know she possesses. Regardless, if we could somehow choose to believe the truth that there is something beautiful in every person, even if they don't, how might that change things? Instead of the images in a magazine or a commercial, we could choose to search inside of us and others for something that God has placed in each and every one of us. We don't have to see the beauty to believe it is there and go after it. Not only do we desperately need to be able to see ourselves the way God sees us...we have a need to see others the way He sees them as well.