Beauty comes from within

'For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.' 

(Psalm 139:13, 14 NKJV)

What does true beauty mean to you?

We hear about beauty being only skin deep, but what does that really mean? For me personally, it means that no matter what we look like on the surface, we need to have just as lovely a personality on the inside for us to be considered to be beautiful.

It’s quite easy to look upon the outward appearance of someone and call them beautiful, but shouldn't we also take the time to search for beauty that goes a lot deeper, a beauty that's not seen with the naked eye?

If I could only change my body, I would be able to accept myself.

According to author Shelly Hitz of Teen Beauty Tips, the biggest body image lie we tell ourselves as women is “If I can change something about my body, others will finally accept me and I will be able to accept myself.” She goes on to say “It is so easy to base our self worth on our looks and appearance because it is the first thing others see in us. Plus, there are mirrors (or windows) everywhere that constantly remind you of your appearance.”

'Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes.'

(1 Peter 3:3 NLT)

Not only do we use mirrors to reflect our appearances, but we also have magazines, TV shows and commercials trying to tell us what the “perfect woman” should look like. We spend so much of our time and money trying to compete with these images, that we forget true self-worth comes from inside. God tells us we’re fearfully and wonderfully made, but when you’re in that dark and lonely place called the mind, those words sometimes fail to penetrate deep enough.

Will we ever outgrow our insecurity?

We mainly associate self esteem with teenagers; that period of time spent obsessing over our hair, makeup, and clothing, or whether or not the cute boy sitting across the room is looking at us, but most of you reading this devotion are adults.

If you took the time to really think, how far back would you have to go to remember an instance where you felt overwhelmed with the fear of being laughed at, looked down upon, or of saying the wrong thing? You don’t have to be sixteen to have those feelings; not only do we still have them, but sometimes we fear we’ll never outgrow them.

'You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!

'Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!'

(Psalm 139:13-18 NLT)

God really does want us to know we are precious we are to Him, and how marvelous His work is. He told Samuel that He “does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

He also says to “do your own work well, and then you will have something to be proud of. But don’t compare yourself with others.” (Galatians 6:4)

God loves you and thinks you are beautiful

I would be the first to speak up if asked to talk about the negative effects of having low self-esteem. I'd like nothing more than to be able to tell you how damaging it is to believe those lies swirling through your brain. If given the chance I'd love to walk up to you right now, give you a great big hug, tell you how beautiful you really are, and how much God loves you.

God is unable to lie, so when He tells us not to compare ourselves with others because we are beautiful, we are complex, we are marvelous, then we better believe it. He wants us to know inner beauty is the only true test when it comes to knowing someone. Let's agree not to let ourselves or anyone else allow us to think otherwise.

Please pray with me:
Lord,
Thank You for blessing me with the gift of life; may I never take Your gift for granted. It's hard to understand what You see in me, but I accept that what You say about me is true.

Please help me to show this same truth to others. Give me the opportunity to tell them they too have been made in Your image, that You love them, and that You want them to know they are beautiful.
Thank You Father!
Amen

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