Posted on February 17, 2016 by Audrey Winterhof
Godly Living
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Beauty. In today’s culture there is a standard for “beautiful” especially when referring to people. God has something to say about beauty as well – and it’s much different from what society says.
Cultural standards for beauty can be found in magazines, on social media, or in movies and almost always lead us to disappointment. When looking for beauty in today’s society, many people are tempted to compare themselves to these “beautiful” people. This often results in feeling like we fall short of being “beautiful”. But God does not set us up to feel this way about ourselves!
The beauty that we often see in today’s society is not realistic. Marketing campaigns make us believe that we have to look a certain way, be a certain size, or wear certain things in order to be beautiful. For the record, photo-shop is pretty powerful and not always in a good way! With this in mind, we try to be the “beautiful” we see around us which is impossible to achieve. The moment we become really hard on ourselves for falling short of this standard is the moment we let society win and define beauty for us. The truth is – we belong to God! The focus related to beauty should not be unrealistic, physical standards set by cultural pressure.
While we may be influenced by culture to view ourselves a certain way, God sees us differently than everyone. God says in 1 Peter 3:3-4 “Do not let your adorning be external – the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear – but let your adorning be the HIDDEN PERSON OF THE HEART with the IMPERISHABLE BEAUTY of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is VERY PRECIOUS.” God does not want us to seek beauty in the things that we put on each day. He wants us to dig deep and seek beauty within ourselves.
The good news is we can stop being so hard on ourselves. Photo-shopped beautiful is not the goal. Resist the urge to give in to the pressures around you. You are God’s child. Find the inner beauty that God gifted to you way before you even set foot on earth. Philippians 4:13 reads, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” ALL THINGS – look to Him for the strength you need to find your beauty!
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