some natural or artificial environment.
Something excellent of its kind. I love that last part, ‘something excellent of its kind.’ When’s the last time you felt like you were beautiful and something excellent of your kind?
I used to stand in front of a mirror and make myself say ‘Sarah, you are beautiful.’ It was quite possibly the most awkward thing I had ever done, because I didn’t believe it at all. I could hardly look myself in the eye, let alone speak those words out loud to myself. I had fallen prey to what everyone else measured beauty to be and it consumed me. Then, day by day I slowly started to believe the words I was speaking. It got easier to stand there, look at myself and believe what I said. There is amazing power in what is spoken over us by ourselves and by others.
“The tongue has the power of life and death…” Proverbs 18:21.
If you are constantly saying negative things about yourself you will eventually believe them. Yet if you are speaking positive you will eventually believe those as well. I want to challenge you to try this exercise! It changed the way I viewed myself and helped me really understand the way that God viewed me. If you aren’t quite ready to tell yourself that you’re beautiful, here are some truths from scripture that you can say out loud to yourself, sort of like a prayer from you to God. Believe it!
“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” Psalm 139:14
“For You have formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalm 139:13
So, when we really dive in deep into this question of true beauty, we realize that it isn’t at all about the clothes we wear, the color of our hair or the shape of our bodies, but about the state of our soul. It’s about the condition of our hearts, our internal beings. True beauty comes from the inside out. If we aren’t spiritually and mentally sound, that shows on the outside. There’s a verse that I absolutely love from Psalm 34:5 that says, “Those who look to Him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.” This verse kept me sane during the times that I would look in the mirror and despise what I saw. I held onto this promise and I ran to God, knowing that when I looked to Him and was focused on Him rather than myself, I was radiant and unashamed. I pray this verse is as impacting for you as it’s been for me!
There is also an element of beauty that comes from taking care of ourselves, spiritually but also physically. So am I saying that we shouldn’t focus on the external at all? No. Let me explain. Scripture tells us that our body is a temple and we are supposed to take very good care of the bodies that we are given, making sure that we eat right, exercise and get the necessary nutrients to keep us alive and well! I am a firm believer that God loves us just the way we are, but He also rejoices when we love ourselves enough to take care of His creation. We just have to make sure that it’s coming from a place of wanting to achieve overall health and not from a place of obsessing with what we look like on the outside. The former can take our focus away from things that are pleasing to God. So if you have a certain outfit that makes you feel beautiful, then wear it! If you love to eat healthy and work out, then go for it! But don’t let those things take control of your life and become your sole focus.
So to sum it all up, I would say that true beauty is evident when we are healthy from the inside out. When we are whole and complete in Christ first and foremost, and we don’t base our worth on what the world says about our external, but about what God says about the internal, and the renewing of our minds day by day. True beauty isn’t something that is purely physical, but it radiates from within. So when you are struggling with what you see in the mirror, remember that it’s what's on the inside that God sees, and when we look to Him for our peace and direction we are radiant and beautiful and excellent!
“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.” 1 Peter 3:4
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