I want to be beautiful.

I believe at the heart of every woman is a God instilled inner desire to be beautiful. But what is our standard of beauty? 

 When I think about the standard for outward beauty, for years the world presented Victoria’s Secret models as our standard. But the real secret about Victoria’s Secret, is that those high paid models aren’t pretty enough either. 

Victoria’s Secret Models Miss The Mark Too

 

We look at Victoria Secret models and think surely they met the mark and achieved the set visual standard for all beautiful women. This leaves the rest of us with anything less than that Victoria Secret standard feeling and believing that we are not beautiful or not pretty enough. 

 

The problem with Victoria’s Secret models as the set standard for beauty is that they are not pretty enough either. Images of their faces and bodies are altered and photoshopped. Photoshop allows human beings to determine what is flawed on another human and remove or add to an image of a person to make what they deem as the optimal standard of beauty.  

 

Therefore, the old saying “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is in essence the truest estimation of a standard of beauty. 

 

The problem with that is how we individually see beauty.  Just as every human being has a different fingerprint that identifies him or her, we also see beauty differently. What one person identifies as beautiful, another person may see as not pretty enough.  

 

Our God-Instilled Desire To Be Beautiful 

 

With the idea that women carry within themselves a God-instilled desire to be beautiful, we may have to look all the way back to childhood to see that in us. Life sometimes damages what was put on the inside of us by God and it is easier to dismiss and push our desire to be beautiful down to undiscoverable places inside of us. That often is how we protect ourselves from the hurts this world brings to our most vulnerable parts of who we are as women.             

 

The world isn’t the only one out to damage who we are and the beauty that God created us to be. Our spiritual enemy exploits our desire and causes us to question our beauty.  Even at our best, all fixed up looking good, the ever-present questions rise to the surface. 

 

“Am I beautiful?” “Am I pretty enough?”

 

When dressed my best and my clothes, make-up, and accessories all put together, I may walk out the door with a decent level of confidence. However, it takes the tiniest things to raise the question, “Am I pretty enough?”

 

Sometimes I see someone with better hair, a younger face, or a bit slimmer. Maybe I hear someone say how attractive someone else is. Or it could be a simple as my husband doesn’t affirm my looks with compliments. 

 

The truth is, even if we are comfortable enough with our appearance, women often feel a sense that there is a standard we can never quite meet. I believe questions of our beauty touch every woman at some point. The question, “Am I pretty enough?” is non-discriminatory to women who want to be beautiful. 

 

So maybe we should consider a different question.

 

“Who am I trying to please?” 

 

Let’s narrow the range. If we try to please everyone, we will all fail. If we focus on a select few we have a much higher possibility of success. But if we focus on the ONE, our Creator, we are sure to succeed. Our Creator is a perfect Creator, no flaws in His ability or His work. He creates with perfect intention and fulfillment. He doesn’t slip up or mess up. He creates who He wants, what He wants, when He wants, how He wants, and why He wants. 

 

When we look at the idea of beauty through the lens of our Creator, we can only conclude that we are indeed pretty enough. Psalm 139:14 says, We are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” We truly are a marvelous work of God. 

 

When we shift our focus to the One, it automatically shifts our focus from an “outward appearance” standard to an “inward heart” perspective. Why because God sees us deeper than our outward appearance.  We see that in 1 Samuel 16:7. 

 

But the Lord said to Samuel, 

"Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, 

because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; 

for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 

1 Samuel 16:7

 

Jesus put it a bit more bluntly. He wasn’t concerned with being politically correct when He said, 

 

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly,

but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.”

Matthew 23:27

 

 

Beautiful from God’s Perspective

 

If God is looking inward at our heart, what is He looking for? What is it that makes us beautiful to God? According to 2 Chronicles 16:9, I believe it is a loyal heart. 

 

"For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth,

to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. . .”

2 Chronicles 16:9

 

 

Loyalty Is A Beautiful Quality. 

 

Loyalty is beautiful to God and man. Our loyalty to our husbands and families is a trait they will always admire and esteem. If we want to be beautiful and live out of the confidence of our true beauty, we must stop letting the world and men or women define our beauty. 

 

We are beautiful because we are, each one, God’s masterpiece. We maintain beauty on the inside when we have loyal hearts to God. Our loyal hearts to God will translate into true beauty to those we love and to the world around us. 

 

Lord God, our Creator, help us to value loyalty above outward appearance. Help us have loyal hearts that deepen our beauty to You and to those we love., in Jesus name, Amen. 

 

If interested in seeing how Photoshop alters the models we see in magazine images, watch this video, The Photoshop Effect.