You're Beautiful

Ok - it's just now 6 AM and I've already had a pretty decent cry this morning. Uggggg - but I think I needed it. One of my friends posted a video on Facebook that was both "beautiful" and yet heart-breakingly sad as well. Well, check it out for yourself... It's a little long but well worth the watch, and the language gets a little rough, but perhaps that response is so telling.

People React to Being Called Beautiful

I mean wow. But isn't that how most of us respond when someone tells us we are beautiful? We blush or break eye contact or "oh, you're too kind" and probably for the most part don't believe what we're being told. We've been conditioned that only the super models or athletes or movie stars are beautiful - and yet, I'm willing to bet that many of them ask the same question... "Am I beautiful?"

Think about it. "Do you like having your picture taken? Do you like seeing those pictures later? How do you feel when people ask you your age? The issue of beauty runs deep."

A dear friend of mine challenged me to read the book Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge. It is a great book and one of the most challenging I've had to digest in awhile. It talks about the heart of a woman and what she longs for. One of those things is unveiled beauty - "a desire to be captivating in the depths of who you are."

What does every little girl ask? What does she want an affirmative answer to? "Am I lovely?" And truly, don't we even as grown-ups want to hear the same? So what happened? Why don't we believe the "Yes, you are lovely. You are beautiful."? It's this nice little thing called "shame". I love what Stasi writes, "Shame, the universal companion of women. It haunts us, nipping at our heels, feeding on our deepest fear that we will end up abandoned and alone. Aware of our deep failings, we pour contempt on our own hearts for wanting more."

And yet... "So God crated man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." - Genesis 1:27 If we have been created in the image of God, then part of that image is beauty.

"One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple." - Psalm 27:4.

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." - Psalm 19:1. Think about the last sunrise or sunset you admired. Think about the last rainbow you saw. We take pictures of them and post them all over social medial. What do we say? How do we describe them? "Beautiful." And if those things are beautiful, and if they declare the glory of God, how beautiful He must be. Do you see where this is headed? And if we are created in God's image...

Let me be clear. It's not just a physical beauty. Even flowers fade. It is also that deep soulful/spiritual beauty. It's our very essence. And consider this: "There is a radiance hidden in your heart that the world desperately needs." But how will the world ever receive that gift if we throw aside our beauty? If we fall into the trap of shame, that somehow we are damaged beyond repair and there is nothing captivating about us?

Oh what pride Satan takes when he convinces us that there is nothing special about us. Because in doing so, he is convincing us that God is a liar. That we are not His "masterpieces." And yet we are. Or maybe he convinces us that to believe the truth of our beauty is pride and we've been taught how ugly that is. But again the truth: "My lover spoke to me, 'Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me'." - Song of Solomon 2:10. God calls us beautiful. Really? We're going to argue with Him?

"What have we to offer, really, others than who we are and what God has been pouring into our lives? It was not by accident that you were born; it was not by chance that you have the desires that you do." And let me add this. It's not an accident that you have the story that you do. It's part of what makes you captivating. It is part of your beauty. This world desperately needs the beauty placed inside your heart.

Beautiful - Mercy Me

So whatever you believe about yourself today, hear this. Not just from me, but from God, who created you in His image. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL.