as a young girl, Momma always told me, "Jane Elizabeth, your beauty starts in your heart. Let's be beautiful on the inside today."
no truer words have been spoken to me. and thankfully, they were spoken to me at a young age.
to be beautiful. what does this look like for believers who are called to be holy in a culture that defines beauty by your waist size? by external characteristics?
does your weight, height, hair color, complexion, and clothes define what it means to be beautiful? to the world, yes. BUT beloved we are not of the world anymore (Romans 12:2).
I am sick and tired of being trapped into believing Satan's lies of what true "beauty" is and I have a feeling I'm not alone.
well my sweet sisters, it's time for truth to be spoken into your hearts and heal your soul. may you hear the whispers from the Father of how beautiful He calls you!
my freshman year in high school, my brother wrote me this letter. I still carry this precious letter from my sweet brother in the back of my bible to serve as a reminder of my calling.
The Godly woman:
1. finds contentment in Christ alone.
all our satisfaction and fulfillment must come from the Father, who supplies an endless amount to His children, when we seek Him above all else.
all my fountains are in You. all my worth, value, contentment must be in Him. if not, I will slowly become destroyed by the lies the evil one likes to toss around.
O God, You are my God; earnestly I
seek You;
my soul thirst for You.
because your steadfast love is better than
life,
my lips will praise You.
my soul will be satisfied
and my mouth will praise You with
joyful lips,
when I remember You
and meditate on You in the watches
of the night;
for You have been my help.
my soul clings to You.
Psalm 63
2. she gives the majority of her time to inner beauty rather than outer beauty.
someone once asked me if I spent more time getting ready in the morning or getting my heart ready for the day by reading God's word. needless to say, I was convicted about where my focus was and how I was spending my time. I was not looking after my heart more than I was looking out for my appearance.
one of my very favorite stories in the Bible is in 1 Samuel where the Lord picks David to be king. long story short, Israel was in need of a king because Saul failed to obey the Lord's commandments. in obedience to the Lord, Samuel goes to Jesse who is a father to eight sons. one by one the sons walk before Samuel and he is sure that the oldest one, Eliab, would be the Lord's first choice.
this is where the story gets interesting. as Samuel is looking at Eliab and assuming this is their new king,
the Lord said to Samuel,
"do not look on his appearance or on the
height of his stature, because I have rejected
him. for the Lord sees not as man sees: man
looks on the outward appearance, but the
Lord looks at the heart."
1 Samuel 16:7
wow. let's sit in that for a second.
for the Lord sees not as man sees: man
looks on the outward appearance, but the
Lord looks at the heart.
the heart.
this is where the Lord looks to when looking upon His children. this is why attending to our heart should be before attending to our outward appearance.
hear, O daughter, and consider, and
incline your ear,
forget your people and your father's
house,
and the King will desire your beauty.
since He is your Lord, bow to Him.
Psalm 45:10-11
charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the Lord is
to be praised.
Proverbs 31:30
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.
1 Peter 3:3-4
3. Has other women in her life who are Godly examples for her.
to all the Godly women in my life, thank you for showing me how to chase after Christ. I am humbled to think that the Lord would bless me with such examples to follow after. I am thankful for you and I love you dearly.
older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior,
not slanderers or slaves to much wine.
they are to teach what is good, and so train
the young women to love their husbands and
children, to be self-controlled, pure, working
at home, kind, and submissive to their own
husbands, that the word of God may no be reviled.
Titus 2:3-5
4. Consistently respects all people in her life, has a submissive spirit, and is self-controlled.
be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody to the Lord with your
heart, giving thanks always and for everything
to God the Father in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another
out of reverence for Christ.
wives, submit to your own husbands, as
to the Lord. for the husband is the head
of the wife even as Christ is the head of the
church, His body and is Himself its Savior.
Ephesians 5:18-23
as women in Christ, this is what we are called to. will we struggle with this and be tempted to look to the outward appearance? yes. BUT...sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:14).
over the past couple of days, I have been listening to an old podcast from The Well. the sermon title? "Looks Don't Make You Attractive." here are the main points Chris Brooks makes:
looks can make you look,
but they don't make you attractive.
you are never more attractive than when you are serving.
what you see in the mirror should never take the place of your involvement in God's mission.
your beauty should accentuate what's going on inside, not take it's place.
you are God's workmanship created in advance to do wonderful things.
you bear the image God's image within you.
and if you don't think He can make all things beautiful in His time, then you don't believe His word
and you don't believe that He holds you in high regard and He has value for you.
how soothing these truths are to the heart!
may we be encouraged that He has made everything beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and that as His daughters, He delights in our beauty. He delights in our hearts.
may we begin to dispute every lie that is fed into our minds that we are not beautiful, that we do not measure up. may we take any lies we may believe and hold them up against the Word of God and punish all lies that stand in opposition to His word.
we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion
raised against the knowledge of God, and take
every thought captive to obey Christ, being
ready to punish every disobedience, when
your obedience is complete.
2 Corinthians 10:5-6
take joy, my sister! our King delights in you and holds you in high regard! may you no longer be held under the pressure of measuring up to the world's standards of beauty. may our Father's delight in you be a warm balm to your heart, soothing over any cracks that have made its way there.
I love you, O Lord, my strength.
the Lord is my rock and my fortress
and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take
refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my
salvation, my stronghold.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to
be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.
He rescued me, because He delighted in me.
Psalm 18:1-3, 19
bless
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