Beauty...

<<This is a burden of mine, maybe if we pray together we can find a way to reach those who are struggling with finding beauty...>>

As I was driving this week I heard a frightening statistic on the radio. They were talking about eating disorders and the people who struggle with eating disorders. They said that today they see people as young as five years old struggling with an eating disorder. Five years old! At five children should be playing and loving life not worrying about their looks, their weight, their appearance. But the world tells us otherwise, society puts an emphasis on beauty and ones looks. 

As a girl, as a women, I know the pressure that society places on us to be beautiful. Society tells us we have to be beautiful to be loved and to be beautiful we have to meet their standard. To be beautiful we must be a certain weight, wear our hair a certain way, wear our makeup their way, and wear certain clothes. If we do not look like society tells us we must then we are not beautiful! When I go to the doctors office I often read the magazines just to see what society is saying and each time it breaks my heart. There are always really “pretty” girls on the cover and as you read there are more of these “pretty” girls dressed in scandalous clothing and we are told that we must look like this to be beautiful and to be loved.

As a teenager I struggled with being content with who I was and with the way I looked. I often read these magazines and watched television and tried to meet the standards of society so that I could be beautiful and be loved. Most of the time when I looked in the mirror my heart broke because I did not look like the models and the people that defined beauty and I felt like I was never going to be beautiful and in turn I’d never be lovable. This lead me to live in a secret life of depression and self injury. 

As children of God we need to step up and let girls, and women for that matter, know that beauty is not what society calls beautiful. Beauty is not dressing like the models and having the body of the models in the magazines or on television. Recently I was reminded that God created each and everyone of us and He created us uniquely. God created us in His image, 

((Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Genesis 1: 26))

What does being created in God’s image mean?? Does being created in God’s image mean that we look like those women in the magazines or on television? No, I think that being created in God’s image means that we are all unique and we are all beautiful! As God’s children we are to be set apart! God called us to be holy, to live holy lives. 

((...but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct... 1 Peter 1: 15))

We should be concerned with our bodies and with our beauty but not in the way that society says that we should be. 

((Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. 1 Corinthians 3: 16-17))

Our bodies are a temple of God. As believers His Spirit dwells in us we should take care of our temple. We should exercise, we should eat right, we should abstain from things that will hurt our bodies. But we should not be obsessed with these things. We should not focus on doing these things for our selfish gains or desires, we should do these things because we love God and we want to honor Him in taking care of the temple that He has given us. When I think about beauty I think that those who are content in who they are and do not seek to fit in the mold that society says that we must fit in are beautiful! Most importantly, as children of God, OUr beauty lies in our love for the Lord and our contentness of where He has us, not in our meeting the standards of the magazine.

If your talking to someone who does not know the Lord, you may not want to start by telling them that their body is a temple of God. You can but that may be extremely hard for them to understand without knowing God and His love, grave, mercy, and forgiveness; without understanding Christ’s sacrifice! Tell everyone, believer or nonbeliever, that they are beautiful and not because they look the way society tells them but because they are unique and because they are who they are!  We need to encourage everyone, but especially girls and young women, to realize how precious they are! They are precious and beautiful, not because they meet the standards society sets but because they are who they are! Just think about how you can encourage young girls and young women! Many people, men and women, struggle with eating disorders, self injury, and depression because of the standards society places on us, find ways to encourage those around you to see themselves as the beautiful creation they are! You could save a life!!