True Beauty

I know it's nothing new but I fear for many of the girls growing up with the images of Victoria's Secret "angels" and other false ideas of what true beauty is. 

My thirteen year old grandson has a female classmate who is obsessed with body image and always trying to lose weight and calling herself fat when she weighs just what she should for her age and height. And she is not alone in this obsession with body image.

No one wants to see models who look like me...old and wrinkly and saggy baggy...but a lot of girls, and even grown women, believe that looking like these super models will bring them happiness, or at least the boyfriend/husband they desire. Most don't see the stress these women are under to keep their weight "perfect", the hours of working out, the surgical enhancements and reductions to make them into someone they are not.

Men are not immune to this. We see all the exercise ads so men can have those 6 pack abs. And the hormone replacement ads, for men and women, so you can be "young again" are filling the TV. I don't know if we have lost the art of aging gracefully or we are afraid of old age and dying. Don't get me wrong, I want to live to be 100 - but do not fear standing before Jesus when my numbered days end. Job 14:5

Peter spoke to the women of the first century when he said, "Do not let your adorning be external - the braiding of your hair, the wearing of gold, or the putting on of clothing - 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

Peter is not telling women it is wrong to look nice but rather that all the finery does not give us true beauty. True beauty comes from a heart surrender to God. True beauty can change the course of marriages and draw unbelieving husbands to Jesus (vs1-2). 

We can photoshop our pictures, get plastic surgeons to change our shape, work out in the gym for hours each day, and replace the hormones age is taking away but will we ever be satisfied? Nope! Only a personal relationship with Jesus can satisfy our deepest longings. Only through Jesus can we find peace and contentment for this life and the next.