Beauty. That word that every girl longs for. We fear it, we love it, we hate it. It is intimidating. Yet again, another expectation this world pressures us to meet. I feel like beauty has become an expectation to meet rather than something to be enjoyed, discovered… Society, like most everything else, has completely distorted what beauty was designed to be. “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 3:4)
I am reading this AMAZING book called Captivating. Ladies, I encourage all of you to go pick this up. It’s $5 at LifeWay. Hint, hint. It’s opened my eyes to so many good and wonderful things. It is not the typical book telling you your duties and responsibilities as a Christian woman, what is expected of you. Rather, this book focuses on your worth, your importance as a woman. I’ll give you a little preview… We are described as “The Crown of Creation”. I love that. We were the final touch in God’s great masterpiece. How awesome is that?! Eve was created because things were not right without her. There is so much significance there. The world is unstained yet the Lord says, “It is not good for man to be alone.” (Gen. 2:18) The world is not good without Eve. Woman. Woah.
His image. We were created in His image. “God wanted to reveal something about himself, so he gave us Eve.” God is beautiful, tender, good, loving. He longs for intimacy and a relationship with us. Do you doubt that? Look at woman. What does she tell you about God? Wow. That was a huge eye-opener for me. When I interact with friends and family, strangers even, do they see Rheagan or Jesus shining through? Do they truly see Him? Does my reflection of God speak truth, goodness, tenderness, and everything else that He is??
Girls long to be reminded of their worth. I remember as a little girl asking my daddy if he thought I was pretty. I literally asked him this question a thousand times a day. Even today, I sometimes ask him and my mom the same question, “Am I lovely?” We desire to be told how pretty we look, how cute our outfit is, etc. We long to be sought after. But doesn’t God long to be sought after? “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jer. 29:13) Like father, like daughter. Women are a mystery. Just as the Lord is. Ladies, God isn’t some harlot. We have to talk to Him first and get to know Him before we can possess an intimate relationship with Him. Make sense? He is so worth it. Just as we are. “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” (Proverbs 4:23)
So, how can I bring this beauty, this tenderness and goodness to the world? This world that says that I have to be a size double zero (I will never understand how that is a real size) to be beautiful and must prime and prep my face before applying make up. Being a girl in this generation is such a challenge. I struggle with it daily because it surrounds me constantly. Every source of media reminds me that I am not good enough. It is so easy to believe the bad stuff. So, what if I surrounded myself with God’s truth constantly instead? What a dramatic difference that would make. God is there, longing to remind us how loved we are, how beautiful we are. Because He is. I want those that I see on a daily basis to know how precious, beautiful, mysterious, and just plain amazing He truly is. All of these things that we girls possess because of Him. Because we are His. Daughters of the King.
