Today in my quiet time I decided to listen to/read 1 Peter (if you haven’t read it, do it. It’s SO GOOD) and I got to chapter 3:3-4 and it starts talking about inward beauty. “Outward beauty is fleeting, so focus on the heart” has been something I’ve lived out in terms of other people but never really thought about it in terms of myself. So I began searching for what God defines as beautiful and compared them to what the world tells me is beautiful.
The lies that the world has taught me about beauty:
1) You have to be skinny. If you don’t look like the photoshopped ladies on the cover of the magazine, it’s a no.
2) You have to have perfect skin or cover up the “ugly” with makeup. If you have a pimple on your face you better beat it out of existence using your makeup.
3) You have to have shaved legs. If it looks like baby monkeys are holding on to your leg all the time, shave shave SHAVE
4) You hair has to look perfect always. Your hair is so cute today but you have like a billion flyaways and your edges looks like a scene from jaws was filmed on the edge of your hair.
5) Your jewelry has to be super cute and matches your outfit. christmas outfit with st. Patrick themed earrings… honey, no.
6) If you don’t look like an Instagram model… why do you even let yourself leave the house?
7) Stretch marks?! You better airbrush those or fix it with expensive creams and oils that don’t actually work.
8) You can’t have a round belly unless you’re pregnant. Hit the gym!
What God has taught me what beauty is according to his word on the race:
1) 1 Peter 3:3-4 “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes.
Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”
2) 2 Corinthians 4:16 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”
3) Romans 8:6 “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.”
4) Matthew 26:28-29 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.”
5) 1 Samuel 16:7 “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
6) Proverbs 31:30 “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.”
7) ALL OF PROVERBS 31
So looking at the word, beauty is not at all about how I look but more about how my heart looks. All over the bible God has taught that looking beautiful doesn’t mean outward beauty but how I carry myself as a godly woman. I could be all the things that the world calls beautiful but could be the most ugliest person ever because of my heart. On the race it’s not super easy to conform to the world’s view of beautiful. You 100% can if you want to BUT it just isn’t as conducive. So I went from the picture you see as my blog photo to 
