This past Sunday, in Sunday School we started a new series on “Purity”. But, instead of jumping right into the typical “Christians shouldn’t have sex” spill, we took a different approach. Our first lesson was entitled “What is Beautiful?” This question has three different categories of answers. What we personally view as beautiful, what the world/social media says, and what God says.
First, what do we find beautiful? I listened intently as we went around the room of high school aged girls and I compiled some of their answers.
-personality
-how you treat others
-your inner self
-your smile
-how you react
-natural
Then, without much feedback we were asked what the world/social media has told us is beautiful. The answers quickly took a turn for the worse.
-how much skin you show
-what brand of clothes you wear
-how much makeup you wear
“Do you even contour?”
-what your hair looks like
-body size
When surrounded by the voices of celebrities, peers, and every magazine you’ve ever seen on a shelf it’s almost impossible not to accept these things as truths. When we look in the mirror we flashback to every time we’ve been called fat or ugly. We have grown so attached to this false identity that when we’re told “You’re beautiful” our immediate response is “You’re lying.”
We were asked how many of us wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and think “Wow, I look beautiful.” Not a single hand went up.
Because, our identity is no longer found in scripture but, how closely we can manipulate ourselves to look like a Kardashian.
Finally, we were asked “What does God define beauty as?” Very few of us could come up with an answer and that’s because in today’s generation we don’t read the bible to find out what God says about us. I mean who really cares as long as I’ve got a couple hundred likes on my Instagram picture, right? Wrong. Beauty has nothing to do with the outside and everything to do with the inside.
“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.”
1 Samuel 16:7
“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” 1 Peter 3:3-4
“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
Psalm 139:14
Do you know that? That you are fearfully and wonderfully made? That there is NO flaw in you— you are flawless. You are precious. You are one of a kind. You are beautiful. You are priceless. You are HIS creation and he makes NO mistakes.
He does not define beauty by the way of this world but by the traits you hold on the inside. He finds beauty in kindness, righteousness, sacrificial living, a servants heart, bearing the Fruit of the Spirit. He finds you beautiful.
I hope you know that because for a long time I didn’t. I let circumstance after circumstance define how I saw myself. I felt worthless, unwanted, and unloved. When I looked in the mirror I had to nitpick everything I saw wrong because if I said it to myself it wouldn’t hurt as bad when the girls at school said it. Living with this twisted view of myself allowed for my self esteem to cause even more problems. I didn’t trust anyone because I couldn’t place worth on my life much less believe someone else could. I had a fear of rejection. I had a fear of never being enough.
But, I shut the door. I had left a crack in the door that allowed those lies to creep in and take over my life. I shut the door and began to combat those lies with the truth. I AM fearfully and wonderfully made. I AM priceless. I AM beautiful. I AM a masterpiece made by a potter who makes NO mistakes.
So are you. Don’t you ever forget that.
“How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you”
Psalm 139:17-18
So I challenge you to shut your door. To replace the lies that you’ve accepted about yourself with the truth. Let those things be the light in your darkness. Your identity is found in only one person so let him speak his love over you through his word. Just shut the door.
