This past month I had the privilege of putting together a ladies’ workshop for some of the women that work at El Shaddai, the orphanage we lived at and partnered with in Swaziland. My squadmates and I decided that we were going to focus on the subject of beauty. We listened to a podcast by Skye Jathani, called Why Beauty Matters.
When I was asked to help with the ladies’ workshop, I thought, Well sure, why not? I’ll serve some tea, give some hugs and smiles, pray with women, and make them feel beautiful. And then I was asked to teach… Hmmm. Wanting to be stretched, I accepted the challenge. When I started listening to this lesson by Skye, however, I quickly realized that I, myself don’t see the value in beauty as God intended it. I have a skewed view of beauty. How was I supposed to cultivate beauty in these women if I couldn’t even see it in myself?
So here’s a little summary of what the Lord really taught
me while preparing to teach at the workshop:
What good is beauty?
Beauty is the prerequisite for true worship.
Seeing beauty the way the Lord intended it, to be seen, is such a key element in bringing glory to God. The Lord put beauty in everything. Look around you, I mean, everyday we get to see the breathtaking beauty of the sunset! Clearly God values beauty very much.
Right from the beginning, we see in Genesis 2:9:
“The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out
of the ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good
for food.”
There are two different ways to view beauty: the Transactional view and the Inheritant view.
For example: In this verse, the trees were “good for food.” This is the transactional view. But God also makes it known that they were “pleasing to the eye.” They inherit beauty from their creator. This is the inheritant view. Some things are made to simply be adored rather than used.
FLOWERS. Why do men give flowers to women? -Because they are simply beautiful and the man wants to remind the woman how beautiful she is to him. The woman adores the beauty of the flowers just as the man adores the beauty of her.
If a man was to give a woman flowers because of the transactional beauty of a flower, because they produce pollen, which the bees then use to complete the process of pollenation. That’s not nearly as romantic. It takes away from the adoration of the flowers and ultimately the purpose behind giving the flowers.
As women we tend to be viewed in a transactional way.
But we can’t just blame it on the men that view us in this way ladies.
Because it all starts with us viewing ourselves in this way.
More times than not, women find their value from transactions rather than inheritance.
This is the lie we all fall into believing.
Were we not created in the image of our beautiful God?
Don’t we have that inheritance of beauty as well?
Genesis 1:27 says,
“So God created mankind in His own image,
in the image of God He created them;
male and female he created them.”
I AM ADORED!!
My Heavenly Father created me in His image, and He is the most beautiful thing I know. Before I knew the truth, I didn’t see Him as beauty. I didn’t see His Inheritant value.
I was the Christian who went to church and saw it all as, “I praise you so now what will I get.”
It wasn’t true worship.
I USED God… Worship is not about what I give, and what I will get.
I had a BRIDLE love for God rather than a BRIDAL love.
God exists not so we can use Him, but so that He can simply adore Him.
Psalm 27:4
“One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in
His temple.”
Here, David sees the true beauty of God.
For so long, I believed the lie that my value came from transactions rather than inheritance.
Not only did I see myself in this way, I began to view our Lord this way. I was missing out on all the beauty that He IS! And in the end, all the beauty that He has placed in ME!
I allowed men to view me in a transactional way because this was how I viewed myself. I didn’t care to be adored because I was so busy being used. I missed out on opportunities to cultivate THE BEAUTY OF CHIRST within my community, because it was not yet cultivated in myself.
Christ was the flower patch among the thorns. His beauty points us to what is true and eternal.
We inherit that same beauty!
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