So this is a blog I wrote month 6 on my race that I never posted. I’m sitting in bed at 12am, two months after the race and God has literally woken me back up to this subject and is having me share it with yall. I don’t know why I never posted it, but it means more to me now than it did back when I wrote this. Please, please read the whole thing! The Lord wants to speak to YOU.
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I have grown up believing that beauty is in your looks; makeup, clothing, hair, etc. It’s as though you are not noticed or seen as anyone unless you looked and dressed a certain way. Our society has done a really good job at making young women feel completely inadequate and depressed if they do not meet the ‘standard.’ Television, magazines, and movies don’t help this cause. What is a person’s heart or personality have to do with it anyway?
I am here to tell you that it is all a bunch of crap. Beauty is in every single person, despite what the world has to say about the topic. God creates beautiful things in his image, therefore each creation is beautiful, each one of us are beautiful. While being on the race I’ve learned a lot about beauty. I have learned that I used to hide all of my insecurities and vulnerabilities under a face of makeup. Every blemish I had, I covered it. Anytime I heard a compliment, I would refute it because I didn’t believe the compliment to be true. Beauty is a very subjective word in this world but it doesn’t have to be.
Now let me give you my definition of beauty. Beauty is something that is depicting our creator, by heart, personality, and being. Beauty is defined by God, it is in every person he has ever created and will ever create. It is who he knows us as. We are all beautiful to The Lord.
“You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of us.”
I have completely shed myself of the societal definition of beauty after traveling the world and getting to really understand other cultures and people. I never wear makeup anymore and it’s the best feeling ever. The people around me love me for me and not for how I look. They see my heart and personality before any of the blemishes on my face. I’m not saying that makeup is a horrible thing, because it is not. I know when I go home I will put some on the way I did before the race and that’s okay. It’s when we define ourselves as beautiful based on how other people view us. It’s when our identity is defined by our appearance when we have a problem. It’s when our identity comes from the world instead of God. Where is your heart and what are your intentions when you put makeup on? That’s the question we need to be asking ourselves. I can now say with confidence that I am beautiful just the way The Lord has made me, and that’s the best feeling.
As for the women around the world: I strive to be like them. They are so beautiful, strong, and gentle all at the same time. They don’t complain about the work they do on a daily basis, they don’t look in mirrors and obsess about their faces, they simply live knowing that they are special and beautiful in their own ways. These women take care of the household, daily chores, businesses, you name it. There is nothing that they don’t do. I have had the blessing of seeing these ladies the way The Lord sees me and it is humbling. He speaks so much truth into my life that it blows my mind. He adores all of his children and we are all beautiful to him in so many different ways.
I want to encourage those of you who dwell on your looks due to what the world says, to cut down on the times you put yourself down or look in the mirror. Know that God sees who you are on the inside, where it really matters. He knows your heart- past, present, and future and still loves you the same. We have such a sweet, sweet Lord.
-January 2015
