Beauty. It is something we associate with the outward appearance, the physical aspects. We look at the body, the face, the hair. We put so much emphasis on how we look that we often forget that real beauty comes from the inside. It is the inside, our personalities, our souls, being made in the image of God that creates our beauty. What shines from the inside gives us beauty. The manner in which we live our lives and the way we treat each other,showing others the Kingdom of God; that is our beauty.
I have had to learn the reality of this very quickly and a bit painfully in the last 24 hours. Not physical pain, but emotional pain. I had to deal with a lot of past emotions, being self-conscious about my appearance and the unbelief in my own beauty when the crown on my front left tooth came completely off my tooth as I bit into a piece of taffy. It may seem like a small thing, something that doesn’t matter but for me, it was one of my worst nightmares. The only person who has ever seen me without my crown on my tooth is my mom and until this morning, I’ve never looked at it either. It is a sore spot for me, my teeth. I’ve had a crown on since the age of 8, had braces twice and now, in a foreign country, my crown falls off. There I was, one of my fears laid out for all to see. There I was, sitting on the ground in Peru, missing a front tooth, just an ugly dark stump where a nice white tooth should be.
As I cried my teammates and squad mates assured me that I was still beautiful. It didn’t matter that my crown had fallen out because that is not what makes me beautiful. I have beauty aside from that one flaw. My amazing teammates told me that my true beauty comes from deep inside, from the characteristics of God that He has placed in me. God is showing me that I have been putting mor emphasis on the outside appearance, not for others, but on myself. I am so much more then physical beauty and it is the inside beauty that makes me someone special. That is the real person that others and God want to get to know and want me to embrace. My beauty is that I am made in the image of God. Why should one little missing crown bother me? My crown, my glory is in Heaven! God is not looking at me and assessing my physical body, my outward appearance! God is looking into my heart, in how I live out His commandments. He is looking at how I show His love and extend the His Kingdom. My teammates are also not assessing me based on my outward appearance. They love me as I am, as a child of God. They love me for the inside, for the beauty that comes from letting Gods light shine through me.
P.S Stayed tuned to find out what happens when I go to a dentist in Peru! Our host Joel and his wife Maria know a great guy! I really hope so! Thankfully my crown is in one piece and should go back in fine! Please pray! I’m pretty nervous about this!
