Beauty
What is beautiful?
Is it make-up? The right hair style? Flawless skin? Revealing clothing? Flashy cars? Expensive jewelry? Plastic surgery? Big houses? Manicured lawns? A certain fragrance?
Or is it a tender heart? An openness to God's calling? A responsive spirit to his promptings? Kindness? Compassion? A desire to pursue love and give love and accept love? Simplicity? A good listener? Timely words? Wisdom? Grace? Nurture? Hospitality? Gentleness? Hope? Faith? Passion? Charisma?
You decide. I decide. We decide for ourselves every day what beauty is. Because beauty is what we seek, and so our actions show us what we really determine beauty is.
I recently bought new nailpolish because in my opinion, beautiful nails are the ones that are painted. (though, interestingly, it's a rare occasion I find myself with painted nails!)
How many of us think we need to paint over who we are in order to appear beautiful? Paint over those scars. Drywall over the open wounds. Mask those fears. Paint over the doubts. Cover up those questions.
Or can we really free ourselves to believe that the beauty is in the scars, and in the wounds, in the deepest fears and doubts, and in the questions?
Is it make-up? The right hair style? Flawless skin? Revealing clothing? Flashy cars? Expensive jewelry? Plastic surgery? Big houses? Manicured lawns? A certain fragrance?
Or is it a tender heart? An openness to God's calling? A responsive spirit to his promptings? Kindness? Compassion? A desire to pursue love and give love and accept love? Simplicity? A good listener? Timely words? Wisdom? Grace? Nurture? Hospitality? Gentleness? Hope? Faith? Passion? Charisma?
You decide. I decide. We decide for ourselves every day what beauty is. Because beauty is what we seek, and so our actions show us what we really determine beauty is.
I recently bought new nailpolish because in my opinion, beautiful nails are the ones that are painted. (though, interestingly, it's a rare occasion I find myself with painted nails!)
How many of us think we need to paint over who we are in order to appear beautiful? Paint over those scars. Drywall over the open wounds. Mask those fears. Paint over the doubts. Cover up those questions.
Or can we really free ourselves to believe that the beauty is in the scars, and in the wounds, in the deepest fears and doubts, and in the questions?
posted by Melinda @ 2:07 PM
2 Comments:
At 5:56 PM,
Unknown said…
Good thoughts...isn't it so easy to be down on ourselves because we aren't outwardly beautiful enough? Or so we think? It is so much less work to just allow the enemy to tell us we aren't good enough, beautiful enough, but if we do this, wear that, change these, maybe, just maybe we will be.
You, my friend, are a beautiful woman. :)
At 6:25 PM,
Melinda said…
thanks Anne, you are beautiful too. I love it when you sing up front at church - you radiate!
And it's also interesting because you don't have to have one over the other: you have great hair, a pretty face, and also be kind and gentle, serving and grateful. I think the problem lies when we focus only on one or the other.
-Melinda
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