Beauty is in the Eye of The Creator by Chelsea Temple
Last year, I spent more than $700 on beauty products. In the average month, I purchase at least five new beauty aids ranging from $10 to $70, if I have to buy a new foundation. Makeup can do just about anything. Eyeliner can change the shape of your eye, foundation can erase the imperfections in your skin, lotion can smooth the lines in your hands, and hair dye can take you from blonde to brunette and back again. There is hardly a limit to what makeup and other beauty products can do in making you someone else entirely.
The average woman will spend more than $225,000 over the course of her life on products for hair and skin, including makeup. Most girls are taught from an early age that they must look their best. They must put their best foot forward when it comes to making themselves presentable. But how exactly does the fun of that first palette of blush or eyeshadow change from enjoyment to necessity? When does our perspective change from excitement to try a new, funky nail color to fear of leaving our homes without a face full of makeup?
Why do we spend so much money on improving or altering our appearance, but spend less or no time trying to improve our internal selves? Jesus was a man who refused to look on outward appearances. He saw what was in the heart of man. He even stated in Matthew 15:10, “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.”
The same principle applies to women. Can you really measure someone’s worth by the appearance that they show to the world? Or is someone’s true value related to that which is in their hearts? For some, it may be easier to put this theory into practice as it regards others rather than ourselves. It’s easy to look at someone else and see their true merit despite their messy hair or splotchy skin. It is less easy to see the merits in ourselves.
As a society, we are taught that the most important thing is how others perceive us.
On any billboard, there is a perfectly styled and photo-shopped person ready to offer you just the thing you’re missing to make your life whole. Look up information about how to get a job and you can find advice pointing you in the direction of a new suit or tips to make yourself seem approachable or more likable.
Youtube is full of videos guiding the weary masses on how to dress better, speak more eloquently, and gain more followers on every social media platform on the planet. And some of these things are okay, if you want to discover more ways of gaining confidence or making genuine connections then I think that’s great. But our worth shouldn’t be tied to the way that others perceive us, but the way God sees us.
“Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” (Matthew 6:27-30)
Our God is a precise God. The flowers of the field are all painted by his hand. The sunrises and sunsets are crafted exactly to reflect his beauty. We are surrounded by so much majesty in our every day, from the Seven Wonders of the World to the simplicity of a smile from someone we love. If we can see all of this beauty around us, why can’t we see it in ourselves?
Take some time, look in the mirror, and try to see the ways in which God has shaped you with precision. Take pride in those little lines around your eyes, find joy in the messiness of your hair or the marks on your belly. Look at all of the things that make you who you are and know that the God of the universe loves you just the way you are. If he can love you like that, why can’t you love yourself?
Chelsea Temple is an English teacher from East Tennessee. Her favorite part of having a relationship with the Lord is that she always has someone to see her classic "side-eye" look. She believes that the Lord appreciates her humor while she tries to appreciate all of his. She attends Lyons Park Missionary Baptist Church in Church Hill, Tennessee.