Inner Beauty

This little beauty is posted all over Facebook at the moment.  Interesting experiment, to say the least, encapsulated in a three minute video.

As women, we tend to view ourselves outside in;  if we look good, we feel good.  If others tell us we look good, we feel GREAT about ourselves.
But notice that not one woman chose to focus on good.  Every women critically picked herself apart, focusing on the negatives.  
 What this experiment demonstrated to me is that we actually view ourselves backwards.  We should be looking inside out, starting with who we are as people.  If that forensic artist could have drawn the hearts of these women, this exercise would have been remarkably different.  There would have been beauty and joy and love on those canvases. 

I think Dove is doing something remarkable and counter-culture with their line of advertising of late.  Beauty, TRUE beauty, is way beyond the face and body of a person;  it is at the core of our being.  It spills out and over into our lives through what we say, do, think.  Wearing a face-full of make-up, having the most current hair style, and wearing the latest designer clothes doesn't change that fact in the slightest.  If you are a horrible person beneath all that stuff, you are a horrible person all dressed up for the world's pleasure.

God sees the real you.  He thinks you are beautiful, despite the acne, freckles, crazy hair, and extra weight.  He loves you fiercely.  He knows your hurts and triumphs and He loves you all the same.  He would draw the picture on the right, the one that represents who you really are, because He sees that your beauty comes from the inside out.  And you, girlfriend, are RADIANT!

Time to go inside, ladies.  Time to find the "real" you deep down in your soul.  Time to tell the world to take a hike and determine you are gorgeous, inside and out, because you are loved by a great and gracious Savior.

I'd say that fact is astoundingly beautiful.


But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”--1 Samuel 16:7

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.--Colossians 3:1