Thoughts to ponder...

What is beauty? Is it merely defined as something that is aesthetically pleasing to the eye? I think this is probably the easiest and quickest definition. There is also the saying ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’.
What about a newborn baby? Or an elderly couple who still have eyes only for each other after 50 years of marriage? The person who stops to serve a complete stranger? Or a Savior willingly giving His life for His creation? These are all demonstrations of true beauty in action. Not the aesthetically pleasing kind, but the innocent, selfless, and truly magnificent kind. Some people strive their entire lives to become beautiful. It can even be paid for. This beauty, however, is temporary.

As I am preparing to lead worship for a women’s retreat with the soul topic being beauty it has made me think about what the world really see's beauty as. We live in a fallen world, one that tells us that beauty lies in the size pants that you wear or if you are wearing the hippest clothes, or if you look in the mirror and have a flawless complexion... However those lies could not be farther from the truth. Gods Grace is a perfect example of what true beauty really is. It has nothing to do with what size pants you wear or if you have a flawless complexion. True beauty can only be attained when we allow the grace of God to work itself in our lives. When we surrender all control we think we have and give it all to God, we truly become a beautiful masterpiece. A masterpiece created and someday finished by the One who started it all, the one and only Creator of the universe.

“And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.” (Psalm 90:17)

Beauty is far more then what meets eye. It’s not about what appears to look good on the outside it is a matter of the heart. And the heart of the matter is that we will never be a fair judge of what true beauty is because we don't have the ability to search the heart. So when you are having moments of self doubt and you feel that you are not beautiful remember beauty is not what you see when you look into a mirror beauty is formed from the inside out.