Faithful Fridays ~ Beautiful

Hi everyone!  I'm a little bit late on my Faithful Fridays post this week.  I started Faithful Fridays so that Christians could have one designated day (although we of course shouldn't limit ourselves to just one) of the week to share something concerning their Faith--a prayer request, praise report, something encouraging, something inspirational, etc.  If you participated in Faithful Fridays, please let me know in your comment and give me the link to your blog--I'd love to stop by!  Also, don't forget to grab the above button for your post! 
My mama has already posted her Faithful Fridays post on her blog, Country Girl at Home. 

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What is beautiful?  It's been determined in different ways throughout time.  If you google "define beautiful," you will see this:

"1. Pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically.

2. Of a very high standard; excellent."

 

Hmmm...I didn't quite understand the "aesthetically" part, so I googled "define aesthetically."  Here's what came up:

 

"in a tasteful way; 'this building is aesthetically very pleasing.'" 

 

In Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary, you can find beautiful defined like this:

 

"1. Elegant in form, fair,having the form that pleases the eye. It expresses more than handsome.
           A beautiful woman is one of the most attractive objects in all nature's works.

A circle is more beautiful than a square; a square is more beautiful than a parallelogram.

2. Having the qualities which constitute beauty, or that which pleases the senses other than the sight; as a beautiful sound."

 

In China, fair skin is considered beautiful. 

 

In America, we've come to consider beautiful as a girl whose skin color is as tan as roasted chicken, whose hair is long, thick, and lucious, and whose waist is about the size of your calf.  Note: She also wears itty bitty shorts and a tube top with gigantic pumps and loads of flashy jewelry with three layers of eyeshadow and five layers of eyeliner. 

 

At one time, plump girls were considered beautiful.

 

At another point, itty bitty, short, fairy-like peanuts were considered the "in." 

 

You see?  It changes.  It always will.  And not only does it change from time to time, culture to culture, country to country, but it changes also from person to person!  You could line up four people, and every single one of them might have different perceptions of beautiful. 

 

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
    So God created man in his own image,
   in the image of God he created him;
   male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:26-27 NIV

God made us in His image.  He is beautiful itself.  He is all things good.  He is the one that made each and every one of us (not to mention, ahem, the entire universe and everything in it).  And if He made us, don't you think He knows what's best for us--how we should look?  And if we were made in His image, don't you think that we are beautiful?  God defines beautiful.  Not humans.  Not culture.  Not Hollywood. 

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 man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

1 Samuel 16:7 NIV

That says it all, doesn't it?  We dumb humans look at the outward appearance--the shell.  God looks at the heart.  He looks at the inside.  I want you to remember--men are fallible, dumb, dirty, sin-filled, mortal, and unreliable, and God is infallible, wise beyond all, pure, perfect, immortal, and the Creator of All.  Men and their bodies will soon pass away--and if they haven't accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, they will spend eternity in flaming d*ath. 

for like the grass they will soon wither,
   like green plants they will soon die away.

Psalm 37:2 NIV

And really, some of the people today in America's culture that are considered beautiful have filthy, dirty, yucky hearts.  And believe me--they feel it.  I know it.  Those bad things may see "fun," but they make you feel dirty and used.  When you live for God--even if it's hard at first--you feel good.  You feel pure and clean.  You can forget the bad things you've done and try to move forward in Jesus Christ. 

So girls--I encourage you to not worry about your looks.  We're girls, so we naturally tend to do that (especially with the pressure put on us by our culture and the girls around us that we need boyfriends).  I'm not suggesting that we let ourselves look bleh, and I think it is totally okay for a girl to get dressed up from time to time (like to church on Sundays, etc.) because I think that a girl needs to feel pretty sometimes.  BUT, there is a line that you have to draw.  You have to keep your priorities straight. 

Just remember--God looks at the heart.  We're supposed to be like Him.  So are we looking at our looks and outward appearance (and the outward appearance of others--this applies with others, too) or are we looking at the heart?