Life is not Beauty
Beauty and Self Esteem
How often have you restrained yourself from going to a social event or work because you thought you weren’t looking good enough? It may come as a surprise, but according to a recent global survey called Truth About Beauty, 67 percent of Indian women and girls between the ages of 10 and 64 years have actively avoided social engagements, work, school, or health-related activities because they didn’t feel good about their looks. The results were found through a four-week long global research on 4,000 women in India, USA, UK, Brazil, China, Japan, and Turkey by Edelman Intelligence, a specialist applied research firm based in London and a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, Varkha Chulani, for a beauty brand, Dove.
The Vanity of Physical Beauty
According to scripture, beauty is vain and fading. To focus our attention primarily on physical attractiveness is to miss the mark. God who never made anything ugly, created all of us in His image. Thus, to judge either our own or other people based on the shape of their noses, busts, height, shoulders, skin complexion, or body shapes is absurd! God looks much deeper than our faces and figures.
An illustration to demonstrate the vanity of beauty is the story of Bathsheba and David the king. We see her inability to keep David warm in his old age. Abishag the Shunammite had to be brought in. The Bathsheba for whom David killed Uriah had lost the beauty that once consumed the king! It is also shocking that all of Abishag’s beauty and charm for which Solomon killed his brother Adonijah could not stop Solomon from marrying 699 wives and 300 concubines after Abishag. See 2 Sam11; 1 Kings 1:1-4; 2:13-25; 11:1-4.
Those that think that marrying “Miss World” will bring contentment and keep them from sexual temptation must think seriously through this sad precedent. The same applies to ladies who base their choice for a husband on physical appearance. From the story of David, we see that Samuel the prophet was more drawn to the physical appearance of David’s older brother, Eliab. He saw that he was tall ad handsome. But God intervened in the situation and told Samuel that He looks at a man’s heart and not His physical appearance – 1Samuel 16:7.
The True Beauty
Men desire beautiful women, for God created them to be visually stimulated. God also designed every woman’s feature to attract the man’s sight. A woman’s face, body, hair, or all three can smite a man in a short moment. Women also are drawn to “tall, dark, and handsome” men, as the saying goes. The unconscious instinct seeking protection makes a man with features that portray strength appear attractive to a woman.
However, beauty will not make a great marriage. Most of the time it creates more problems. Physical beauty does not guarantee character. A perfect body may be housing a deformed soul. You may only know too late. Beautiful women and good-looking men can be arrogant, selfish, flirty, and lazy. Husbands can become jealous, forced to support extravagance, and beg for favors. On the other hand, women may have to battle with promiscuity hence a divided marriage.
Beauty fades with time, can be distorted by sickness, and disappears with age as the decaying effect of sin takes it away. Something much more will hold the marriage together when the beauty queen gets sparse grey hair, two inches long and moles as the size of grapes. And when the body of the prince charming loses strength and the handsomeness is not there anymore.
Outward appearances do not last.
Beauty that is real and enduring is only in those who fear the Lord and out of reverence for Him, perform the duties of life as the “virtuous woman.”God chose David to be the King contrary to prophet Samuels’s thoughts because David had the right heart before God. While he was doing his duty as a shepherd, he did it with diligence and reverence towards God. He sought God with all his heart and genuinely loved God.
A physically beautiful woman who is loose and sensual, by displaying her body loses the value of her beauty and defiles herself. Think about a ring on a pig snout. The pig uses its snout to push dirt and filth. Similarly, a man with attractive physical qualities but lacks character is like a wild beast in the field, doing life according to how he thinks ad feels. Only a man submitted to God can lead and shape his family after God’s heart.
DBS – Discovery Bible Study Groups
Take time to pray and let the Holy Spirit shed light through the scriptures. He will bring areas in your life that you need to change to your attention. For instance, how you view your own and other people’s beauty. You may have been influenced by social media content. It may be a parent, or any other authority figure in your life, who said something that affected your self-esteem. Compare all these with what God says through His Word. Take the next step of seeking healing by letting God’s Word transform your thinking. Read Romans 12:1-2
Write down your experience to constantly remind you to keep the correct focus.
Reach out to us via [email protected], and we will be glad to hear from you.
Joy Minayo is a disciple-maker in the Activate Kenya community, she enjoys using online media, writing blogs to reach the unreached
References
Articles from The School of Life. https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/the-meaning-of-life/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=pmd_ee16649a526b2cec6cba1fe618379968860fb08b-1627563092-0-gqNtZGzNAfijcnBszQdi
Proverbs 31:30. (n.d.). Let God Be True!. https://letgodbetrue.com/proverbs/index/chapter-31/proverbs-31-30/ Verse-by-verse Bible commentary. (n.d.). StudyLight.org. https://www.studylight.org/commentary/proverbs/31-30.html
A woman who fears the lord is to be praised. (2022, January 17). Desiring God. https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/a-woman-who-fears-the-lord-is-to-be-praised
