Rethinking Beauty (Part 3)

Who has your child’s ear (and eyes) about what beauty means?

What does beautiful mean to you and how are you demonstrating that to your child?

I’ve been thinking about these two things lately because of a blog post I recently read and this beautiful young girl below (my youngest). In Part 1 of the series, we talked about the former. In Part 2, we discussed the latter. Now let’s look at a final piece that some of you may desire to skip over due to other beliefs or may find value in despite different beliefs. In this post, I’d like to explore what God says about beauty, as I feel that understanding our identity as given by our creator is important to helping our children fully appreciate their own beauty.

 

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As someone who believes in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, I believe the Bible is God’s love letter to us to guide us through this life. I believe when we pray and ask Him to reveal its meaning to us He does, so I couldn’t end this series without sharing some scriptures that I believe speak to beauty and how God would like us to view beauty. I understand not everyone will believe the same way I do and I accept that. You can choose to continue reading to see if you would agree these scriptures speak to the subject or you can close down the blog (I won’t be offended). If you don’t agree with my faith but choose to continue reading, thank you for being willing to see another perspective. I believe that in itself it a quality of beauty as well.

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What Scripture Tells Us About Beauty

Lauren Daigle did a wonderful job with this song and showed us ways to reframe our thinking when we become overwhelmed with the lies we tell us ourselves from society and culture. If we take cues from her we can do the same when we start to feel like we aren’t beautiful because we aren’t pretty enough, skinny enough, tall enough, strong enough. When we feel like our eyes aren’t the right color or our teeth aren’t white enough. When we feel like our eyebrows aren’t “on fleek” and our skin is too light, our hair isn’t the right texture or length, or our face isn’t the right shape. All of these things are based upon the culture we live within and changes depending upon where you are in the world. But all of us deal with struggles of feeling “not enough” of something and when it comes to beauty, the Bible isn’t silent. I hope today’s scriptures and this post help you to see that. I am not going to offer interpretation beyond the subheading before each scripture because that is not why I am sharing these today. Rather I am going to share them and let you take away whatever you walk away with in how they speak to you.

We are made by God.

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” ~Psalm 139:14

Our beauty should come from within.

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” ~1 Peter 3:3-4

We shouldn’t worry about what we wear.

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow? They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ~Matthew 6:28-29

Our clothes are our inner qualities exposed.

She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. ~Prov. 31:25

God knew what He prepared us for and how we needed to be built to handle it.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. ~Ephesians 2:10

God cares about our hearts’ condition more than our outward beauty.

Fear of the Lord is our most beautiful trait.

 

Final Thoughts

Caralyn’s post noted the following:

This is what I want to see and what I want my daughter to see when we look in the mirror. Not the flaws, not the make up and clothing covering up those flaws, not the jewelry accentuating colors and bringing attention away from body parts, but the work of God right before our eyes. Like a sunset masterfully painted just for our enjoyment, God designed both of us. He designed you and your children as well. What better gift can we give our children than to understand that we were beautiful from the moment the Creator of the universe breathed life into us and chose us to walk this life?

 

Have I missed any scriptures you teach to your children to remind them that their beauty is more than skin deep?