Beauty

A few nights ago my friend and I took a walk with our dogs. We were gone for about two hours and it was one of the best spent two hours of the week. One of the subjects we covered was beauty and what it means to be beautiful. Every time I talk to Emily about this she gives me a much deeper understanding of what beauty really means.

It seems like an ever-present question on girls' minds: what is beauty? It is defined so many ways by so many people; unfortunately, most girls borrow their definition from TV and Pinterest where skinny bodies, clear skin, gorgeous hair, and being followed by men is beautiful. Whether we want it to or not, this definition of beauty has influenced how we see ourselves and others. I am no exception, I am constantly comparing myself to other girls and am painfully aware of my weight and the effect of food on my weight. These kind of thoughts push a lot of girls into unhealthy behavior; both the thoughts and the behavior become addicting. Thankfully, I have a good friend who whips me back to the truth whenever I get too far into these thoughts rather than God's. What she says and how she lives is beneficial to all girls and women.

Before a few weeks ago I did not believe confidence could be beautiful. I had it ingrained into my head that to follow God's call to humility, you had to think yourself ugly and incompetent. Disliking yourself was how you put others ahead. Emily let me know how wrong I was. By hating myself, I was hating God's creation and putting myself on a path to hating His other creations. The thing about finding flaws in yourself is that you will begin to find flaws in other things or grow contempt for the things that don't have flaws. God showed me how truly unhumble I have been. The effort it took to hate myself was effort spent only on me, not on working to meet the needs of others. Instead He has given me two beautiful and confident role models as best friends. 

Emily and Julia are both beautiful, and they both know it. In the One Direction song, "What Makes You Beautiful", beauty is portrayed as not knowing your beauty, these girls showed me how wrong that is. Neither one of these ladies goes around bragging about how beautiful and funny they are. They don't think they are better than everyone else, they are simply comfortable in their own skin. They acknowledge that God made them and called them good (Genesis 1). They simply have confidence. This may be an area where my written words are less sufficient than if I were talking to you verbally, because I think you really just need to spend a day with these girls to see how well they have balanced confidence and humility so that they can serve others instead of wasting time hating something beautiful. 

"Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less." - C.S. Lewis

"I praise you because I am FEARFULLY and WONDERFULLY made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well." -Psalm 139:14

The Foolish Shames the Wise

I've realized lately, that the people with all the right answers aren't always the people with the right heart or the right actions. Sometimes it is the people who are rough around the edges and a little questionable who actually treat people with respect and give them grace. Maybe it is because they know what it is like to be looked down upon, they know what it is like to be in the darkness and can sympathize.

Notes:

*I know this isn't true universally, there are plenty of polished Christians who also genuinely care about people and treat them with respect. Lately, I have just been faced with a lot of the truth behind not judging a book by its cover and this is influencing my thoughts.
*Also, I know that this is short and kind of shadowy, but it is a school night, so I am not going to expound :)

Perfect in Weakness

Do you ever think about how weak you are? How weak we are? We don't have much control, do we? Some things we have power over-- we can create bombs and visit other planets, that sounds pretty powerful. But how much power do we really have? I don't know many puberty struck teenagers who would say they feel in control. Face it, we are weak. We are merely humans and the things we can't control outweigh the things we hold power over. These thoughts might make you to curl up in a ball and beg for mercy from this all-powerful universe that controls everything and gives you no say in life. Well, I'm not sure that is the best response, but fear is inevitable. Being out of control is scary. Being weak is  terrifying.

I've noticed lately that a lot of people in our culture I've acknowledge this utter weakness and  lack of control. They want to be able to do something, but know they are inadequate. No matter how hard we try, we can't fix the world's problems. People are still dying, wars are still fought, and disasters still happen. It is obvious that humans are not strong enough. But where does that leave us? Doomed? Well, left to our own minuscule strength--yes. Humans cannot fix the world.

Fortunately, humans aren't the whole story. It is like a superhero movie when the townspeople are being attacked by the villain and have no hope of defeating the evil. Then in flies Superman to save the day! But what we have is better than Superman. We have the one who created humans and rules over everything with perfect strength and wisdom. He is all-powerful, able to defeat whatever He wants. He is also all-loving. Loving of you and me. What does all-powerful and all-loving equal? Sovereign. God knows are weakness, even better than we do; He also wants what is best for us. So even in our weakness, we can trust that God will work all things together for the good of those who love Him. When we love God, we are able to claim our weakness, trusting in the power of our Creator who works on our behalf. Bad things will still happen, but God will always be victorious. I am reminded of a line from my worldviews class, "The story of the world is a story of sin doing its best and failing." That one sentence speaks to all weakness and all power.

But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

Note: I realize a post on power and weakness is a big topic to tackle, too big for my ability. However, I went ahead and wrote one anyway. I've realized what a dilemma those who do not trust in God are in and that our world is crying out for answers. It gives me joy and peace to be able to find my answers in Jesus. So even though my thoughts are incomplete, I hope they lead you to scripture, which is complete. I hope you can be encouraged to know there is one stronger than you who is working on your behalf, and He will always be victorious.