Beautiful women are everywhere and constantly being told of how pretty they are. It’s easy to get caught up in those compliments and find your identity there.
But as you get older, and your beauty begins to fade, what then do you cling to? All your young adult life you’ve been trusting in your good looks to open doors for you, or provide favor and popularity.
Looks fade, age happens and an identity crisis you will face if you don’t ground yourself in your true identity—God sees you as His daughter, and He gave you that beauty to begin with. Yes, with today’s cosmetic surgery and make up, many more women can claim their true beauty was self-made, but only true beauty comes from our Creator. The best beauty flows from within you, by His spirit.
I know a woman who was very attached to her physical beauty. She was a personal trainer, and her body was very fit. But she had small breasts that weren’t to her liking. So, she got breast implants. Gym class was never quite the same after that. She kept watching herself in the mirror as she led this physical fitness course, her eyes admiring her own chest. Most of the other gals in that class were moderately annoyed by seeing her do that.
Yet she wasn’t done. As she began to age, hitting her early fifties, her face showed natural signs of aging. Crows feet along the corners of her eyes would not go away no matter how hard she worked out, or ate healthy food. Lured by the temptation of a youthful appearance, she got botox around her eyes, made her lips fuller, and attempted to smooth out the skin above those new, fuller lips. When I saw her at the gym, I barely recognized her! It appeared like some muscle paralysis had set in—her face looked so unnatural. I actually felt really sorry for her. She may have thought she looked better, but she was deceived. To me, she didn’t look good at all — she looked strange.
Self-made beauty is deceptive, and if not recognized, can become arrogant. A woman can become haughty, thinking she looks so amazing. This attitude can lead to pride. The Lord opposes the proud – the self-made – because trust becomes misplaced. Instead of recognizing that beauty comes from God, we get saturated with messages today that our beauty can be bought for the right price. Then it becomes all about us, and not about God and His true beauty that can, and should, flow from within us, making us see that our true identity lies in Him, not in our outward appearance.
I am not saying that all cosmetic surgery is bad, or if you had some, you are not a pretty woman. I am just noticing that if your identity becomes attached to that “work,” or you think it’s up to you how your beauty is made, then you’re trusting in the wrong source.
As we age (I’m 52 years old), and physical beauty fades, our inner beauty can shine forth like a beacon of hope to a hurting, confused culture that thinks beauty is self-made. We can show them that beauty is truly a gift, and turn their focus towards the Gift-giver.
2 Corinthians 4:16, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”
