What IS Beauty?

This is something that everyone women struggles with BEAUTY. I recently found an articel in Brio&Beyona about "What is Beauty anyways?" by Kimberly Rae Thigpen. She talks about the different ways women around the world do to look beautiful.

Like in Bangladesh in order for a women to look beautiful she would go to a cooking fire, get some coal and color all her teeth black. Every women wants to look beautiful and we all have our own ways of looking pretty. Kimberly also explaned a few more countries in there ways of looking beautiful, "for some, beautiful is stretching your earlobes down to your shoulders. For others, it means slicing their faces or backs and then rubbing salt into the cuts so they bubble into designs." Ok, to me that does not sound fun!

"In some parts of Asia, girls smear bleach creams on their faces to make them look whiter. In Thailand, women stack gold rings around their necks more and more until their shoulders have squished down and their heads are stretched high above their bodies." That sounds painful! But all these women do this because it is considered beautiful in there country. The bigger the lip, the more jewels, the higher the head the more beautiful you are.

In Africa the Surma people start their beauty around the age of 20. The tribe will make a cut in the lower lip so that a little round clay piece will stretch the hole to make it bigger. The bigger the lip the more beautiful you are. If the women was to take the piece out her lip would hang past her chin.

But you may be thinking, "these women are crazy for doing this to them selves." When really we Americans do some really crazy things to our bodies our selves to look beautiful. How many Americans do you think have gotten skin cancer because they want to look tan all year around? According to the American Cancer Society Melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, will account for about 59,940 causes of skin cancer in 2007 and most of the 10,850 is deaths due to skin cancer each year. How many women have died from plastic surgery, being cut to change something they don't like about themselves? In America we have fake hair, fake face, fake body, fake smile, you can pretty much get anything you want done to you fake and that's how to be beautiful. Many women look through magazines and think they have to look like the women in the magazine to feel loved and beautiful. That's not true! The world is lying to you about what is beautiful. The world is telling you to NOT accept yourself and God made you to be. The world is saying you can't be who you are. God knew what he was doing when he made you.
You don't have to look like barbie to be pretty, by the way barbie was plastic. Everyone is going to get wrinkels someday, and you know what!?! That is beautiful!!!
I once came accross a photo on JpgMag.com of a women with stretch marks on her belly (I wish I could find it to share with you), as her caption she wrote "every mark is for every move you made, every mark is for every kick, every mark is for every breath you took within me..." That is beautiful!

Do you want to know the way of looking beautiful? Because I will tell you where you will find it...You will find in God's word, The Bible. God has a definition of beauty for every women no matter what her culture is in the world. It's a beauty that radiates from the inside out, and it delights the eyes of the Lord and the lives of people it touches.
The Bible says that Esther was a beautiful women, but had competition for the crown. What was it about Esther that made her different, a difference that caught the king's eye?
1. She loved the Lord
2. She took advice from her elders that she trusted. (Esther 2:20)
3. She wasn't all about her looks, Esther was herself. (Esther 2:15)
4. She was smart.
5. She cared more about doing what was right then being attractive and liked. She risked her own life to save the lives of her people. (Esther 4:11-16)
Esther's beauty is a true example of the verse in Proverbs 31:30 "Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised."

Don't let the world tell you your not beautiful. I had a friend once tell me when I was down on my self image that when we look at other people and think "Oh, she is really pretty I wish I could like her." there is other women thinking the same about you. Be Beautiful! Be who God made you to be, love yourself. Don't make the "beautiful" of our world what it's all about because that's not the true beauty, that's just temporary. Be God's definition of Beautiful! It's allot less painful. You need to be who YOU are. Are you following the crowd's definition of what it takes to be beautiful or are you following God's? Know that you ARE loved and you ARE beautiful. Be sure to read Psalm 139 and try to memorize it. Confidence gives you a beautiful glow! Just remember challenges are attractive to guys. If you're showing your body, you're advertising it, not accentuating your beauty.
You're not ment to blend in with everyone else, your ment to shine bright like the brightest start in the night sky. Your ment to be the brightest flower in the wild flowers. You're ment to be unique and original, in other words, being your self is the most beautiful thing.
It doesn't matter who has hurt you in the past or in the present, you are still loved by someone who loves you more then you will ever know and calls you beautiful! It doesn't matter what you have done, the Lord still calls you His beloved. It doesn't matter how big that scar is, the Lord kisses it with love and beauty! The Lord sees everything about you as beautiful! I'm starting to believe all the physical things I've complained about (my height, my weight, my scars) are all the things about me that the Lord loves.
Remember that Jesus loves you with an everlasting love! (Jeremiah 31:3) He has called you out from the darkness into freedom. (Psalm 107:4)

I'm going to dare all you women to be beautiful. Not in the way the world sees beauty but in the way God sees Beauty. I dare you to let the Lords love shine from your heart so bright! Be that brightest star in the night sky! Be the brightest colored flower in the field. You were originated in the mind of God; woven and spun into the living, beautiful masterpiece you are! Ladies YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!!! Let the World see the TRUE beauty!