It seems many in our culture are obsessed with beauty these days. It is my humble and inexperienced opinion that humans have always been so. We are in awe of the beautiful and lovely. We are attracted to something pleasing to the eye or the ear. We gravitate toward what we see as beautiful. People around the world spend millions of dollars and countless minutes arranging themselves, creating a pleasing surface. Depending on the culture, we lose or gain weight to become the accepted type. Men take steroids; girls go on diets, and sometimes, it's the other way around.
I was reading in 1 Peter 3 a while ago, and it mentioned a Pentecostal verse if I've ever heard one: [speaking to women] Don't let your beauty consist of outer adornment, such as a great hair-do or pretty jewelry or fashionable clothes. Instead, let your beauty come from the unfading beauty of a meek and quiet spirit - this is a jewel of great price. Submit yourselves to your husbands, as Sarah did, calling Abraham "Master". [Obviously, I'm paraphrasing.]
Proverbs 31 -- "Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord, she is to be praised."
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Beauty
Physical v Internal Beauty
This could be directed towards women, but also it can be for guys. Why is it so hard for us to stop seeking external attractiveness?
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2 comments:
I believe God "programmed" us to love and appreciate beauty. That's why we'll travel many miles to visit the mountains or see the fall foliage.
So it's natural for us to desire physical attractiveness, which usually takes some effort and grooming. Even the Garden of Eden required Adam to work on it (see Gen 2:15). Peter was simply warning us not to get our priorities reversed. Spiritual things must be first, then we take care of the physical.
I did not like this following quote one bit:
Don't let your beauty consist of outer adornment, such as a great hair-do or pretty jewelry or fashionable clothes. Instead, let your beauty come from the unfading beauty of a meek and quiet spirit - this is a jewel of great price. Submit yourselves to your husbands, as Sarah did, calling Abraham "Master". [Obviously, I'm paraphrasing.]
Do you really believe that beauty comes from being a meek and quiet spirit? That a woman's true beauty comes from her submissiveness?
What an archaic and, quite frankly, stupid remark! I, as a brother to a beautiful, passionate and daring young woman would be absolutely appalled to hear my sisters beauty berated for not being "meek" enough.
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