Day 1: What does beauty mean to you?

Beauty, according to Merriam Webster is:
1. The quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit.
2. A beautiful person or thing; especially a beautiful woman.
3. A particularly graceful, ornamental, or excellent quality.

Well, I can honestly say that if those are accurate, I definitely don't have that graceful thing down. Let's look somewhere else for a definition.

1 Peter 3:3-4, "Do not let your adorning be external - the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear - but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious."

To be completely honest, beauty is something that is hard to define. If you ask most people today, they will most likely tell you about physical qualities that they believe are beautiful, but have you ever met someone who is physically very attractive and then they open their mouth? Yeah...me, too. It is kind of unfortunate that our culture spends so much effort trying to make the outside beautiful when it is really the inside that needs the work.

To me, beauty is found in so many different areas of life. I have met some amazing women in the work I used to do whom the world would look on with disgust, and yet, they were some of the most beautiful and inspiring women I have ever come in contact with. They all had this spirit of allowing God to be what shone through them, and it was amazingly beautiful.

Beauty is found in the quiet at sunset on my favorite beach - the one I go to when I need to clear my head. It is found in the middle of a crowd of college students who are loud and not caring what others think of them as they worship their Savior. It is found in a hospital room with a mother and her newborn baby. It is found in a retirement home with the great grandmother who has lived longer than she wanted to and is ready to go home to her Savior. It is found in the life of that middle schooler who finally realizes that it isn't about what people think, but rather what God thinks. It is even found in the reunion of college friends after being away from each other for too long. Beauty is fluid. It cannot be contained. It cannot be defined.

When I think about beauty, I cannot help but be reminded of this verse:
Psalm 45:10-11, "Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear: forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him."

Have you ever thought of that? The king will desire your beauty - what beauty? Is it going to be the beauty that I make myself every morning when I get out of bed? Probably not. I'm guessing that this is referring to something deeper than make up and hair gel. I'm thinking that this is referring to something in the heart - something that is harder to attain than the beauty that is reflected in a mirror. I know that some people work very hard to make the mirror be their friend, but, really, does the mirror tell the whole story? I know that my mirror will tell me lies about my beauty. There are days when I'm absolutely hideous, but my mirror can make me believe that I am beautiful because I have done my make up just right and FINALLY found a product that works in my hair (I have curly hair, and sometimes it is the bain of my existence...but more on that later). My heart is sometimes not resting in God - sometimes it is attempting to rest in my outward appearance or how cute my shoes are. Sometimes it is worrying over the fact that I do not make a lot of money. Sometimes it is running rampant with bitterness and anger at things from my past. Sometimes it is desiring things that I do not yet have in my life.


I guess, in short, beauty can be a number of things to different people. It is one of those things that is hard to pin down, but it is also something that when you see it, you know. To me, beauty is resting in God and finding your hope in Him. He is the only one who can make an ugly heart beautiful, and a beautiful heart is something that will shine through to your appearance and actions.