What Every Girl Needs to Know About Her Outward Appearance
By: Kristen Clark
Her hair was long and beautiful. It was thick and luscious. As she highlighted my hair in the salon, I couldn’t help but compliment her.
“I just love your hair!” I said enthusiastically. I expected her to accept my compliment with satisfaction, but she didn’t.
“Oh…thanks!” she said laughing out loud. “It’s actually not my hair…well, at least not most of it.”
I raised my eyebrows in surprise.
“Yeah, it’s actually mostly hair extensions. My real hair is short and thin.” She said with a wink.
She went on to explain how their salon offered a high quality fusion hair extension service.
They would fuse real pieces of hair onto the ends of the clients hair to give them a natural looking set of long locks.
“And it only costs around $1,000,” she said matter of factly. “And you only have to re-fuse every few months.”
By the time I left that salon I could have signed up for fusion extension, eyelash extensions, a tanning membership, bi-weekly pedi/mani package, and a weekly cellulite massage treatment.
For a couple thousand dollars a month, I too could be beautiful.
That little conversation reminded me of how crazy the beauty industry is in this modern age. As women, we’re offered every product and treatment to fix all of our “imperfections.” We’re offered solutions to get our dream body and finally achieve lasting beauty.
Sadly though, despite our billion dollar beauty industry, women and girls are feeling less beautiful than ever before.
With all of the beauty products available to us today, we should be the happiest and most satisfied females in the history of the world.
But we’re not.
In fact, if you asked any female today if she loved everything about her physical appearance, she would probably say no.
Let’s make it personal. If you stood in front of a mirror right now, would you see all of your flaws? Would you focus on all of your imperfections?
Sadly, as modern girls, most of us are extremely insecure and discontent with our physical bodies because we’ve been lured into a sneaky lie. We’ve bought into the lie that physical beauty comes in a one-size-fits-all mold.
We see the female movie stars, we see the magazines, we see the billboards. We look at the women that society upholds as “beautiful” and then try to squeeze our bodies into their mold.
Without even realizing it, we try fit into our culture’s mold for physical beauty.
And if we don’t measure up in certain areas (not tall enough, not short enough, not skinny enough, not tan enough, not toned enough), we become discontent.
And that discontentment will drive some of us to do whatever it takes to fix the “problem.”
Even if our beauty “problem” gets fixed, we will still find ourselves discontent about something else. The carrot of perfection is always just out of reach.
Thankfully, God had something much better in mind when He created our physical beauty.
The one-size-fits-all mold is the last thing God desired when He created us!
Our God is a creative God and had a plan when he chose to make each woman look different. Instead of making every woman the same, he handcrafted each of us to look beautifully different.
Psalm 139:13-14 reminds us that God handcrafted us in our mother’s womb and that we are fearfully and wonderfully made in His image!
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
God chose to create us to be beautiful in our own unique ways.
Some of us have been handcrafted with brown hair, blonde hair, red hair, blue eyes, brown eyes, long legs, short legs, large frames, small frames, etc.
Each of us have been handcrafted by our Creator to the look just the way we do! And it’s a beautiful array of colors!
God didn’t handcraft us to look different, only for us to decide that we should all look the same.
Think of it this way.
Flowers are beautiful and unique each in their own way. We can appreciate and enjoy the sunflower for its unique beauty and at the same time appreciate the rose for its unique beauty. They look nothing alike, but they’re both beautiful.
Flowers come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, but they’re each beautiful in their own way.
Our world wouldn’t be as colorful if every flower was the same. Now imagine if all the flowers decided they should look like the sunflower…how boring would that be?! They are each handcrafted by God and carry their own unique beauty.
We, as women, are the exact same.
Our differences create a beautiful bouquet of colors that would not be there if we all looked the same.
Instead of trying to fit a one-size-fits-all mold for beauty, we need to take a step back and remember this flower example. You are a beautiful woman created by God and your physical appearance is a reflection of God’s creativity.
Instead of buying into the endless lies of our culture, let’s instead thank our Creator for loving us enough to give us beautiful and individual looks. Let’s thank our Creator for giving us unique bodies that each reflect a beautiful part of His creativity.
You are beautiful just the way God created you, and He says you are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Do you believe Him? Next time you look in the mirror, choose to thank God for handcrafting you to look the just the way you do. Beautiful. Unique. Special.
Share your thoughts with me below.
In what ways have you struggled with embracing your outward appearance?Leave me a comment below and let me know one unique thing about your physical appearance that you’re grateful to God for.
For an in-depth study on God’s amazing design for beauty, check out our book, Girl Defined: God’s Radical Design for Beauty, Femininity, and identity.
Article from: GirlDefined
