True Beauty.

Somewhere along my journey with the Lord I have found something very near and dear to my heart. A message that I wish all girls could take and fully believe and live 100%. A message that I am striving to fully live out as well.

BEAUTY.

It has been instilled in every women the desire to feel beautiful, to be loved, to be confident in herself.

I have always struggled with self image. It's just been my battle. To be honest, my weight is always something hanging over me- I always strive to exercise more, eat better, etc. And when I fail (usually daily) it's hard for me to feel confident, to love myself, to feel beautiful. I've already posted about the "happy weight" that tends to creep up on you when you are truly happy and married... but this is my insecurity. I don't like to share it, because it honestly is a weak spot for me in my self confidence. With this being said, I know every women has something about her that keeps her from being CONFIDENT, from feeling BEAUTIFUL.

There are a million books out there that tells us as women to LOVE OURSELVES. To come to the place where we accept ourselves for who we are, the way God created us, just as we are. And to JUST BE CONFIDENT! Yeeeeea I wish it was that easy, but it's not. I've tried it a million times- just think "I'm ok the way I am". But somehow self pep talks just never seem to cut it for me.

But girls, there is a way to feel truly confident and truly beautiful. I have experienced this before.... The closer we are to God in our relationship with him, the more we begin to overflow with confidence, the feeling of being loved and sought after, and authentically beautiful.

I want to share with you some of my favorite author, Leslie Ludy, that has had enough of the world's way to finding confidence. I hope it opens your eyes to this subject as it did me. This comes from her book "Set-Apart Femininity".

Despite the well-meaning Christian campaign to boost the modern young woman's self confidence, the reality is that we do not possess anything beautiful or worthwhile in or of ourselves. If we obtain a worldly outer beauty, we only have a propped-up, hollow, fleeting appeal that quickly fades with time and age. As Proverbs 31:30 says, "Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing." And if we muster all the human heroism and try to become a "good person", we only have a self-made, faltering form of goodness that can never stand against the stunning righteousness of Jesus Christ.

At first glance, it may appear to be wonderful and even spiritual sounding message to discover our own beauty and learn to love and accept ourselves "just the way we are". But if we rely on something that we possess to make us beautiful, we cannot receive the supernatural, transforming beauty of Jesus Christ.

This is the whole point of the Gospel: the whole message of what Christ does for us. We must lay down everything of self and be overtaken by a power, strength, beauty, and grace that is wholly not our own. That's when we find the ability to live out the supernatural, divinely beautiful, valiantly herioc Proverbs 31 life that He has called us to live as set-apart women.

Our sinful, self-lovingature urges us to buy into the idea that in and of ourselves we are important, noticed, and captivating. Yet the truth of the Gospel is not based on our intrinsic loveliness, but the fact that Christ loved us even while we were yet sinners, naked and covered in our own blood and shame (see Ezekial 16:6).

Any human beauty, any human value that we might find within ourselves is just a filthy rag compared to the limitless beauty and glory of Jesus Christ. Christ's beauty is perfect. And, in spite of what we deserve, He desires to adorn us with is spectacular glory. He may choose to showcase His beauty through us in a unique way, through our own individual personalities or the special gifts He has given us. But it is not our unique beauty that must shine for this world to see. It is not our own beauty that we must discover and embrace-- it is His.

We will not overcome our insecurities and gain the sparkling confidence we long for by singing "The Greatest Love of All" or reading books that exhort us to "live out our own beauty". And we will not become world-changing, set-apart women by letting "self flash off frame and face." The secret to becoming the radiant, beautiful, alluring, lily-white princess of childhood dreams is forgetting all about self and becoming completely consumed with only one thing-- Jesus Christ.

How encouraging that is to me today! I don't have to look to my self, as I do all too often, to find confidence. But rather I can look to my Jesus, and as I fall more in love with Him he gives me a true confident radiance and beauty that can only come from Him. My prayer is that as women, we can all give our insecurities to Him and allow Him to begin transforming our lives, attitudes, and confidence.

"If a soul has any beauty, it is because Christ has endowed that soul with His own, for in ourselves we are deformed and defiled! There is no beauty in any of us but what our Lord has worked in us." - Charles Spurgeon

Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens.
-Song of Solomon 2:2