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Customizing Big Cartel+A friend of mine wrote something few years ago which has touched me every time I’ve read it since. She sent it to a bunch of us girls in an email. I remembered it this morning when “Erin posted about vanity](http://lylium.org/2006/08/01/speaking-of-vanity/. My dearest friend, Nicole, is an awesome godly woman and always has some inspirational words. I’m still hoping she’ll get a blog of her own, but until then, she said I could post here:+
My prayer for today is that the Lord would increase the confidence of my girlfriends. That we would all begin to look at ourselves the way that the Lord looks at us, recognizing that charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Each of us are beautiful and have different assets that make us attractive, and that is a good thing.
“If I am the only woman in the world that doesn’t get plastic surgery before the return of Christ it will be fine by me.”
I cannot stand the thought of cutting open my body to look like the image of beauty as defined by society. Beauty is so much more then outer appearance and if women stop buying into the lie perhaps we would see a shift of what is presented to us by the media. May each of us begin to have confidence in the gifts that God has given and stop comparing ourselves to each other. If men want breast implants they can get them put on their own bodies.
We need to focus on what is important, what kind of a statement are we making to our daughters? “No dear you won’t look like this when you grow up, but if you save your money and get put to sleep, for a couple thousand you too can look pretty” What are we thinking? I want my daughters to know that they are beautiful and move on to deeper thoughts, like how can I bless someone else today? How can I impact the world around me with my mind, talent, etc.?
We are wasting our time and energy on something that is so stupid, not to say don’t take care of yourself because you represent God so be respectable, have class. The most attractive woman is one who is confident, one who stands tall and is smarter than the lie. My friends do not sell yourselves short, resist the temptation to compare yourselves and be confident in you are.
+Amazingly, today’s Bible Gateway verse of the day is 1 Samuel 16:7 “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”+
That’s nice. The fact is that some of us are unhappy with our natural features. Now, we can settle, and struggle all our lives to reach and maintain self-confidence. Or we can take some initiative and change what needs to be changed so we can be comfortable in our own skin (literally).
Personally, I’m happy with my own body right now. But I’m still young, and if I wrinkle up in ten years and decide I need Botox, then Botox I will get. I may as well take advantage of the wonderful achievements of modern science and allow myself to look as good as I feel. I do not devalue my intelligence, talents, or ethics. But I can either be stubborn about my physical appearence, or I can be progressive. It’s that simple.
Thanks, Emily. I feel for you. I know it can be difficult. I was always the thin one that women would pass on the street and sneer, saying, “must be nice” to be so thin and I still hated the way I looked. I never went so far as to say I was fat when I wasn’t, but I often said I wished I could gain weight and not look so boney. No one really understood that because they saw the outer beauty as most important, so what was I complaining about.
Today I’m 45 lbs heavier but also happier than I’ve ever been. Sure there are days I wish I could fit a size 12 again, but I know it doesn’t really matter what I look like. And for me to complain about 45lbs is sort of a slap in the face to the woman who is 100lbs overweight, or the man who would give anything to get rid of his burn-scarred face. It’s a complete waste of time, money and energy for me to surgically enhance my own vanity when so many others are much worse looking on the OUTSIDE than I am.
The bottom line is, if I get to a point where it takes science to make me feel good about myself, then nothing I could ever do to my body would ever cure my ugliness on the inside.