True Beauty

I got glasses and braces in the same year.
The same year in my young life when I felt awkward anyway.
Back then, glasses were a necessity not a fashion statement.
Braces were silver and thick and left your mouth tasting like metal.

That was a difficult year.
I was changing and becoming a woman.
I didn’t understand what was going on inside of me, let alone understand the outside.
You’re beautiful, my mother would say, with my aunt always agreeing.

They have to say that, I would tell myself.
However, what I heard did not match how I felt.
They were the children of the Depression; they didn’t mince words.
They learned frugality and hard work; they had no time for frivolity.

So when a compliment came from their lips, you learned to take it.
Take it but not necessarily believe it.
Such an awkward time, with the promise that the blossoming was indeed happening.
It was just a matter of time.

I remember sitting in class right after I got my braces.
A boy sat in the desk in front of me.
Our row of desks was next to the window.
He would constantly turn around, look at me, and then turn back.

What’s wrong? I asked him one day, trying desperately not to get caught talking.
There is a glare, he said.
What glare? I asked him innocently.
Your braces are reflecting the sun and it’s getting in my eyes.

I was too much of a lady to punch him like my hand wanted to do.
I was too old to cry like my heart needed to do.
I just sat there, and he turned around and giggled.
Sticks and stones…clubs and boulders.

As I looked around, I noticed that everyone was going through the same changes.
It just feels as if you’re the only one at the time.
I cannot imagine the feelings of awkwardness without a safe place to come home to.
A place of acceptance, encouragement, and love.

Many young people do not have others in their lives that will affirm them.
Many young people are expected to perform, excel, master, and accomplish.
They begin to believe that the externals are the most important things.
The internals can be dismissed because no one sees them anyway.

They may be flattered, but they are not necessarily affirmed.
There is a huge difference between the two.
Flattery is usually about the outside, about acceptance, about fitting in.
Affirmation is much more; it is about character, about the essence of who we are.

Young people without consistent affirmation will learn to promote themselves.
They promote themselves to alleviate their awkwardness and gain flattery.
They will assess what their assets are and then go at it.
They begin a marketing campaign.

Culture will teach them what to promote.
Print ads, television, and magazine covers will give them tutorials on marketing.
There is no time in this fast paced world of ours to consider the inside.
That can come later, if it is ever considered at all.

The problem with externals is that you never measure up.
You are comparing your apples to their oranges.
Externals provide you with a clipboard of items you can check off.
It is window dressing with no substance.

It takes time to find the inner beauty.
It takes time to peel back the layers.
In the age of selfies, we are only a click away from the best possible picture of ourselves.
We pout and frown and make flirtatious faces and think that makes us beautiful.

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. (1 Peter 3:3,4)

Unfading beauty.
Lasting beauty.
Beauty that is not marketed or promoted.
Beauty that is quietly there.

Beauty in countenance.
Beauty in demeanor.
Beauty that comes from deep within and spills over.
Beauty that is undeniable.

Beauty that is from the Lord.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Beauty that we make, promote, or market is fleeting; here today and gone tomorrow.
Beauty that is from God is lasting, matching the eternity He has set in our hearts.
We are not made for this world; so our true beauty is totally other.
Inner beauty permeates every crevice of our being.

We exude His beauty.
Others, who may not know Him, see that intangible something.
They want that something they see in us for themselves.
That gives us an opportunity to tell them of the Hope that we have.

We proclaim that all we are, on the outside and the inside, is because of Him.
The plainest person is actually stunningly beautiful when His Spirit resides in their heart.
The beauty of the Lord is captivating.
When the beauty of the Lord is seen in a person, you want to be around them.

As you see His beauty so clearly in another person, can you imagine how beautiful He is?
We will spend eternity basking in the light of His beauty.
We will spend eternity never tiring of looking at His face.
We will spend eternity with True Beauty.

What joy!
No marketing.
No promotion.
Just pure joy in the beauty of the Lord that we will see face to face, forever.

That is what we have to teach our young people.
That is what we need to remind ourselves.

Lasting, enduring beauty comes from the inside as His Spirit dwells in you.
You are so beautiful, in Him.