The most beautiful work of art: You!

This past Wednesday in Girls in Action (the weekly missions training program for young girls at our church) we had one of my favorite things, a Beautiful Wednesday. For just three days out of the whole year we teach about inner beauty AND answer questions about fashion, haircare, or another item of outer beauty. During that time I always teach a lesson on beauty. My Mom was there and she said it was one of her favorite weeks of GA’s ever (and she’s been doing GA’s for a long time). I thought you might want to be a fly on the wall.

Keep in mind, we had already passed out combs to the girls (that we bought from the Dollar Store) and they were combing out their hair as I talked. I’ve split the lesson into three parts and will share with you this lesson over three days.

Part 1 – You are Wonderful Workmanship!

The Myth of Magazines
The world would like to tell you that beauty is being young, being thin, having perfect hair, being rich, having perfect clothes, and the perfect boyfriend. Look at the teen magazines that you read. Do you think they are cool?

They answered “yes.”

Do you know who writes those magazines?

They answered “other kids” and “teenagers.” To which I stated “no.”

Think about it, kids and teenagers are in school, aren’t they? The people who write those magazines are adults like me, some of who are much older than you. The fashion designers aren’t teenagers and some of the best are MUCH older than you. Many of the people who write in those magazines are trying to get you to buy things, so of course they want you to think you have to spend money to be happy because they want your money.

You can never have enough stuff
There was a woman I saw on TV (I was thinking of Corizon Aquino formerly of the Phillipines) who said that she could never have enough shoes. She had a closet bigger than this room and yet she said she never had enough.

Remember, girls, you can never have enough of those things to make you happy. We do not find happiness in the things we buy and the clothes we wear.

We go out in the spring and buy all new clothes. By the end of the summer we say “I have nothing to wear.”

Did we wear our clothes out? Are they gone? No, we are tired of them and they don’t make us happy any more and we want new ones! This is the way the world works.

John 8:32
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

When we learn the truths of God, we can be set free from this endless loop of wanting “stuff.” We can see just how beautiful GOD thinks we are.

Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

A work of art with a purpose
Now, girls I want you to look at this chair. I held up a small Sunday school chair. This chair is just thrown together to sell for someone to sit in. It has a purpose but it is not a work of art. When the world WORKMANSHIP is used it is talking about an artist.

You are the work of an artist. God made you like you are. He selected your hair color, he selected your eye color, he made you with a short or long nose, and he decided whether you would have freckles or not. He knows every detail about you and planned it before time begain. In fact, the Bible says.

Matthew 10:30
And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

So, God has a purpose for you AND He also created you just like He wants you. God thinks you are beautiful! He made you just like He wants you!

Real People aren’t Perfect
I once saw a model on a TV Show and they were showing some magazine covers of her and commenting on her beauty and the host said “Boy I wish I looked like that.” The model said, “I wish I looked like that too.” She went on to say that so many of the photographs are “doctored up” to hide blemishes or a hair out of place or to make the model look thinner that the cover of a magazine is more like a doctored up photograph than a picture of a real person.

That is why animated films can always be sniffed out. The characters are “too perfect” to be real. Real people, even models, get bumps, have bad hair days, and gain weight sometimes. Real people get older. If we’re only created to be beautiful when we’re young,then why not only let us live 21 years. That is not so! Beauty is so much more than being perfect!

God Created You Like He Wanted You
So, God created you like He wanted you. After God creates things, this is what he says:

Genesis 1 tells us this
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

After God created them, He said,

” 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”

Everything else, he said it was “good” but now, God says “it was very good.”

So, after God made you just like He wanted you, He said that “you are very good.”

He created you just like He wanted you. The way you look is what He planned from the beginning of time. He is a craftsman and took great pleasure in planning out how you would look. Who are we to debate Him but we must accept our own bodies as a gift from the God who loves us.

Does this mean we don’t take care of our bodies? No.

(Part II – Why we make ourselves beautiful.)

Lord, bless our GA’s. Guide us to teach them correctly. May we learn to cultivate our own inner beauty as we care for our outward beauty. Bless the missions education programs and may we remember their importance as we equip missionaries and missions supporters for the future. In Jesus name. Amen.