Part II – We take care of our temple
This is a three part series about how we taught young girls about beauty this past Wednesday.
In the previous post we looked at how God created us like He wanted us. We are his workmanship and He takes great pleasure in his artistry of each human being.
1 Corinthians 6:19
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
Do you realize that you and I are God’s church? Jesus was condemned by the religious leaders for saying He would destroy God’s temple and rebuild it in three days. “But He was speaking of the temple of His body.” John 2:21
Look at your hands. Look at your eyes. Look at your face in the mirror.
God made you beautiful
God has a plan and purpose for you, in fact, God crafted us when we were still in our mother!
Psalm 139:13
For You formed my inward parts;You covered me in my mother’s womb.
So, we were made by God. When we despise our chin (in my case my chins), our face, our freckles, our hair, our anything, then we are criticizing the God who loves us and made us.
Does that mean we just leave ourselves like we are and don’t do anything to be more beautiful?
How did God take care of His temple?
God took care of his temple in the Old Testament. In the temple were beautiful fabrics, gold, silver, bronze, beautiful woods, and the most lovely things. Priests had to make sure they were clean. Certainly God means for us to take care of ourselves.
In Proverbs 31 we learn about a “virtuous wife.”
22 She makes tapestry for herself;
Her clothing is fine linen and purple.
We could spend days learning about her, but this points out that she wears nice clothes. She takes care of herself. We also learn that her beauty is more than just outward as:
30 Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,
But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
31 Give her of the fruit of her hands,
And let her own works praise her in the gates.
Pretty is as Pretty Does
My grandmother always said, “Pretty is as pretty does.”
Beauty is much more than how we look.
If we work on having a beautiful outside but have an ugly heart, when “beauty passes” we will truly be ugly. The most beautiful, ageless women I know have a beautiful heart and do good to others all of the days of their life. They have a true, deep beauty that cannot be measured.
Care but do not worry
We take care of ourselves but we don’t worry about our attire if it is beyond our means or opportunity at the moment.
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Matthew 6:28-29
My first cousin got married this past weekend. Oh, how I wanted a new dress! I prayed about it and found a beautiful lace, designer, top for way below retail price about four weeks a go. I had another designer skirt that matched it perfectly! I went to my sister’s house and she handed me a beautiful beaded shawl that was perfect. My husband said I looked like a million dollars and I felt like it. For, my Lord attired me on Saturday. I didn’t worry about it because He told me He had it under control…and He did.
A Jesus sized hole in our hearts
It is easy to attempt to fill the hole in our heart with things other than Jesus. Sometimes when I am hurting I try to stuff food in there, but it doesn’t work. I often try to stuff in little odds and ends from Wal-mart or TJ Maxx. Guess what?
In my heart there is a Jesus sized hole that only one thing can fill…Jesus.
So, yes, I should take care of myself. Yes, I should dress as nicely as possible. But, I should waste away wishing for every fashion I see in a magazine but rather work do for others in kindness and gentleness so that I have a beautiful heart to go with a beautiful exterior.
How to be beautiful forever!
Everything I have belongs to my Lord. Beauty is indeed passing. I want to look nice, but I know that if I let all I am be wrapped up in my looks then I am setting myself up for great sadness.
Take care of your beauty. But, remember to cultivate beauty from within that will make your face grow with beauty that is illuminated from within.