My dh asked me last night if there was anything special I wanted for my birthday. I thought about it for a long time, and I don't think I ever came up with anything I could tell him. Being pregnant and, well, rather whale-shaped, I have decided if I could have anything I wanted for my birthday, I would like to feel absolutely, stunningly beautiful. Don't get me wrong - he tells me I'm pretty and all that sweet stuff. I just want to be able to look in the mirror and feel pretty. Or leave my house and not feel like a cow just getting in and out of the car. And it's not that I dislike being pregnant or want it over with. There are beautiful pregnant women out there. Just not me.
So after feeling sorry for myself for a while, I figured I'd better pull myself together and consult the manual. What does the Bible have to say about being beautiful and attractive?
The famous woman of Proverbs 31 teaches us that seeking physical beauty is vain in verse 30 - Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised. Instead, we are to fear the Lord.
Beauty can be only skin deep. Matthew 23:27 - Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. We can't be hypocrites and be truly beautiful. God knows how we really are, even if we manage to fool everyone else. We can't fool God.
Romans 10:15 says the feet of those who bring the Gospel of peace to others are beautiful. It won't make my swelling ankles go away, but it will make them beautiful in God's eyes.
Psalm 149: 4 - For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation. This verse goes even further and states that we become beautiful through salvation. We are all sinners and in need of salvation to be beautiful to God. We are to worship God in the beauty of holiness. (Psalm 29:2 - Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.) We're told to be holy many times (I Peter 1:16 - Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.), but now we find it makes us beautiful too.
There are other verses along the same vein all throughout the Bible, but the message is clear. Seeking after physical beauty is a waste of time. I guess some people are blessed with it and others are not. What I should be spending my time on is making myself spiritually beautiful and sharing that with as many as I can.
So what am I going to tell my dh I want for my birthday? I really have no idea. Do you?
No comments:
Post a Comment