Pages

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Beauty

This week I finished reading Anne Ortlund's book The Disciplines of a Beautiful Woman. In the last few pages, a verse that she was quoting stuck out to me so vividly that it made me stop reading altogether.

Let not your adornment be external only--braiding the hair, wearing gold jewelery, and putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit., which is precious in the sight of God. For in this way, the former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves. (1st Peter 3:3-5)
As I read this verse yesterday the word "only" just really jumped off the page at me. For some time now, I have been feeling bad about my appearance because so many women say that Godly women don't worry about what they look like on the outside. After reading this verse for the umpteenth time, I have a hard time believing that.

What Peter is trying to convey here is that we are not to be SO consumed with how we look on the outside that we forget to see how we look on the inside. He is telling us women that not only are you to be worried about your beauty on the outside, but take just as much care of the beauty that is inside of you.

Let's face it ladies. Our husbands do not like to look at ratty hair, stained clothes, unmade faces, and sourpuss looks all day. Men are visual--so why not give your man something strikingly visual to look at?

I promise God is not going to strike you dead for being concerned with what you look like on the outside--especially if it is to please your husband. In fact, God would most definitely be smiling and nodding in approval if you are doing something like this to make your husband a happy man.

Beauty is not bad--it is a good thing. God created beauty. So I am no longer going to worry about the fact that I love my makeup and I love to fix my hair and I most definitely love to buy clothes. As long as I am focused on my heart being right before God, He is okay with me making myself beautiful and presentable before my husband!

So I am off to go buy me a dress and new shoes and see if I can get my husband to go out on a date with his beautiful wife!




2 comments:

PACountryMouse said...

Great post! I enjoy reading your blogs a lot. They are so inspirational! Thank you for all the reminders on how to be godly women! :-)

Anonymous said...

I love this post! I am marking this verse as well! I ALWAYS believed that it never hurt to paint the old barn a bit! The outward should be a sign of the inward...and you can just tell when women only care about how they LOOK! I am enjoying your blog!