Fail Proof Beauty Enhancer: Pick the Right Beholder

Can you recall the topic of your latest inner conversation?  You know what I mean, don’t you?  The last thing you thought about yourself and said to yourself? Even though I may not know you personally, I’ll bet what occupied your mental air space was negative self-talk.  And most likely it had something to do with your looks – with how beautiful you think you aren’t.  And if so, you’re not alone.  A recent Glamour magazine poll revealed that 97% of the women surveyed thought negative thoughts about themselves on a daily basis…some up to 100 times a day.

This self-sabotaging is insanely tragic, don’t you think?  And I’m pretty sure I know a way to stop the insanity.  Think about this: If the old saying is true - that “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” then let’s make darn sure we’re picking the right beholder!

I’d venture to say that for most of us the beholder we’re looking to is our society – a big group of people comprised of total strangers who have no idea who we are or what we have to offer.  Movies, television, magazines…our beholder.  Unreal and unrealistic.

Let’s make a switch – a switch to the only truly trustworthy, completely kind, and only perfect Beholder…our Creator.  After all, He’s the one who knows everything about us (including the number of hairs – gray or otherwise – on our heads) yet still thinks nothing but good about us.

Take a look at this:

Psalm 139:14-18a - I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.  My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand.

Vogue magazine might think we are too fat or that we are too short or that we have such unsightly crow’s feet.  But our God…well, He thinks we are wonderful…marvelous…precious.  And I choose to believe Him.  How about you?

A Nightmare and a Promise

I love the smell of a new book. I get a special little thrill at starting a fresh journal. I even love opening a new Word document. Okay, admittedly, I’m an easily amused nerd. But I truly think there’s something more to this nerdy love of mine. I think deep in my heart, what I really love is the idea of a clean slate…a new start…another chance. I don’t just love it, I desperately need it. Don’t we all? I blow it so many times a day, every day. And this is only counting what I do openly. If you add my thought life into the mix, I’m one hot mess! Have you ever had the heart-stopping nightmare that all of your deepest thoughts were being projected on the front screen at church? On a packed Sunday? The music suddenly stops. You can hear a pin drop, and then ushers rush you from all corners of the room to immediately escort you out of the sanctuary…for good. You have finally been exposed for the creep that you are. Well, I’ve had that nightmare…and I’m glad it’s just that. I’m glad my Heavenly Father isn’t that kind of Dad – one who delights in taking the lid off all our “stuff.” No. Our Dad’s love covers.

Lamentations 3:22-23 tells us this: Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed (or thrown out of church), because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

God’s mercies are new every morning! New…like a fresh journal…a new Word document…this new blog of mine. New.

And His compassions don’t fail. Compassions in the Hebrew refers to the kind of feelings a mother would have toward her infant baby…almost a pitying and very tender kind of love. It’s like God is saying, “Bless her little messed up self.” He adores me every morning no matter what.

I love that. Don’t you love that?