What is Beauty? - A Dose of Encouragement

As ladies we hear a lot of talk about beauty, we see a lot of adverts about beauty and from an early age we are aware that most people will make a decision for themselves if we are beautiful or not!

So instinctively we know who decides about who is beautiful in this world but before let ourselves stay in this mindset about beauty we really should consider what beauty really is.

Or what is real beauty.

So 

WHAT IS BEAUTY?

Let's take a very quick questionnaire

Questionnaire   (with my personal answers)

Read through the questions and note your personal answers.

1.   What is your favourite colour?       Blue

2.   What is your favourite number?     4

3.   Which do you prefer?  odd nos. / even nos.    Even

4.   Do you like to have music played loudly or softly?    Softly

5.   What style of music do you prefer?   Classical

6.   Do you like spicy food?     No

7.   Do you prefer savoury or sweet?     Savoury

8.   Do you prefer dogs or cats?     Dogs

9.   What type of shapes do you prefer?   curvy / straight   Straight

10. Do you like to go to bed early or late?     Late

Did you agree with my answers?

When I did this short questionnaire with a group of women last month no-one agreed completely with my answers in fact not many of the ladies could find someone else in the group who were very similar in their answers (even though quite a few of these questions only had a choice of 2 answers).

Different Answers!

WHY?

Because we are all unique.

HENCE

We will not all agree on what is beautiful.

We all have our different preferences and likes and dislikes.

Sayings about Beauty     

Have you heard these sayings over the years?

You may have some other suggestions to add to this short list

a. Beauty of Creation - colours of the rainbow 

b. Beauty is only skin deep

c. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder

d. Beauty makes you smile 

e. She's a beautiful soul

f.  I don't know what he sees in her, she's no beauty!

(ok this last one may be a Northern Ireland saying)

But leading on from these sayings let me tell you:

The Story of my face when Fred told me he loved me. 

Briefly:

At a youth camp I was fond of Fred and I thought from previous times that he may have been fond of me but I  thought there may have been someone else who was also fond of Fred!

But I had a very ugly and very large blistered patch on my cheek which everyone kept staring at. 

An ugly face which made other people stare at me but not Fred 

No idea if my face was going to be scarred for life, but that didn't stop him from loving me and telling me this at the end of the camp.

You can read more about this in What a Face!

Being physically ugly did not stop Fred from loving me

This always encourages me because it helps me to remember that:

• Being unsaved made us ugly in God's sight
• God just could not have us in His family because of our sin.
• However being unsaved didn't stop God from loving us
• So He sent Jesus to be punished & die in our place to replace the ugly sin in our lives with forgiveness  

Being physically ugly does not stop God from loving me!

But what is the real Beauty that God sees?

What 10 things can we learn from the Bible about Beauty?

1.   Is there a difference between physical beauty and Godly beauty?     

YES 

1 Samuel 16 v 7

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Proverbs 31 v 30

Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,

But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

 

 

2.   Can physical beauty be harmful?  Used wrongly?  Lead to sin? 

 

YES 

- lust  

2 Samuel 11 v 2

Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.

- pride 

Esther 1 v 10-11

On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus, to bring Queen Vashti before the king, wearing her royal crown, in order to show her beauty to the people and the officials, for she was beautiful to behold. 

  - lies 

Genesis 12 v 10 - 13

Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. 

And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance.

Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 

Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.” 

 

3.  Is physical beauty essential to becoming a Christian?

NO! beauty is never mentioned regarding salvation

 
Ephesians 2 v 4 - 5

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)
 

 

4.   How do we become beautiful in God's eyes?   

   Our beauty starts in our salvation.

 1 Peter 3 v 3-4

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,  

in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, 

the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,  

among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts 

of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

God could not have us in His kingdom because of our sin which had nothing to do with our physical beauty

and 

we had no Godly beauty because of sin in our lives before our salvation.

  

5.  How do we stay beautiful in God's eyes? 

  

By the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

2 Corinthians 3 v 18

 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

 

 

6.  What should we be focused on? 

  
  The marvellous God who created us
and
the attributes of goodness

the true, noble, just, pure, lovely goodness of God  

Philippians 4 v 8

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, 

whatsoever things are of good report, 

if there be any virtue and if there be any praise

think on these things.

  

 

7. What beauty are we to ultimately want to admire? 

The beauty of God

Psalm 27 v 4 

One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,

and to inquire in His temple

8.  Is Godly beauty essential to growth as a Christian? 

YES
 

The clue is in the sentence - Godly beauty must be beauty that reflects God hence it must be godly in nature so must take on the attributes of God.  The more we get to know God the more we will be changed by Him and we cannot be changed by God unless we show His beauty to others which means we must have His beauty within us.

9.   What were we created for?  

Good works

Ephesians 2 v 10

For we are His workmanship, 

created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
 

 

10.   What did God see in His finished creation? 

A likeness of God

Genesis 1 v 27

So God created man in His own image,

in the image of God created he him;

male and female created he them

God created man in His image 

so this would indicate that mankind was beautiful to God

However

God did not look at all of creation and record it as beautiful, 

instead God clearly recorded it in the Bible as being GOOD!

Genesis 1 v 31

And God saw everything that He had made,

and, behold, it was very good.

 

 

In God's eyes everything He created was good.

And it is logical that whatever is good in God's eyes 

is beautiful to God.

So Godly Beauty is Goodness.