Beauty Secrets

I read a quote yesterday that I really liked that said, “inner beauty needs no makeup” and it’s true even though the beauty industry does multiple billions in annual sales. One article said the average woman spends over $15,000 over the course of her lifetime on cosmetics. With all the ads for mens hygiene products on the market this Christmas I don’t think men are too far behind. I was listening to a teaching not long ago on marriage where the pastor was speaking about inner beauty verses external beauty and said humorously, “Even a barn looks good with a fresh coat of paint.” The point he was making was about value and where we invest our time and effort and energy in taking care of ourselves. Do we focus on our inside or the outside?

The apostle Paul told wrote to Timothy, his young student about priorities and had this to say, “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” I’m pretty sure that the apostle Paul was thinking about men here but the truth would apply to women as well just as focusing on the inner person of the heart would apply just as much to men as it does to women. Still, the apostle Peter who himself was married has something to say about true beauty when he writes specifically to women, “You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.” Point being, true beauty lies within.

Proverbs 31 is a familiar passage that defines a virtuous wife and is important to note it was spoken by a woman, not a man, who was teaching her son what to look for in a wife. Verse 30 tells us, “Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised.” In other words she was telling her son to look beyond a beautiful face as it were when searching for a wife and look for beauty that is more than skin deep. Men and women aren’t born with inner beauty, it’s developed over time and the older we get the more beautiful we can become for the simple fact, inner beauty never gets old.   “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen."

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