[Continuing our study of Psalm 27. We’ve looked at confidence, the fear of man and vision …glad you’re here today.]
“[The one thing I seek after is] to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple. For He will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will lift me high upon a rock.” v.4-5
David now moves from confidence in the face of fear to a resolute vision of the One True God. Here he continues unfolding this one thing he seeks, it is the abiding presence of God which includes gazing upon His beauty.
David is enthralled by the beauty of the Lord.
What is beauty?
Webster defines beauty as the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit; loveliness.
Simply put, beauty gives pleasure. No wonder we work so hard for it. We wanna have it ’cause men want to see it. Because it pleases men and we’re pleased when they’re pleased. Or, worse, we’re pleased when other women see that we’re what pleases men. As Beth Moore says, “No one checks out women like women check out women.” Isn’t that the truth?
But sadly, beauty has been all but mutilated beyond recognition in our society. In our world, beauty is a photoshopped image. Not even a real person, like this image of Madonna:
Isn’t that crazy?
No wonder we don’t feel beautiful! No wonder we’ve got insecurity issues!An article in Psychology Today reads,
“Women who are surrounded by other attractive women, whether in the flesh, in films, or in photographs, rate themselves less satisfied with their attractiveness–and less desirable as a marriage partner.”
Beth Moore adds,
“If we don’t learn to separate entertainment from identity and hyped images from real womanhood, our feminine souls are going to pass straight through the shredder.”
Beauty. It’s good. It’s created by God. We were created with a God-given desire for beauty. But beauty, like sex, has been so sadly perverted by sin in our world that we’ve lost the ability to see pure and holy beauty for what it really is:
A reflection of God.
That is beauty. All true beauty is simply a mirrored reflection of some facet of who God is. Because God is beauty. All that is truly beauty is some reflection of Him, all that is ugliness is some deviation or aberration of who He is.
The pursuit of beauty is a noble, worthwhile pursuit. The pursuit of self is not. David’s One Thing that he seeks is, in part, beholding the beauty of God. And everytime we create or cultivate true beauty in some form we enable God’s beauty to be beheld, both for ourselves and those around us.
But taking back a biblical definition of beauty takes a radical renewal of our minds, since they are bombarded by the perverted definition on a daily basis. We must therefore daily remind ourselves how beautiful our God is, and what things reflect true beauty. Such as:
Truth
Justice
Mercy
Compassion
Joy
Peace
Kindness
Patience
Courage
Faithfulness
Purity
What if we deliberately sought to surround ourselves with beauty? True beauty. Would we be kinder, more patient, more loving? What if we sought to beautify ourselves in this way? By walking in dignity, by ordering our lives, by rejoicing always, by remaining patient with others, by showing courage in the midst of fear. And most of all, reflecting the confidence of a woman who knows her God.
Wouldn’t we be beautiful?
Yes, because we would simply be a reflection.
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{How can you today seek to let your life be beautiful? To let all you do reflect the true beauty of our God? What might that look like, and wouldn’t it be a gift to our world? Thank you, friends, for reading.}
4 thoughts on “When you're looking for beauty”
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This is probably THE thing that I’m really trying to get my footing strong on at the moment. When I was 13 years old I got sucked in by a devastating eating disorder because of the kind of societal pressure you’re talking about. That was 13 years ago too, and even with a bachelor’s degree in gender studies, with amazing, empowering knowledge under my belt I couldn’t shake that eating disorder demon off my back.
I’m still in recovery, the early stages even. Relapses are rampant for me, and even now, even telling myself that I’m fearfully and wonderfully made just the way the Lord wants me to be, I can’t reconcile what I see in the mirror more than I can.
Being inundated with media of ‘flawless’ women certainly doesn’t help. I just pray that with the help of Jesus I’ll find my way to the right path back to loving my God-given form, and teaching my future children to do the same, without hesitation or doubt.
Great, meaningful post, Kari! God bless <3
Kirstin, Thanks so much for your honesty. Oh girl, I so understand. I am going to be praying for you and I would love to talk more because I’ve traveled a long path in that department and perhaps some little things can be an encouragement to you…? Also, I saw your beautiful blog — you are in Norway! Wow. Our hearts have gone out to you all in the midst of your current tragedy. Saw the posts and pics on your site and glad you and your family are all safe. Thanks again for commenting here — let’s be in touch, ok? Blessings, Kari
I realize, I’m about a year late in reading this amazingly and so wonderfully worded post… but, as it is almost exactly a year later, and it is a post that really put words to my eyes and to my heart and mind, I felt the need to comment. Kari, you have a way with words, that I have yet to see in many other bloggers. It’s as if, as a woman, you are able to articulate so well what most of us woman are thinking in our minds or possibly haven’t gotten quite to… but, desperately need/ed to.
Kirstin, I’m not sure if you’ll ever read this (as again, I’m a year late… which is quite typical, as I’m a notoriously late kinda gal), but I can very much sympathize with you. I also have struggled with a recurring eating disorder ~ with it not really taking precedent over other things in life, until I was close to 18 yrs. old. Then throughout college, I always thought about weight, compared myself to anyone and everyone, yet it wasn’t until later into my adulthood did it really take over.
Prior to having 2 children, around the age of 25, I was struggling through a significantly stressful time in life ~ just trying to find my way, decide what career path to take, desperately wanting to find that “someone” (which we all know is quite impossibly when you are desperately searching…:p), and I found myself losing weight, primarily due to stress & becoming preoccupied by various stressors. I remember the exact moment (as if it’s frozen in my memory forever), the exact person, where we were, what I was wearing, and the words coming out of this friend’s mouth “You look so great, you’ve lost some weight. You look like you’re feeling great.”
And, that was it. Greatness = Being Thin. Something I had tangled with a bit in the past,
but now it was on.
(in no way am I saying that what this person said places any role on my own decisions, nor were their comments made to be hurtful, or in any way other than saying that I looked good… so just FYI – I do remember each detail, but it’s the words and the way in which I TOOK THEM, not in who said them, or the meaning behind why they said them, rather the MEANING to which I took them).
I became obsessed with losing more weight, and was able to easily just by limiting calories and continuing to be as active as I had been.
However, this didn’t last long. My friends/some family reached out to me with concern, and I entered a program which helped me to realize what was it I was really seeking….
Fast forward to meeting my amazing husband, “the one”… getting married, and becoming pregnant with our first born. During the wedding craziness, I was so hyper focused on the wedding that I didn’t really focus on my weight (thank goodness), as well as when I was pregnant, I was overwhelmingly consumed with caring for my body in the best ways possible to benefit my baby. He was a healthy, over 10lb. bright blue eyed prince. I lost the pregnancy weight fairly quickly, just by staying active, taking him on walks every day, etc. I discovered I was pg. with baby #2, 9 days shy of our son’s first birthday. We were ecstatic… and I was ok with gaining pregnancy weight, and knew just as I had with my son, with hard work I would be able to get back to normal after having the baby in a healthy way. We were over the moon, when we had a baby girl.
When she was about 6 months old, I began to become really discouraged in the fact that the weight just wasn’t falling off as it had with my son.
I knew I couldn’t do anything too drastic, as I was nursing. So, I just ate incredibly healthy, and started losing weight at a normal pace. By her first bday, I was back to my pre baby weight. However, it was then that it didn’t feel like enough. I saw many other moms who were so thin, with kiddos younger than mine, and they looked so put together, and not only “beautiful in their thin figures”, but also in their designer jeans, and highlighted and trimmed every 6 weeks hair, etc. etc. etc. Anything I could find in them that was superior (in my mind) to me was something I wanted… and wanted desperately.
As began my full on relationship with an eating disorder. I quickly lost 60 lbs. in less than a year. It became to where, I was no longer trying to lose weight, but I didn’t know how to not. I was to fearful to begin eating normally b/c I def didn’t want to gain a ton of weight back. So, either way I was unhappy. Unhappy at my thinnest, unhappy at my heaviest.
And, like you Kirsten, I am still struggling. I was recently diagnosed with a chronic/autoimmune disorder that requires me to take steroids several times a day, on a daily basis to survive. Without them, my body could and will shut down.
But, I hate taking them… knowing that they’ve been a contributer in me gaining almost 30lbs. (making my weight to others, a normal healthy weight… but not to me). I feel so guilty in the fact that I have a medication that I can take daily to stay alive, and yet I hate taking it. When there are so many others out there, who don’t even have a medication choice ~ their disease will eventually take their lives much to soon.
I apologize if I shared too much, (the most I’ve shared with anyone… and on a public blog….!!!). But, this post really hit home with me. In that I need to change and really think about why and how I will go about changing my outlook on beauty. And, if not for myself, but for my gorgeous 3 year old daughter. She deserves a Mother who loves herself, and never says a negative word about herself and/or her body. Because those are words little girls don’t forget. And, I can’t fathom the thought of hearing some of the things I think/say about myself/my body come out of my sweet, perfect 3 year old, who is beyond perfection and beauty to me.
Thank you, Kari for sharing such a needed and sadly, “taboo” topic. If anything, you have placed much in my mind to really think about and challenge myself with. xxxx