Beauty.

Posted bySteven WalesPosted inBeautyTags:, , , , , ,

Actor Sidney Poitier said something that amazed me. He grew up with no running water, no electricity—and no mirrors.

“I didn’t know what a mirror was until I was ten years old.  I never thought about what I looked like.”

CAN YOU IMAGINE!?  Poitier grew up surrounded by people who ignored appearances.  Contrast that with today’s visually-obsessed children, drowning in a world of online images where vicious people judge looks as hatefully as possible.  I wonder who had the happier childhood?

Of course, Americans have long been obsessed with appearances.  We are so shallow looks affect not only romance, but friendships, hiring decisions, and more. 

But what does God say?

Proverbs 31:30 says, “BEAUTY IS VAIN [empty], but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.”  Beauty is meaningless, yet how often do we let someone’s beauty get us into trouble?  The Bible provides good examples of two handsome men who were unreliable.  Saul was “tall, dark, and handsome,” but repeatedly failed to obey the Lord. Absalom was “the most handsome man in Israel,” and died leading a rebellion against his father, King David.  Beauty is vain.

Peter says find your beauty not in hair, jewelry, or clothes, but on the inside. Cultivate “the unfading beauty of a gentle spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight” 1 Peter 3:3-4.  There’s nothing wrong with looking your best, but your priority should be INNER BEAUTY, a gentle spirit.  After all, you were CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD.  There is nothing lacking in the beauty He gave you. So take baths. Wear clean clothes that will not fall apart.  But focus on the heart.

And FOCUS ON THE HEARTS OF OTHERS.  God told Samuel to look at the heart.  “Do not look at his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. For God does not see as man sees.  MAN LOOKS ON THE OUTWARD APPEARANCE, BUT THE LORD LOOKS ON THE HEART” 1 Samuel 16:7. 

“God does not see as man sees.  MAN LOOKS ON THE OUTWARD APPEARANCE, BUT THE LORD LOOKS ON THE HEART.”

God, train us to ignore appearances and look deeply at the heart.

ΑΩ

Published by Steven Wales

Dad's Daily Devotional began as text messages to my family. I wanted my teenagers to know their father was reading the Bible. But they were at school by then. Initially, I sent them a favorite verse or an insight based on what I read each day. That grew into drafting a devotional readng which I would send them via text. I work as an attorney and an adjunct professor, and recently wrote a book called HOW TO MAKE A'S.

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