How many of you wonderful ladies have ever looked in the mirror and wished you had seen something or someone else instead of yourself? Maybe you’re not happy with who you are because you’ve grown so accustomed to watching other women. Not just watching either. Wishing...Wishing that you were as beautiful as her, wishing you were as talented, or as career-driven as she is. Wishing that you could get a guy's attention like she can. Wishing, wishing, wishing. I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but wishing to become someone else will get you nowhere. In fact, if you wish long enough, you might just wish yourself away.
Somewhere between the mirror and the initial comparison is a bottomless pit where self-worth lies. When you continue wishing you are someone else, your true identity becomes misplaced. Call it an identity crisis. If you wish to be like another woman, you might begin to mirror her actions. If she can be beautiful with all that makeup and just the right kind of outfit, so can you. If she can be talented by taking piano lessons, so can you. If she can be career-driven by taking college classes, so can you. If she can get a guy's attention by flirting it up, so can you. The sad reality of this kind of thinking is the “you” at the end of every sentence. When you pattern your life after someone or something else, there is little left of you. You become someone you’re not just because you’re not happy with who you truly are.
In Hollywood, the most "beautiful" actresses or models are the skinniest, the ones with perfect hair, the ones with a guy on each arm, the most talented, the elegant...Need I go on? That’s enough to make a woman feel insecure. Plastered perfection is better to look at than to internalize. But what do we, as women, do? We internalize every poster girl we see because that’s just who we are. We want to feel and be beautiful and there’s nothing wrong with that...until it consumes your life so much that you lose yourself in the process. Your sense of self-worth is not measured by the reflection in the mirror. Beauty is so much deeper than skin deep. Beauty, at its core, is a woman who loves Jesus and serves Him with her whole heart. I know that physical beauty matters to us and we should strive to look our best, but don’t let your idea of beauty stop there. What is in your heart? Do you love Jesus and others with everything inside of you? Does it show on the outside? That’s where your self-worth and your beauty is found. When you find confidence in Christ, it shines from the inside out. Your inner beauty is more important to God than outward beauty.
1 Peter 3:3-4
3.Whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel.
4. But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
Now, let’s not raise hands on this one, but how many of you have felt less than or unwanted because of something a guy said to you? You have probably experienced this at least once in your life. Women care what men think. We care what everyone thinks, but even more so when it comes to the opposite gender. When a man tells a woman she’s beautiful, it validates her sense of self-worth. It’s no secret to us that we want men to call us beautiful. That doesn’t mean we can’t feel beautiful without them telling us. It breaks my heart that my generation of women and the ones following have become so consumed by the culture that they believe they need a guy in their lives to feel worthy or beautiful. Why is it so hard for women to believe they are beautiful without someone else telling them? I think the answer to that question lies within each of us. There isn’t one straightforward answer because every woman has different struggles. When will we finally start to believe we are beautiful? What will it take before we don’t have to hear other people say it to believe it?
The truth is, you have to believe it for yourself. You can know your value without becoming arrogant. You can look in the mirror without seeing someone else. You can be truly happy without modeling your life after a woman you believe is beautiful. You can start to believe this truth about yourself! It may be a long road for you, but look for your your worth in Christ instead of another woman. Search Scripture to find out what God thinks about you. God created you in His image. You are worth it. You are beautiful. You are loved. You are amazing! Don’t worry about anyone else. It takes a lot more courage to be you than it does to be a copy. Just be(you)tiful.