He is the creator of beauty.
God’s beauty is seen in His creation, multiplied through you and me, smelt through the freshness of spring and the crispness of winter, heard through a beautiful song or the resounding ocean waves, read and studied in the scriptures, manifested in marriage, portrayed through a child being born, alive in the moment of salvation and increased through process of sanctification.
Think about the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen… Perhaps a sunset, a mountain peak or a waterfall?
God says that you are MORE beautiful than that! You are the crowned jewel of His creation. But He’s not talking about your hair and skin, He’s talking about your heart and soul.
I have found great comfort and encouragement in this truth throughout the past 8 months as I have watched my belly grow and my skin struggle. Since finding out that we are having a baby girl, I’ve had many people tell me things like: “When you’re pregnant, girls steal your beauty and boys make you glow.”
I cringe every time I hear it… Pregnant moms should feel even more beautiful than they normally do because of the gift and blessing of God’s carrying new life inside of them (Psalm 127:3; 2 Timothy 2:15)!!! But the sad reality of our materialistic, image-driven world has tempted us to disregard God’s definition of beauty.
To all my girls out there (volume up) your beauty is not defined by your physical appearance!!!! If you’ve run in Christian circles (or really any sort of uplifting women encouragement circles,) for any length of time, this is probably not new news to you… and honestly, sometimes I get a little frustrated by the constant, “You are beautiful” slogans, blogs, books and advertisements. I think we need to let the truth of this statement sink in deeper than a quick feel-good reminder that “oh yeah, I’m beautiful, got it.” We need to really dig into who defines our beauty, what defines our beauty, and how we can become even MORE beautiful.
And don’t get me wrong here… There is nothing wrong with wanting to look physically beautiful, but our desire for outward beautify should never surpass our desire for inward beauty.
“But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.’” – 1 Samuel 16:7
Who do you let set your standard for beauty?
Your friends? Yourself? Social media? Marketing campaigns? Culture?
All these things have worked together to create an arbitrary definition of beauty. But God’s definition of beauty is resolute.
“Your beauty should not come from outward adornments, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” – 1 Peter 3:3-4
Satan smiles every time you think you need MORE makeup, or need to spend MORE time at the gym, or need to buy MORE expensive clothes, in order to be beautiful. Satan smiles when you spend more time in the morning “beautifying” your bodies than you do beautifying your soul. Satan smiles when you look in the mirror and wish you looked like _______ or see a photo of yourself and instantly want to Photoshop it.
The world we live in is relentlessly saturating our minds with the lie that we are not pretty enough, that no one will ever think we are beautiful, and that we need to change (insert laundry list of things about our bodies) in order to become beautiful. But God says that we should not be conformed by the pattern of this world (Romans 12:2). So to all those lies, and to all his smiles, please join me in saying, “Under my feet Satan!” (Romans 16:12). The Bible says that you are “more than conquerors in Christ” so live like it! (Romans 8:37)
When we invest money, effort, and time into our outward beauty, it may make us seem more beautiful for a time, but this kind of beautifying is ultimately temporal. Our earthly bodies are not immune to growing old and dying. In contrast, our hearts and souls will not wither and fade, they can actually grow more beautiful with age and time.
The Scriptures teach us that inward beauty is true and lasting. Inward beauty cannot be covered up with concealer, or photoshoped to be one size smaller… Inward beauty is eternal. The more we invest in our inward beauty, the more beautiful we will become in the eyes of the Lord. As mamma always said, “It’s God’s eyes that count.”
There will ALWAYS be MORE ways to make yourself outwardly beautiful, and there will ALWAYS be MORE ways to make yourself inwardly beautiful. Just know, you’re choosing between an eternal investment, and an investment with an end date and no payout.
So how do we become more inwardly beautiful?
We become more holy.
While we equate beauty to happiness, God equates beauty to holiness. “O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.” – Psalm 96:9
The biggest inhibitor to the beauty of holiness is the ugliness of sin. Instead of focusing so much on working out, loosing weight, saving up for that new dress, or trying everythinggggg to clear your skin, focus on becoming inwardly beautiful! Focus on repenting from the sin in your life and refusing to believe the lies of the enemy. Focus on holiness.
God can take your ugly messy insides and make them drop dead gorgeous. He wants to. He can heal the wounds you’re ashamed of and turn them into beautiful scars. As Isaiah 61:3 puts it, “…to give unto them beauty for ashes…”
2 Corinthians 3:18 says,“But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
We can ALWAYS become MORE inwardly beautiful because we can ALWAYS become MORE holy. From glory to glory… more and more. 1 Peter 1:15 instructs us, “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do…”
Encouraging scriptures:
“Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.” – Psalms 34:5
“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised” – Proverbs 31:30
Wow, I truly never knew this much about God’s beauty in us. I truly read this in awe, because I never knew about it. I always struggle with how I look about my body, but now I have a weapon. That weapon is God Himself. Letting Him show me the lies that the enemy spill about how I look on the outside. This is an amazing post, thank you for posting this. It really gave me the weapon to defeat the negative voices that the enemy keeps spilling to me. Thank you my dear
Audrey, thank you for sharing this beautiful message that was on your heart. I just love hearing more and more about God’s perspective on beauty! I think it’s so special to see a person’s face glowing: eyes lit up, smile wide, sweet laughter… to me that truly shows their inner beauty spilling outward. God’s joy makes us radiant… love Psalms 34:5!
Also, I’ve always heard that growing closer to God makes us more holy which in turn makes us more beautiful inside, but I was really in awe when I read 2nd Corinthians 3:18. It painted such a wonderful image in my mind that I needed to see.
Thank you! Praying for you and your growing family 🙂
Wishing I could’ve read this while in high school! Amazing thoughts, love how it was worded!
Audrey,
Thank you so much for teaching me more about God’s beauty! This is something I constantly struggle with! I let Satan tell me lies about myself and I let myself believe them! Thank you for this!
Wow I needed to hear this today. It’s not one of my best hair days and my skin is doing weird stuff. But being reminded that it’s my heart that holds true beauty is making me feel more beautiful already. Thank you so much for these words.
Great blog!!! This should be read by every woman. This really made me be thankful for what God’s given me. Inside and out.
Wow, I really needed to hear that! I tend to struggle with comparisons and just not loving myself for who I am. Instead, I need to focus on being more holy.
Such a wonderful post! We have a 5 month old baby girl and I definitely find myself looking in the mirror wishing I could shed just 5 more pounds or tell myself the bags under my eyes from lack of sleep make me look like a zombie. Us women are always so hard on ourselves. It’s so nice to be remind that the one who matters most thinks we are beautiful! I need to be reminded those few moments I’m criticizing my appearance, I should be read scripture and polishing my inner beauty to be a light for my daughter. I want my daughter to know she is ALWAYS MORE!
This was very beautiful and inspiring to be more holy and in touch with God. We always look in the mirror and see our imperfections, but what really matters is what’s in our hearts and how we better ourselves. Thank you for all the eye-opening words! ?
What an amazing truth! The last 6 years of my life I have been over weight and recently I have been saying "I wish I could go back and change my habits from the start". Reading this helped me to realize I can’t do that and shouldn’t think that way and that god doesn’t care about it. It’s easy to forget these important things living in our world today as a teen girl, but I know that the truth with set you free and that ultimately its god who we are here to please not us. Thanks Audrey for this today I love you and your amazing family, your in my thoughts and prayers!
This was an eye opening for me exspecly right before school ,it’s showed me to focus on God and my inner beauty ,also sharing his word of how beautiful he mad is !!!
Beautiful encouragement…Thank you!!
Audrey!!! You are one of my biggest inspirations! God speaks through you so powerfully and this was no exception. I love how you pointed out that we are so often told of our beauty yet we never let it sink through the surface and into our soul. These words were so well spoken. Thanks for sharing! ❤️❤️
I’ve always struggled with self esteem issues for pretty much my whole life. Always thinking hey If I looked like this then my life would be like this great, happy fulfilled. Reading this really hit home for me. Your wisdom is way beyond your years thank you
Beautiful post! Holy Spirit was speaking to me through this, so thank you so very much for showing me something that I definitely didn’t see before! <3
Thank you so much for the encouragement, you give to myself and other girls who seek and love the Lord. You have inspired me to keep going. I am a encourager myself and I have struggled for some time but this has helped me a lot you are a blessing to many God bless you sweet sister hugs n love ❤️❤️❤️
be.you.tiful ☺ from the inside out.