There’s one thing I know for sure… when it comes to determining whether or not you’re beautiful, there’s one thing we rarely stop to contemplate. To whom and to what are we giving our power to decide the answer to this question ultimately turns out to be THE determining factor.
The ‘you’re beautiful’ conundrum: it’s my hair
So what makes us “beautiful”? Do you have a particular hair color, like blonde? (Do you know that one in two TV announcers is blonde?) Wow, that rules me out then, not to mention that millions of black and Asian people have to adopt an artificial standard to qualify. And I guess that means that as I get more gray hair, well, that also narrows my chances a little bit more. Is it about having a particular hairstyle? Think back… when Farah Fawcett was all the rage, she wore a long curly “big” style. Then fix it… just when she was sleeping with huge rollers in my hair to achieve that and just when I thought I had that hairstyle down pat, someone else came along and a new look came along. So there’s certainly nothing static about relying on hair to determine if I’m beautiful.
The ‘you’re beautiful’ conundrum: it’s my skin
Ok….so maybe it’s the skin. After all, a million ads for all kinds of expensive skin care products couldn’t be wrong, right? Absolutely flawless, glowing skin is what makes me beautiful… at least that seems like a pretty consistent standard. But wait a minute, there’s a little problem with this because then we have to deal with skin color. Oops, I didn’t think of that, so let’s reconsider. In the past, having lily-white skin was what everyone wanted, because it indicated that you were part of the nobility: you wouldn’t get darker skin working in the fields. But then things changed and guess what ‘healthy’ Californian tans and a million tanning salons caught on. Now… we’re starting to find out that these may not be so healthy, so wait a few decades and a new standard will emerge.
The ‘you’re beautiful’ riddle: it’s my lips, teeth and nose
Ah, lips and teeth! Well, the whitest white teeth on Angelina Jolie’s puffy lips are being sold to us as part of the Am I beautiful? At least in the US for now! And so cosmetic dentists can afford to drive Porsches and botox for lips (not to mention wrinkle removal) is lining the pockets of cosmetic surgeons. But don’t get too hung up on it because in a few years who knows how that might change. And as for noses, my God, how many of them have not passed under the surgeon’s knife, a million dollar industry. It seems that nothing we are given naturally is good enough.
The ‘you are beautiful’ conundrum: it’s my breasts, body and legs
Apparently, breasts have to be firm and perky to be considered beautiful… oh, and did I mention that, mainly in the Western world, bigger is better? And as for the bodies, if the images of the models we see are considered the standard, to be beautiful she would have to be tall, slim and curvy. Again, that could really get a bit depressing if you happen to be a bit short and stocky like me. And as for my legs, well, they don’t really look like the ones I see on the catwalk, that lasts forever.
It’s all a bunch of nonsense
Here’s a hint: if you think you’re not beautiful, then you’re giving away your power to someone or something other than our wise and wonderful Creator. No wise Creator would create one skin color, or one body shape or size as superior to another. Our outer qualities are much less important than our inner qualities: our greatness of spirit and generosity of heart. Those should help us answer the ‘am I beautiful’ question. Hair color, skin color, teeth color, blah blah blah, should never come into the equation… unless, um… you’ve lost the thread and are buying into some pretty varied standards determined and enforced by the media supporting industries that depend on you believing that you are not beautiful unless you buy products that change your naturalness into something unnatural.
Do you want to stop believing in meaningless standards, some that you can never achieve without great expense and by making yourself less natural? Follow some of the links below and let me show you how.