Beautiful

Thoughts from "Captivating"

I want to be beautiful
And make you stand in awe
Look inside my heart
And be amazed
I want to hear you say
Who I am is quite enough
I just want to be worthy of love
And beautiful
--Bethany Dillon, "Beautiful"

The desire to be beautiful is an ageless longing that begins when we are very young and never ever ends. Women want to be beautiful, to be captivating, to be delighted in. It's who God made us to be. Unfortunately, this desire can sometimes cause much heartache and pain as we try to look the way society thinks is 'beautiful'. We wear makeup, diet, dye our hair, and even surgically enhance or decrease our bodies to fit the 'model' of beauty that the world holds. I know few women (if any) who think that they are beautiful. We often focus on the 'flaws' in our bodies. Not only do we desire to be physically beautiful, but we want to be captivating, to be beautiful on the inside. So we look at all of our 'faults', our emotions that don't make us appear quite so beautiful and we feel that we fall short. We look at others and think they are better than us, prettier, nicer, stronger, more self confident and we want to be like them. I don't believe that this is what God intended when He put the desire to be beautiful in our souls.

One of the most wonderful things I learned from the book Captivating, is that "instead of making me into someone else, (God) is making me more me. And that is one of the beautiful things about Him. That the more his we become, the more ourseves we become, our true selves" (p. 134). We don't have to strive to be something we're not, we just have to reveal who God made us to be...isn't that comforting? We don't have to strive. "In fact, the only thing getting in the way of our begin fully captivating and enjoyed is our striving"(p. 135). I find these truths to be so freeing. All I have to be is ME...nothing else, no one else.

For those of you struggling with seeing yourselves as beautiful...ask Jesus to show you your beaty. "Ask him what he thinks of you as a woman"(p. 135). You'll be truly amazed by how you look through his eyes. It's a beautiful thing! You're the only you this world will ever have, so don't waste your life trying to be someone else,let yourself rest, and unveil your own beauty.

Mel