I decided to share with ya'll a short(ish) essay, that I wrote for school.
It is a subject that I feel strongly about and I believe is an issue that certainly needs to be addressed, in our culture, today.
I hope you enjoy and I would love to read your thoughts and opinions in the comments below! :-)
Where should we look
for our standard of beauty and appearance?
In this day and
age, airbrushed models grace the covers of our magazines and posters in
department stores. What use are these unrealistic, photo-shopped women, besides
causing females of various ages, to feel insecure and ugly unless they are
perfectly flawless as the media portrays those of “true worth” to be? It is no
different with the men of today- for women to even give them a second glance,
they must dress in the latest fashion, have their hair styled a certain way,
listen to a specific kind of music, have a muscular physique, the list goes on
and on. If men and women do not live up to these standards, then what are they
known as? Nerds, geeks, losers, ugly, fat, awkward.
Our culture looks
down their noses at the flawed and fail to realize that no one looks perfect,
no matter how much makeup they have applied, how fashionable their clothes are,
or the fact that they wear a size zero! Most beauty, today, is artificial and
unnatural. Why would we want to model the way we look, dress, or act, after the
skewed idealisms of Hollywood? True beauty is from the inside, no matter how
ridiculous or over-rated it may sound. I personally would not want to court or
marry a young man who is arrogant or a flirt, no matter how attractive and
charming he is. He might be someone outwardly catching to the eye, but once his
true personality is revealed, he would be utterly repulsive to me.
Our
outward beauty should not be based off of the media, although that gives us no
excuse to neglect personal hygiene or to attempt to look decent (at least in public).
Our standard of beauty should come from God’s Word. We should take care of
ourselves physically because “our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which
is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own” (1 Cor.
6:19); but personal grooming should not control the way we think or act.
Getting ready for an event should not consume us, and we should not constantly
be checking our reflection in the mirror.
Of course, there is also the danger of
becoming conceited about the way we look- believing we are the most attractive
creature to ever roam the earth, and oh so humble, as well!
We should focus more on our inward
beauty than we ever do on the outward aspect. 1 Peter 3:3-4 says, “Whose
adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of
wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; 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.”
What is the use of trying so hard
to be beautiful or handsome, when we are all going to age and then die,
eventually? Why put all those hours of work and money into a body that’s
eventually going to waste away to nothing, since only our heart and actions can
mature and change for the better, growing more lovely day after day?
“..though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” (2 Cor. 4:16)
Why don’t we take as much time as
we take to get ready for church, to read our Bible? Why don’t we pray longer
than we take a shower? Why don’t we focus on our spiritual beauty more than our
outward attractiveness?
“Favour is deceitful,
and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth
the LORD, she shall be praised.” (Proverbs 31:30)
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