Lioness of God: Unfading Beauty
You cannot buy your beauty. Your worthiness is established by God.
“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a quiet and gentle spirit, which is so precious to God.”
I kept hearing this verse spoken fresh to my heart today. As each time I found myself going back to that infinite scroll of social media — that scroll where life is glamorized and compared, beauty is enhanced, much of who we are is just broken down to a spectacle, and the focus is clearly steered to the exterior. Remembering- it is all fleeting, all just for a moment and all eventually forgotten.
That verse began to ring its truth as I reflected on its relevance to my own life after my social media scroll. I and many other women fall into this trap. A pitfall of never understanding what really makes us beautiful.
Sadly, whether younger or older, so many bite into the apple of lies. A false belief that we can buy our beauty. We can become easily crazed and obsessed with what else we can do to be more physically beautiful. Yet, it is incomparable to the imperishable beauty that is right at our grasp, completely free but often ignored. We overlook it for the quick thought that if we just got this one dress, or enhancement, put on some lashes or post this picture- I will feel better.
Nonetheless, it usually does for a moment . But does it ever make you feel deeply beautiful, the kind that stays with you when all of it comes back off?
Do you really feel free?
Or does that cycle just continue?
“The truth is unfading beauty can never be bought or worn.”
It is shown- through how you treat the ones you say you love, just as much as the stranger on the street. It is brought to life by the esteem you carry in yourself whether careless and aggressive or wise and discerning. It is expressed through humility and self-control. Having a spirit that is kind and selfless rather than self-serving.
“A quiet and gentle spirit.”
“A quiet and gentle spirit” is beauty without a price tag that is cultivated through diligence to not dress up your pain anymore or cover your flaws with a new “thing” but face what is wounded in you. It takes patience but it is what frees you. It is freedom in a world today, where women are more encouraged to be more strong, hard and masculine rather than gentle, kind and nurturing.
It honors who God created you to be.
In this, we still tend to ourselves physically but the outer is simply a fuller reflection of the garden cultivated on the inside of us. Living a life where we pamper the physical yet dismiss the greater power of our inner beauty is where we lose. We lose a lasting confidence, a sacred peace and a joy. One that is not affirmed by others approval but only God.
You enter a room differently when your confidence comes from God. You move with a grace that is refreshing to be around.
I challenge that we all need to pick up that mirror to our soul continuously- and ask who am I becoming and is that inner woman beautiful or is she hurting by my actions or inaction?
“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised”
Everything on the external side will eventually fade, with age and with time. Who you are in your inner self is what will remain and be remembered.
If you could see the content of your heart right now, what would it show? It is time to truly heal and walk with unfading beauty.
