Beautiful
Our focus this month is - on the subject of beauty. Many of you know that we are writing a course on Body Image, to help people find a balanced and healthy perspective about themselves. We have learned that body image concerns is rated by young Australians as their biggest area of concern (Mission Australia). We would like to see the statistics change, and help people in some small way feel comfortable in their own skin.
In my research involved in writing the course, some things have become overwhelmingly obvious, that I wanted to take time to share with all of you this month.
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God made beauty - so it's not wrong, just often the concept is so distorted.
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Beauty does not nor will it ever come in one shape or one size fit's all or one colour. That would be incredibly boring, and there would never be anything new to astonish us. The Grand Canyon, and Niagara Falls would not be so incredibly amazing if they were on every corner of every street. The beauty that is inside of you is also unique.
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Unique beauty is best - don't be a carbon copy of another - be your real true self.
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God decides the beauty issue. We may have the thought about ourselves that we could never be beautiful, but God made us - and He doesn't make defects, or mistakes. Ecclesiastes 3.11 - "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."
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Beauty is not only about the outside of us. In actual fact in the true meanings of beauty only about 30% of descriptions of beauty refer to what we look like.
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Beauty is not just about people, it is everywhere in nature.
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We are truly beautiful when we are free - it's as if it exudes from deep within us.
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Beauty is not for selfish gain - but to help others. When it's turned on itself it tends to lose it's allure. When it's turned out to help and bless - it amazes.
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There is an amazing beauty about people who bring hope and restoration to the lost and broken. Isaiah 52.7 "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!".
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Our actions can be beautiful. Jesus is speaking of the selfless act of Mary who anointed His feet with perfume, in preparation for his journey to Calvary, (this perfume would have cost her an enormous amount of money). Matthew 26:10 "Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me?"
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Our God is beautiful. We are His children, and His life is flowing in our veins - then His very DNA and genetic structure is apart of us - which means we take on His likeness. We take on His goodness and His beauty. Psalm 27:4 "One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, and to seek Him in His temple.
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Jesus came to give us a crown of beauty but in order to make this possible Jesus allowed himself to become so physically marred and brutalized that He was unrecognisable. Isaiah 61:1-3 "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion and to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair..." Isaiah 53:3 "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not."
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Beautiful
What is beauty
is it the splash of rouge
or magenta lip gloss
with the perfect fitting mini
and the latest designer boots
Why do fashion houses
have the power to say
how thin, how tall and what colour
beautiful is
Why do we call that beauty
it's only our outside shell
if that's all beauty requires
lifeless clones becomes our spell
It must be more
surely from the inside it exudes
from the person's life
it truly glows
Even when a women is with child
they say she has that special glow
this is that special inner joy that
from the inside shows
Surely true beauty is the same
while we all strive to reach it
from the inside
we miss the miracle within
I want to be that girl
who though may look good
knows the place within
her true beauty comes from
It can be often forged
within the fires of pain
or the greatest life struggles
and being made whole again
It's the knowledge of being
so greatly loved
is when I feel
beautiful the most
The knowledge that all my joy
is heaven sent
my strength is knowing
that whatever comes my way
you know what's coming ahead
In old Hebrew text
"beautiful" is described
as simply finding "home"
a life from pain released
is where true beauty resides.
© Jo Feeney April 2007