Deserved Beauty by Suzanne Hadley on 10/18/2006 at 2:34 PM

Candice's post on beauty got me thinking about the enslaving nature of living up to a physical ideal. Girl Talk recently discussed the culture's distorted yardstick of physical perfection, as seen in this video produced by the Dove campaign for real beauty. Dove's motto is: "Every woman deserves to feel beautiful just the way she is." Carolyn Mahaney points out how this goal falls short:

Even if every girl did "feel beautiful just the way she is," it wouldn't bring her true joy or lasting happiness or solve even one of her problems.

Truth be told, what we all deserve is not to feel beautiful but rather to be condemned to hell for sinfully seeking to attract the worship of our fellow creatures instead of living to bring glory to God.

God did not send Jesus to this earth to die so that women could get over their self-esteem problem and feel better about themselves. No, He sent his Son to die to rescue us from our sinful, futile quest for physical beauty and to reveal to us the satisfaction that comes from knowing God — whether we are beautiful or not!

I know I have been guilty of exalting and desiring the physical beauty of others. And I have seen friends struggle with low self-esteem and eating disorders as a result of culture's unrealistic standard of beauty. But Carolyn points out that when we seek the world's ideal of beauty, we take our focus off God and miss out on the joy and hope He offers us. Honestly, I am tired of hearing about inner beauty. But I think if I could focus on the beauty of Christ and His sacrifice, I might reflect something that attracts others to Him.