Wednesday, February 9, 2011

A Shoe Obession?

"Don't be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God." 1 Peter 3:3-4 NLT

I was getting breakfast ready yesterday and I overheard one of the "Today" show hosts announce that after the commercial, they were going to be talking to an expert that would explain why women have such an obsession with shoes. With shoes! That was the next hot topic.

I caught myself thinking, how sad. Have we, as a society come to this? Maybe I'm just different. Oh, I like a good pair of shoes, but ask anyone that knows me, I spend half my time barefooted. Shoes are not my thing.

But what has been my thing the past year or so, is this burning desire to be a woman that isn't so concern with her outward appearance, but with her inward appearance. I am being genuine here. I know what I look like on the outside. To be honest, I truly don't like to look at myself in the mirror. I have an imagine in my head of what I look like and then I catch myself in the mirror and I cringe.

But the Lord is showing me, slowly, that it's the inside that matters most to Him. (And I say slowly not because my God is slow in showing me, but I am slow in able to accept this idea.) To Him, it's your spirit that He looks at. It's the condition of your spirit that He wants you to work on.

Please don't get me wrong--we need to honor God with taking care of our full bodies--inside and out. But we are not all going to be a size 6, with no fat cells and a perfect face. We are what we are. We are God's child and even if--to the world--we are not what is considered "beautiful"--to Him, we are the most beautiful creature in the world.

Wouldn't it be lovely to have had them say that we come back from the commercial they would have an expert talk about why we as a society are obessed with the book of Proverbs, or with tithing or with serving in our spiritual gifts?

To me, the beauty of this verse is that it put into words what the Lord has been revealing in my spirit and even though it may seem that I am talking a lot about me this morning, I got a sense that I needed to share this verse with you. Because man or woman, we all have the same challenge to become the best that we should be, to our Father. We all need to be reminded of the true beauty and of what really matters in the long run. When we die, our spirit is the beautiful thing that is going to go up to our Father's home, not whatever our body happens to look like.

You are the top jewel in your Father's crown--shine with that fact and humbly accept His unconditional love and acceptance of you. All you need to do is be in constant prayer for His guidance, continually be in His word and surround yourself with other beautifully grounded Christians.

Has anyone told you lately that you are beautiful? Well, you are!

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