The Beauty God Sees in Youনমুনা

Cool and Beautiful

I love you, you know that? I get that you are wondering how this love I have for you can penetrate—can get from head to heart. That is what is most important. That is how you carry with you weapons that fight the lies—the ones that tell you beauty looks like this, and not like that. Listen close. Because who can decide what is beautiful better than me, the one who created beauty to begin with? I only create what is beautiful, you know.

And there it is. It might be as simple as that, knowing I create only beauty, and I created you. But now, I know it doesn’t feel that simple. Not at all. I know that the lies of this world complicate things a lot. I know you are distracted. You see a young woman and you can’t help but compare yourself to her. You see a photograph in a magazine, a mannequin in a storefront, the images on your phone. You see her face, watch how she walks, listen to her jokes, count how many friends and followers she has. And where does that get you? This isn’t truth, and this isn’t full life, and this isn’t how you will ever be joy-filled and free.

That’s what I’ve planned for you: joy, strength, confidence, freedom. Protect your heart now. You’ve got to give your heart to me. That is the choice you have, the action you need to take for your heart to be protected: surrender. You need to surrender your heart to me.

These aren’t just words for you to contemplate. It is time for you to act. Look at your face in the mirror, for starters. Look at those eyes, the shape, the lashes, the way you blink. Look at your cheekbones, how exquisite and perfect. Look at your lips, how vulnerable and strong they are. Your hands, your neck, your feet, your stomach, your legs, your knees, your skin. Each part of you I put together with my own breath, my love. I chose the color of your skin, your hair, your lips, your eyes, your hands. I breathed life into you. I thought you up and made you, just like this. You can add adornment to beauty, but the adornment is not what shines. Be careful that adornment is not distraction from the beauty I create. And that is why I ask you to let me protect your heart.

Beauty is more than what you can see with your eyes—and I know you feel this tension. It’s the beauty of the heart—true beauty—you’re after, but you are tricked to believe beauty is something else. You feel the tension between the mirage—the attempt of the world to make beauty something that can be attained through a purchase of clothes, jewelry, technology—and the truth. It takes knowing me to recognize true beauty—to see it in others, to see it in yourself.

It’s the heart. That’s where true beauty lives. It takes faith in me to struggle with the tension of this world and my truth. It takes my strength in you to be confident in how I’ve made you, beautiful and loving and good. Daughter, true beauty is a heart that loves me. True beauty is sacrifice and surrender and worship—love—in my name.

You tell me how wonderful it is to hear that, not only do I love you, not only do I know you are beautiful, but that I also like you! My daughter, I adore you! I like you and love you and you know that. Your hearts knows that. So now surrender. Be free. Be beautiful. Be bold. Be fiery and fierce and alive, filled with my joy and love for you.

This is a battle to believe you are beautiful, after all. And you are equipped for this battle—the one where truth battles the lies of this world. Let me protect your heart. Let me deafen the lies.

There, now you see it, hear it, feel it.

Beauty.

Live believing you are beautiful.

Forget “coolness.” This is how beauty sees.

Exercise & Prayer

Find your Bible and a journal. Find a quiet place. Look up in your Bible the verses listed below about beauty.

1 Samuel 16:7
Psalm 139:14
Proverbs 31:30
Acts 10:34
Galatians 3:26–27
1 Timothy 4:8
1 Peter 3:3–5

Pick one of the verses and practice Lectio Divina:

1. Read the verse several times or linger on one particular phrase or even one word. Don’t rush. Ask God to reveal to you what it is in this verse—a word, an idea, an image—that he wants you to notice or pay attention to.
2. Meditate on what stood out to you. Imagine yourself in this verse. Place yourself as a character; try to see yourself, with Jesus, in this scene.
3. Respond, in prayer, to what God is showing you.
4. Give this time back to God. Surrender your heart to him and consider how you will live out what he has shown you.

Lord, you are the creator of all beauty, and I confess I get distracted with what the world defines as beauty. I chase that kind of beauty more than the beauty you create and see. And I love that you see beauty in me. I want to believe in that more, God. Help me to learn more about what beauty is to you. I want to live out the beauty you see in me. Silence the lies of the enemy that whisper I am not beautiful, I am not special, desired, liked, adored. In your name, Jesus, I break the agreement that beauty is what is defined by this world rather than what you see. You fill me with strength and light and hope. Thank you that you are here and you give the eyes of my heart a new way to see. In Jesus’ name, Amen.