Beauty

I am a huge fan of The Biggest Loser, and I really love the current season. I just watched the most recent episode which is the Makeover week and the transformations are incredible. Seriously they all look amazing. Then one of the female contestants, who is 39 years old, said, "for the first time in my life I feel beautiful." This immediately brought tears to my eyes. This show makes me tear up a lot but this was different.

There stood a 39 year old woman admitting that she has NEVER felt beautiful in her life before. The girl in me that has always struggled with her weight understands this. But the youth pastor in me is screaming out beauty isn't about your weight. It is so much deeper than that.

Beauty come from God. Beauty does not come from a good work out and a healthy diet. That is weight loss and fitness. Beauty comes from God. We were all made beautiful from the very beginning. When God created the world He stepped back and looked at the end of each day and said that creation is good, this was especially true when He got to humans. Humanity is God's most favored creation.

David recognized this in the Psalms when he stated, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." - Psalm 139:14 Now David was described as a good looking man, but he did not have a good looking life. He spent a large portion of his life running away from a King he had once called family, who had a fiery vengeance for him. David had an incredible faith in God that fueled him through those dark days. It was that faith that helped him understand his true identity and worth in this life.

Body image is something most people struggle with. Of course I would love to be a few sizes smaller and look like I did in high school, but one thing I have learned in life, and constantly have to remind myself is that what I see in the mirror does not reflect who I am on the inside. My body is a vessel for the soul that was created in the image of God. Yes, my body is a temple and should be treated as such. But a temple is just a building without God. It was the glory of God's presence in the Temple that made it so magnificent. The tabernacle in the wilderness was just as beautiful when God sat upon the Mercy Seat.

When God dwells within your heart He radiates through you and beauty abounds from those rays. Your physicality never, NEVER affects your beauty. We have all been created in God's image, and when we chose to live in that image people can't help but notice the beauty. Beauty comes from God not from the gym.