Look at the coach purse on that one!

I started a book with my Bible study a few weeks back by Beth Moore Called "Esther. it's tough being a Woman." The first weeks' theme was "It's tough being a woman in another woman's shadow." It was a phenomenal week, one which really hit home. I can totally relate with that, because I live in the shadow of a flawed woman who's image distorts mine (before you even ask, no I will not name her, that's just wrong).



This weeks' theme is " It's tough being a woman in a world where beauty is a treatment."



Ouch.



Our culture is flooded with ads for products to make you younger, thinner, prettier, curvier, less curvy, etc etc. Even the young and beautiful aren't young and beautiful enough. "Esther" opens with queen Vashti being dethroned and King Xerxes looking for a new queen. He sent out ambassadors to every province to find the most beautiful young women in all the land, though they weren't yet beautiful enough for him, they have to go through months of "beauty treatments" before he'd even see them. Young and beautiful wasn't young and beautiful enough in Persia either.



So then I started thinking today, how much has this ideal of beauty being something I do rather than something I am sunk into my brain? Like most women I have a list. A list of things I don't like about me. My chin and nose are too pointy, and I hate the oblong shape of my ears. My face never got the memo about growing into my buck teeth, my hair is too course, and going grey way too fast and way too young. That's just the beginning...I could keep going, but my flaws aren't the point; who I am is.
I am a woman made in God's image. He created me the way He wanted me. Psalm 139:13-14 says, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." He knit together every course hair and pointy appendage. He made me as I am because it pleased Him. I need to focus on that more than on my list of things I don't like about me.



Then, beyond even me, I was blessed with the task of rearing two wonderful daughters; princesses belonging to the King himself. I need to impart on them the fact that God loves them! How can I ever teach them they are beautiful in God's eyes if I don't first grasp that concept for myself? I don't want my daughters growing up to think that they are only beautiful if a man thinks they are (even if He is their husband, their beauty isn't based on his opinion). They are only beautiful if other women think they are (Lord knows how badly we try to impress each other, what man has ever said "Wow look at the Coach purse on that one!"; we women dress for each other too). They are only beautiful if they feel pretty that day (and you all know our opinion of our looks varies by day, and eh-uhm, time of the month). They are beautiful because Jesus knit them together in my womb. He knew their names and faces before time began, and as it says in the story of creation, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." Genesis 1:31.

As I face the overwhelming influence of our modern day version of Esther's Persia, I need to focus on my God's view of me if I ever hope to raise girls who could care less what anyone but Jesus thinks of their looks.