Song of Solomon 4:7 ESV

You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.

Beauty, what a thing to behold. Beauty of body and belongings, of mind and heart. We dig through the trenches searching for reality of such things and often come out with a big mess of gut-wrenching lies weighing us down.

I was once told that I was lovely. Taken aback, I was probably blushing. I was surrounded by climbing toddlers and whining young children in the middle of an Easter candy high. It was humid after the spring rain and I was flustered that I was the only adult representing my family at our Resurrection Sunday service at church. Trying to hold it together in our new Sunday best, I was searching for an out-of-the-way seat so we would not disrupt quiet observers of the sermon. Lovely I was not. I was fighting an internal battle of wits that I was losing to.

“You look so lovely today, just so beautiful.” My sweet sister friend didn’t see chocolate covered faces or a frazzled mom with slightly frizzy hair.  She saw children adoring their mother, and a wife missing her husband but doing her best to praise Jesus for the new life He brought forth this day so long ago. She saw hope and longing, and not the twisted, messy thoughts running through my head.

My friend saw hope and joy behind it all.

She knew long before I did that the joy I was looking for wasn’t out of reach. The joy that I was searching for in the trenches wasn’t a lost dream.

Lovely. That’s not something I ever thought of myself as, yet I hear it in the back of my head every time I see the love in my son’s eyes or feel the warmth of my husband’s embrace. Lovely.  I hear it in the deep conversations with my teens and in the laughter I share with friends. Lovely. I grasp it in the chats with my mom and reminiscing with long-time relationships. Lovely.

I have struggled since I was a babe. I always believed that I am not beautiful. Beauty would grab attention, likes and admiration. Beauty wouldn’t equal loneliness, self-doubt or fear. If this characteristic was real, it wouldn’t lead to competitions, meanness or expensive price tags.

Beauty should be Eve walking with her love in the garden. Beauty should be the cry of a long-awaited son.  This should not be a trait, but a wise word from a king or a promise fulfilled in faith. We see these things, but we struggle to grab their reality and see that the true beauty in all of it is the Lord’s enduring faithfulness in love.

We all struggle to grab on to the reality of the Lord’s definition of beauty.

People seem to scoff at His truth because it doesn’t follow the rules of culture. What we forget that is that God’s definition is the only correct one and is the only thing that we can hold a candle to. The world wants to make us, to tell us who we are, but the world forgets the most important thing: we are God’s and we are His beautiful creation.

The world wants to make us, to tell us who we are, but the world forgets the most important thing: we are God's and we are His beautiful creation. Click To Tweet

So that we remember His love and His truth, here are a few reminders of our true and lovely beauty.

Don’t forget, broken hearts are remade in His arms.  Sweet friends, when you walk in doubt, please remember that we are made in God’s image. We bear no ugliness if we don’t allow sin to dig in.

Genesis 1:26 ESV 

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

Psalm 34:5 ESV 

Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.

Psalm 139:14 ESV 

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Proverbs 3:15-18 ESV

She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed.

Proverbs 31:30 ESV

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Matthew 6:28 ESV

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin

Galatians 5:25 ESV

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

Ephesians 2:10 ESV 

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Colossians 3:12 ESV 

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience

1 Peter 3:4 ESV

But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.

Sweet friends, when you walk in doubt, please remember that we are made in God's image. We bear no ugliness if we don't allow sin to dig in. Click To Tweet