It's hard being a girl.... a guy, too, I suppose...

... but being that I'm a girl, I'm writing from a girl's prospective.

(lyrics posted at end)

It's easy to sing that (what the song says).... it's harder to feel! Sad, isn't it, how hard we are on ourselves... to what ridiculous extremes we go to.... at how lacking (how ugly! how fat! how white! how old! how ___!) we still feel! We color the hair and 'doo' it. We paint our face and when it gets old (if we can afford to) 'lift it." We wear push-up bras or get boob jobs. We starve ourselves or afterwards hate that we didn't. We get manicures and pedicures as if the looks of our nails make a real difference. We lay in coffin-like-containers to tan our skins under fake lights, or bake them for hours under the pelting heat of the sun. We spend tons of money and loads of time shopping for just the right clothes to hang on our bodies, and then, still have "nothing to wear in our closets." And with all the cost and time and effort and thought and process and the want-to...... how many of us (after all that) really feel beautiful????

Perhaps we need to have less concern for our containers... and more concern for what our containers contain. Perhaps we need to be more thankful for what God's given us and HOW He's made us... than hating the containers that He's given us to live inside and carry Him in.

He loves this body. He formed and shaped it. He calls it a temple, and wants to live in it. Yet why do we continually buff and tend to it... or abhor it so? If we love it too much or loathe it too much, we've totally missed the point and our focus. For it's the inside that God is most concerned with... while oft times we're mostly concentrated more on the looks of our out.

We might not think we are. We might argue the point. But truly, how much time do you spend getting ready in the mornings? Which gets more time... the mirror in your bathroom? or the mirror of God's Word (Jam 1:22-25) which can transform you? Which do you find yourself looking at most? And truly, which most consumes and concerns you?

Will it really matter in the end if our hair was straightened or crimped or curled or colored? If our lashes had been mascara-ed or if our lips had been tinted and our eyelids painted in fashion? Or if our skin bagged and wrinkled and was whiter (or darker) than we preferred it to be? All the painting and lifting won't matter in the end.... all that'll matter is what the inside contained within it! Our bodies are meant to be just clothes (skins) to carry Christ in!

Peter tells us in 1 Pet 3:3-4 that, "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight."

Shew, life would be easier if we remembered that daily and lived by it. I'll be honest, there's not enough foundation or shadow or lip color or tanning or starving to make me feel beautiful. My 'beauty' is singularly found and felt in my Savior Alone.

Just in case you missed the words to the song in the video... here are the words being sung:

More Beautiful You
by Jonny Diaz

Little girl fourteen flipping through a magazine

Says she wants to look that way

But her hair isn't straight, her body isn't fake,

and she's always felt overweight.

Well little girl fourteen I wish you could see

That beauty is within your heart

And you were made with such care, your skin, your body, and your hair

Are perfect just the way they are.

(chorus)

There could never be a more beautiful you.

Don't buy the lies, disguises, and hoops they make you jump through.

You were made to fill a purpose that only you could do.

So there could never be a more beautiful you.

Little girl twenty-one the things that you've already done

Anything to get ahead

And you say you've got a man, but he's got another plan

Only wants what you will do instead.

Well, little girl twenty-one, you never thought that this would come

You starve yourself to play the part.

But I can promise you there's a man whose love is true

And he'll treat you like the jewel you are.

(chorus)

There could never be a more beautiful you.

Don't buy the lies, disguises, and hoops they make you jump through.

You were made to fill a purpose that only you could do.

So there could never be a more beautiful you.

So turn around, you're not too far

To back away, be who you are

To change your path go another way

It's not too late you can be saved

If you feel depressed with past regrets

The shameful nights hope to forget

Can disappear they can all be washed away

By the one who's strong can right your wrongs

Can rid your fears dry all your tears

And change the way you look at this big world

He will take your dark distorted view

And with His light He will show you truth

And again you'll see through the eyes of a little girl.

(chorus)

There could never be a more beautiful you.

Don't buy the lies, disguises, and hoops they make you jump through.

You were made to fill a purpose that only you could do.

So there could never be a more beautiful you.