We go to the store and are visually blasted with a dozen magazines celebrating outward beauty. We walk through the mall and can’t avoid the mannequins and posters glaring at us from store windows. We pop in our favorite chick flick and are reminded that the prettiest are the most successful – or so it seems. Even the most seemingly innocent Bealls and Dillard’s ads in our mail box are constant source of distraction from what true beauty really is.
With these distractions sapping the life out of our standards, we can become weak. We can feel harassed and eventually give into the pressure of thinking just like the culture around us. Like chemicals that enter our body through food and air, we can become laden down with the world’s beauty ideals – those life-sucking toxic lies that tell us we’re not good enough. When we feel bogged down by these unattainable standards of the culture, it’s a sign we need a detox! Here are ways we can “detox” our minds from the toxins of false beauty
PRAY
We often miss this, but it is the number one source of strength when we’re trying to overcome something. God has all the power we need to get over our feelings of insignificance and inferiority. We can’t do it without Him!
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)
Take a moment to pray this prayer:
Dear Father God, thank you for loving me just as I am. Thank you for making me your daughter, your princess. I need You now. I struggle, thinking I’m not beautiful compared to the world’s standards. I feel like I’ve been polluted by the culture I live in. I pray for your help to overcome my insecurities and to see myself like You see me. I pray that the negative way of thinking I have lived with will be washed away so I can value what matters most. Thank you that you love me enough to call me your own no matter what others think of me. I allow that love to define me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
UNDERSAND GOD’S LOVE
Many times we feel like we have to match up simply because we want to feel loved and accepted by others. However, if we already know and understand God’s love for us, no one else’s opinion will matter. Whether we match up to the world’s standards of beauty or not, we our grounded in the unfailing love of Jesus! That love is not based on our own performance or outward appearance, but on the Blood of Jesus that was shed for us on the cross. It is the purest form of love and acceptance we will ever receive!
Spend some time thinking about the following verses about the love of Jesus for you. Let them sink down deep so there’s no room for lie!
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:37-39).
In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (I John 4:9-11).
KNOW WHO YOU ARE
Without knowing who we are in Christ, the following words about God’s standard of beauty will seem empty. We will question if they really apply to us, or whether or not any beauty really lives on the inside of us to begin with. However, by getting an understanding of who we are in Jesus, we can have an unwavering confidence!
Check out my pages “Your Royalty in Him” and “The Royal Teen” under The Royal Girl page for a wealth of information from God Himself! You are royalty, and no supermodel in this world can top that!
CHANGE YOUR THINKING ABOUT BEAUTY
The Bible says to “be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” (Ephesians 4:23) The word “renew” means to “renovate.” If our minds our dilapidated by junky thinking, then it’s time to go in and tear down old walls, worn out facets, and torn up furniture!
Spend time every day thinking about these words of life that came straight from God’s mouth. They hold the detoxing power to change a person’s heart and mind. When so much of the pure truth is put in, none of the counterfeit has room to stay!
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (I Samuel 16:7).
Favor is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised (Proverbs 31:30).
Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel— rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God (I Peter 3:3-4).
TURN OFF THE SOURCE
Are you still letting your gaze fall longingly at the posters and magazines? Do you find yourself giving into the temptation to watch the latest Miss America pageants? Do you make special trips to the mall to purposely find what’s in vogue? Do you watch movies that idealize something other than God’s standards? Do your friends constantly contradict what you believe about God’s beauty?
If these things are a stumbling block to you, it’s time to clean house! You may be putting God’s Word in, but if you’re putting in the contradictory at the same time, you’re working against yourself. They will try to coexist together where neither one seems to reign. It will be a constant battle. The best thing to do is to clean house by illuminating the stumbling block altogether. Identify the greatest source of frustration and steer clear!
FIND YOUR STRENGTH
We were never meant to live this Christian life on our own. God gave us Himself, His Word, and other believers to help us make it through our challenges. Take advantage of yourself of these strengths, and watch yourself grow!
Connect with others.
Find friends and other women who hold the same desires and standards as you do. Iron sharpens iron! (Proverbs 27:17)
Read books on true beauty.
I recommend Fashioned by Faith by model Rachelle Lee Carter, and 30 Days to a More Beautiful You by Kylie Biscutti. Many more can be found online or at your local Christian bookstore!
Listen to women speakers.
I recommend Danna Gresh, Lisa Bevere, Joyce Meyer, and Teri Savelle Foy for a consistent diet of strengthening words!
Find songs about true beauty.
Choose songs that will encourage you! Something about music helps soothe your soul (if on the right topic), and can further engrain what you believe into your heart!
God is for you and not against you! He wants you to be free to be the woman God’s called you to be . . . without the bondage of wrong thinking concerning beauty. He is your constant Source of affirmation in a world that doesn’t see the value and legitimacy of true, Godly beauty!
Christa Madrid 