Extreme Makeover: Conquering the Lies

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What makes you feel beautiful? Was it when someone at church complimented your outfit or your friend said she wish she had your hair? How would you feel if you knew God thinks you’re beautiful?

In today’s culture, beauty is everything. Companies want you to believe you can buy beauty, and that they can package it and ship it better than anyone else. Magazines like Seventeen and CosmoGirl tell us outer beauty will give us friends, popularity, money, success, good grades, and boyfriends by the dozen. Little girls play with dolls that teach them that beauty means being skinny, blonde, and “sexy”, so when they’re older, they’ll struggle to find their worth in how much makeup their wearing, how much money they have, and how tight their clothes are, because that’s what makes you beautiful, right?
This is the world’s message. It’s called “pop culture” or “consumerism”, to be more exact. The media is constantly feeding us the wrong messages: “Buy this and you’ll be beautiful!” and “Look like this and be happy!” Behind all these lies, they make us believe that they care about us, but it boils down to their single motive: buy and sell. Their goal is to make money off of YOU, and they will say whatever they need to say in order to convince you that you need their product to be happy or beautiful. They do not care about your feelings; they care about your money. The saddest part of it is that we girls actually believe them. We have fallen into the trap of believing the world’s lies. This has become normal, mainstream, average. You are expected to throw away your money on beauty, fashion, and the “pursuit of happiness”. You are expected to conform to the world’s definition of beauty and believe that beauty can be bottled and manufactured and delivered to your door to give your life meaning.
Even Christians have fell for the bait. God tells us Christ’s vision for your life starts from the inside out, not the “outside in” as most people believe.
God’s definition of beauty is different. According to the Creator of the universe and the Maker of beauty in its purest form, beauty is the breath of life God gave to you and the light of Christ inside your heart. God knows that you’re most beautiful when you are serving Him, not when you’re modeling Maybelline.
God also knows that beauty is a big deal for you, and He wants you to find your beauty in Him instead of in makeup, clothes, or your boyfriend. God has something important to say about worldly beauty: “Charm can mislead and beauty soon fades. The woman to be admired and praised it the woman who lives in fear of God.” (Proverbs 31:30) To fear God is to respect, serve, and obey Him. That is one of the biggest beauty secrets you will ever find, and it comes straight from the Creator.

“That which is striking and beautiful is not always good, but that which is good is always beautiful.” – Ninon de L’Enclos

Real beauty comes from the heart, not the body. So when we want a total makeover, who do we look to? (If you guessed God, you’re right-on!) He knows your heart and He wants you to know how important you heart is to Him. If you’re going to let Him give you a complete makeover, you’ve got to let Him take the reins and move into your heart. It’s like Trading Spaces: your old self moves out and Christ moves in. That begins your journey to eternal beauty.
Your Extreme Makeover: Heart Edition journey will last forever. It doesn’t fade with old age and never goes out of style. Once you change your perspective to that of Jesus, your heart will be changed forever and your beauty will be everlasting.
Now that we know what beauty is and what beauty isn’t, we’re ready to move on to the next chapter of our journey, where we start to purify our hearts to make room for Jesus. Stay tuned for the next edition of Extreme Makeover: Heart Edition, and be sure to tell your friends and stay tuned to our Facebook fan page to get all the updates and discussions.

Jesus, I want to be the kind of girl who values the right things. Too many times I focus on the outward appearance of others and myself. I make it the most important thing when it’s not. You made everyone in Your image. Help me to see that everyone is beautiful, and help me to place more value on people’s character and heart, including my own. Amen.