The other day my mom text over a few pictures of one of the first beauty pageants I was in. We were comparing just how much my little girl looks like me. Twins! Anyway, they got me thinking. Thinking about beauty, self-esteem and what God has to say about it all. I was reminded of a message that I gave at a mother-daughter tea a few years ago. I thought I would share that message with you. As women, it is so easy to get caught up in what the world says. I thought this would be a nice little reminder of what He says. (a reminder I often need myself)Please pardon any references to being here tonight or my examples given for little girls as they were the target. I was going to change all of that for you readers but I didn't want to throw off what I was trying to say.
I grew up in the pageant scene. I was what they call a “beauty queen”. Some of my bigger titles include Little Miss Orange County, Miss Anaheim, Miss Orange County, 4
th runner up for Miss California.
Needless to say I have been around and learned a lot about outer beauty, but I also learned a lot about inner beauty. Tonight I want to share a little about those with you.
Being in those pageants, I saw what the world calls beauty. A certain hair color, a particular body type, a specific style of clothing. A lot of the girls in pageants, as well as in the world end up struggling with how they feel about themselves because they don’t look like that, and because really, it is impossible to look like a girl in a magazine.
A lot of you may struggle with that, a lot of girls and women in this room may think they are ugly. That they could
never be pretty. I was fortunate to learn that what we think or say about ourselves means nothing in God’s work, what matters is what God thinks about us.
Can I tell you all a little secret tonight? God thinks you are beautiful.
In Psalms 139:14 David says “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."
Listen to what David says here. “I am wonderfully made”, God created everyone of us, and He made us exactly as He wanted us.
God does not make mistakes, He put those freckles on your face for a reason, He gave you that hair color and body shape because He thought they were beautiful. Everyone of us looks different, and God wanted it that way. I think that it is our differences that make us so beautiful.
I want you to look at these flowers with me. Every flower in here is different but equally beautiful in it’s own way. If every single flower in here looked the same, it wouldn’t be quite as pretty. If they were all pink, pink would be boring and no longer unique and beautiful.
We are a lot like that, God gave us certain traits to stand out, and that is what makes us beautiful.
Now, even though we were wonderfully made, and God made us all so beautifully, the Bible tells us that outer beauty is not the most important. More importantly is the beauty that is on the inside.
1 Samuel 16:7 says "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
So even though all the jewelry and fancy clothes are fun, it should not be our focus. Our main focus should be on what we look like on the inside. What our heart looks like.
Next, let’s look at 1 Peter 3:3-4, these verses will explain a little more about what we just read.
1 Peter 3:3-4 “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. 4Instead, 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.”
Now that does not mean we should not take care of ourselves and look pretty but that we should focus more on our inner self.
If God cares more about our inner beauty, then we should probably figure out what true inner beauty is, so that we can work on that. When we don’t know exactly what to do or how to be beautiful on the inside, the best thing to do, is to look in our bible, and see what God says.
The best example of inner beauty that I can think of are the fruits of the spirit. These things, tell us exactly what God wants to do.
The fruits of the spirit can be found in Galatians 5:22-23. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control.
When we act in these ways it makes our hearts soft, and our inner beauty shines right through to the outside.
That leads me to the question: How many of you have thought that someone was not so pretty, but you got to know them and they were such a kind and loving person, that they became one of the most beautiful people you know?
Now their looks didn’t change at all but their inner beauty beamed out of them. Isn’t that cool? The way we act can make us so breath-taking. Looking at all of you, I already know you are so so so beautiful, but can you imagine how much more beautiful you are when you act in these ways and your inner beauty shine through? Wow!
Now is it always easy to follow what the fruits of the spirit say to do? NO! It can be really hard. Like when we really want a piece of candy and our mom tells us that we have to wait until after dinner, is is easy to be patient? No way, I have a hard time being patient when it comes to candy but in the end that patience will pay off.
Think about all the work that was put into tonight. How much time you spent thinking of what to wear, how to do your hair, and all the time your teachers and the leaders here put into making this place look beautiful for you. A lot right?
Now God tells us that our inner beauty is more important, so all the time that was put into to the outward appearance, we should put even more time into giving our hearts a makeover.
Can you think of some ways that we can work on our inner beauty, how do we give our hearts that makeover I just mentioned? Like I said earlier, if we ever have questions on what we should or should not do, we can read our bibles. So reading our bibles is a great step in making over our hearts. We can pray for strength, and for God to help us be kind and gentle and loving. As well as the other fruits of the spirit.
Now another make-over step, that is sometimes a little harder, is listening to and obeying our parents.The bible tells us to honor our parents. Moms and dads usually know what is best for us because they watch over us and a lot of times have struggled with the same things, so listening to them is a great way to stay on track and keep our beauty shining through. I mean moms, how beautiful do your little girls look when you walk in and they are cleaning their rooms after you only asked them once?
Everyone in this room has the potential to be a hundred times more beautiful than they already are by simply following after what God’s word tells us.
Like I said earlier, each of us were wonderfully made and our outer beauty was made perfectly by God. We should take care of ourselves and our appearance, but more importantly we should focus on our inner beauty because that is what God looks at and cares about.
I want to challenge you all, to not only work on your own beauty, but to let those around you know how beautiful they are. It is easy to forget how great we really are, so it is nice to hear it from people that we care about. Can everyone here take on that challenge?