Tuesday, November 13, 2007

True Beauty


The following essay was written by my cousin's 14 year old daughter. I have posted it on both my blogs, as I didn't want any of my readers to miss it. (The author's name has been withheld by request.)
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Letter About Beauty

I hate it when the girls show off their bodies. They show off all of their legs, as in, if their shorts went any shorter they’d be wearing underwear. I guess they think they’d be accepted if they wear basically nothing. It bothers me that their shirts are like bras; it shows all of their stomach and a lot of their chest. What’s with this? It drives me insane! Why can’t they be modest for once? Why do their parents even let them wear this stuff anyway? Why do they even make those clothes in the first place? Who came up with that? Why does everyone strive to be “beautiful”? Why do we all want to be skinny? Yeah, everyone does think about being beautiful and skinny. Even beautiful, skinny girls think that they’re not skinny or pretty enough. What’s with “Oh I wish I had her clothes”, or “Why can’t I get into a size 0 like she can?” Or even “Oh I love her hair! I wish I had her hair.” Or “She always gets the hottest guys, why doesn’t any good looking guy want to go out with me?”? I hate that! But yet, I do that too, just like you do. So this is why I’m writing this to you. I’m going to try to stand up against those lies. You are beautiful, I’m beautiful, she’s beautiful, we are all beautiful. Even when we grow older and the outside appearance may not be as beautiful as it used to be, lets make sure that we’re always modest, and that our inside is beautiful. There are some girls out there who have the most beautiful outward appearance, but inside is the most hideous person on the face of the earth, just by her attitude and her thoughts. We need to be confidant in ourselves. Girls, we need to remember to not show off our bodies so those guys can see it, just wait for your husband, only he should see that. I love the way Emily Downs puts it in an article in Focus On The Family’s teenage girl’s magazine, Brio, she says that “As females, we need to stop putting so much of our worth in outward appearance. Our Lord created humans in His image, not just the thin, perfect-looking people, but every one of us in all our shapes and sizes. God doesn’t see beauty the way today’s media do. He created tiny girls and curvy girls.” God did create us. He doesn’t make junk. He made you the way you are; he made me the way I am. Even the models are not as thin as the pictures in the magazine. They use computers to fix up their hair, eyes, their size, they get rid of their zits, they make their boobs bigger, or their legs more tan, or they get rid of the spot that they missed when they shaved. No one is perfect.
We don’t need to show off our bodies to be beautiful, in fact that’s just disgusting!
We don’t need to have perfect hair; we don’t need to be a size 0. We just need to be ourselves. Proverbs 31:30 says “Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” Also Psalms 139:14 says “…I am fearfully and wonderfully made…” The bible says that we are created in God’s image! If you think that you’re ugly, and not good enough, that’s just like insulting God because he made us like this! So think positive, be modest, and most importantly of all, be the girl who God made you to be!


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4 comments:

Keeping It Real said...

Those are beautiful, thought-provoking, profound words. For such a young lady, your cousin's daughter speaks volumes. She's very wise. I hope a lot of people (young and not-so-young) will read her message and take heed.

Hidden One said...

I concur with Queeny.

Keith said...

From a guy's perspective, this is a big issue as well. It seems to me that men are the ones who have conditioned women to think that the only way to catch a man's attention is by showing off her body. Now the girls think it's cool. I keep wondering where the ultra-feminists are to decry the using of women in such a way.

I can tell you that while girls who dress that way may get a lot of attention, it's not really the attention they're looking for. When a man decides he wants to find a good wife, he won't be looking at them. He'll be looking for a woman with proven character- a truly virtuous woman.

I am encouraged to see that not all young women have been taken in by this lie. I encourage the author of this article as well as many other young women like her to stay the course.

Anonymous said...

Wow, what an awesome young lady. Such thought provoking remarks. I'm so glad to see that there are still young girls out there that realize their true worth is in God, and what's on the inside.....not what is "hanging out". Women are so exploited now days, it's refreshing to see a young lady stand for commonn decency! You are to be loudly applauded!Thanks for speaking out and taking a stand!