It is often said that, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Some things, however, are inarguably beautiful, inspiring passion, emotion, and awe; for example, sunrises and sunsets, God’s unconditional love, or even mountains so enormously tall that they are engulfed in the clouds. Some smaller things, like the birth of a child, or the lush green that comes with spring, are beautiful. In a human regard, beauty for some is based on physical attractiveness.
A female’s physical attributes are expected to be enhanced, modified, and changed to live up to society’s standard of perfection. The problem is women are told they need to look perfect, and most, if not all, want to fit the world’s standard of what is ‘beautiful’ because they believe that until they reach that standard, they are undesirable. Until they believe that they have met their goal of perfection, which is unattainable by the way, they feel unworthy of love and attention, and see themselves through comparisons with the people who are seemingly perfect. They think they are too different- too far from worldly guidelines to be loved.
When did different come to mean unattractive, strange, undesirable, unwanted, instead of interesting, compelling, desired, and beautiful? Instead of different being seen as a good thing, many now see being different as a flaw. To me it seems like the world is in utter bewilderment. Now a days, people confuse the word ‘like’ for the word ‘love’, and ‘beauty’ has come to mean ‘hot’ or ‘sexy’ to many.
Models are considered “beautiful”, yet some are self-revolving, indulgent people who treat others like they are scum. And we all can think of that intimidating high school beauty queen with the ‘perfect’ everything, but whose friends were fake, and her mouth was full of gossip and harsh, selfish, words. Is this what beauty has become? An enticing mirage to hide what really lies underneath? As my dad puts it, “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes down to the bone.” What happened to that true and lovely feeling of passion, emotion, and awe that I described earlier, and is what is truly beautiful being overlooked?
I know I am not the only one who has witnessed someone lusting over another and mistaking what they saw as beautiful when all they really loved was the easy satisfaction. Maybe it’s because I’m young, and I myself want eventually to find that person I can spend the rest of my life with, that my vision maybe skewed, but I feel like the girls who hold themselves to a higher standard than the world holds them to, are sometimes the last ones to have a first date, but the first to find a lasting relationship later on.
The ones who strive to serve Christ with their lives and decisions; those are the girls that, because they’re different, are so much more intimidating because they aren’t as easy to get to. People often go after what is easier to get, so those good Christian girls often feel overlooked, when the truth is their true beauty is the first to be noticed, but because they are so hard to attain, there are so few guys willing to man up to the challenge. Chasing after what is easy instead of what is Godly, happens all the time, and we all do it. But ignoring true beauty for those who are sometimes more visually pleasing but internally dissatisfying, is a perfect example of why we all need to chase what is true and not false, what is less easily attained but has more lasting value. True beauty flows from the inside- it’s time for the world to stop lusting with its eyes, and start loving with its heart.
