Me: "Heidi, what makes you attractive?"
Heidi: "Why?"
Me: "I just want to hear what you have to say."
Heidi: "Okay, but don't send it to anyone."
Me: "Okay, go ahead."
Heidi: "Um, long hair, fair skin, pretty eyes, cute clothes."
Me: "What makes you important?"
Heidi: "Being saved."
Me: "Being saved makes you important?"
Heidi: "Sort of"
Me: "Where you important before you were saved?"
Heidi: "I think so, but I am now more important."
Me: "What makes you beautiful?"
Heidi: "When I am nice, when I am not doing anything bad. Sometimes talents make you pretty."
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Me: "Reagan, what makes you attractive?"
Reagan: "Uh, um, maybe pretty shoes?"
Me: "You think people look at your shoes to see if you are pretty?"
Reagan: "haha, no..."
Reagan: "By putting pretty clothes on?"
Me: "What makes you beautiful?"
Reagan: "Ummm if you try to be pretty?"
Me: "Okay, what makes you important?"
Reagan: "cause I'm a good kid"
Me: *laughs* "Yes! What else?"
Reagan: **Smiles** "Cause I'm your kid!"
Me: "Okay...that's all."
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Me: "Alright, both of you...what makes you beautiful???"
Heidi: "When you are good inside your body."
Me: "Okay, so...what is the only good thing in you?"
Heidi: "Christ is the only good thing in us."
Me: "Now I am going to ask you again, what us makes us beautiful?"
Heidi: "Christ, he helps us to be good and that is how we are beautiful."
Me: "Yes, because he is constantly making us more like him. Now, is beauty the same as being attractive?"
Heidi: (Reagan is listening, Heidi is talking...as usual) "It can be, well, attractive means that you're pretty and sometimes that means you are handsome and it means you are nice in a lot of ways and it means that you can have a good heart."
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Hmmm. I wondered what my kids were thinking on this topic. Of course, I have talked and talked to the kids on this topic and about how beauty is on the inside...etc. etc. This was another good talk. Another good time to teach my kids about what God thinks about beauty. Even though we talk a lot about this in our house, it's interesting how the world bombards them. I particularly like it when I am dealing with some ugly behavior between my girls and I ask them..."When your sister acts like that, do you see beauty? No? What DO you see??" But it has to be gone over, and over again. Sometimes I wonder if I myself am giving them mixed messages, I can only ask God to fill in where I fail miserably, I know He will. ;-)
Now I have to admit, I do love a beautiful pair of colorful stilettos and a nicely fitting outfit to go with it. I am spoiled that my husband affords me such pleasantries. Being in the right place at the right time and getting a great pair of fuschia heels for 5 bucks helps too!
Alright...here is a question. When people look at the way you dress, do they judge you? When people look at YOU, do they judge you? And if they judge you...how? By your looks, by the way you dress, by your actions?
Let's talk about that briefly. The world and everyone around you does judge whether you like it or not. It simply is what it is, I don't care what culture you come from. So Heidi was right in one degree on what she defined as "attractive." If you go to a job interview dressed like a slob, you won't be looking very attractive to that employer, and they won't want your slob self representing their company. So if you dress respectively, you might be attractive to them and get that job. But, besides job interviews, dressing appropriately (which is different from expensively)also helps give you a voice and helps people to be able to hear and respect what you have to say. So, does clothing help with attractiveness? Yes. It can.
Now. Let's talk about what our Christian eyes should see. Now, before I get into this, let me tell you that God has been working on me and has been molding me and I have been knocked FLAT on my rear-end and have eaten much humble pie for Him to help me see. When we see someone who we deem as "unattractive" we should see a human who is fearfully and wonderfully made by God Himself! Created in God's own image, loved by God and whom Christ died for. Do we think our souls are more important than anyone else's?
I volunteered at the Kitsap County Jail for women's Bible study a while back. Now, a lot of those ladies are considered to be some of the most unattractive both inside and out. But when you got in there and got to know them, those women have had such sad lives. Some of the most unfortunate stories I have ever heard. Their souls wrapped up in bondage from the most tender ages. My heart would break and I would just scream at Satan for his devious ways and my stomach would turn at how wretched sin is and what it does to the most innocent of lives.
Why should we be so concerned with what people look like or what they are wearing? There are souls to be won for Christ. We need to storm the gates of hell. We need to love people in all their conditions. Sometimes I find the hardest to love is someone who is considered by all to be magnificent in beauty, but has the most wretched attitude. No matter how beautiful, if you stink on the inside...you wreak all over. Yet, we are commanded to love ALL. In all conditions. Not those who are just the easiest to love.
Now, is it wrong for me to want to look nice? No. I like looking and dressing nice. I like when my husband thinks I look pretty. Nothing wrong with that. But what matters more is what you are on the inside. Do you love people? No matter what they look like, color, shape or size? God does. He created them, each and everyone in His image. He makes no mistakes. Everyone is beautiful to Him. He died for each one, He gave His life because each and everyone is worth it to Him. Each and everyone is beautiful to Him. So shouldn't we see or at least give our best efforts to see people like that also? In a world consumed with outward beauty, let's be different and let the only good thing in us (Christ! Who makes us beautiful because He makes us more like HIM!!!) shine through.
