What is Beauty?
I have never in my life asked this question more.
Everywhere I go, I hear people calling out to me “Sa’at! Sa’at!” Which means “beautiful beautiful.”
In Cambodia, I am the standard of beauty…
Fair skinned with a pointy thin nose.
Countless times, no matter where I go, people tell me I am beautiful. If I tell them they are beautiful in return, 98% of the time they shy away and begin to say, “but I’m dark and my nose is big and flat. If I was white like you I would be beautiful.”
Here, people avoid the sun at all costs. They wear long sleeve shirts and sweaters in 100 degree weather to keep their skin from the sun. They buy body wash and beauty products with whitening bleach so they can have fair skin. It has saddened me that they desire so badly to be something they’re not.
Then I began to ask myself…
How many times have I baked my skin in the sun just to be a few shades darker? How much money have I invested in beauty products to achieve a certain “look”? How many times have I compared myself to someone else and thought, “if only I was shaped like her,” or “if only I was tan like that.” How many times have I hidden behind makeup because I didn’t want people to see my insecurities?
The answer is: TOO MANY.
Too many people try to be something they are not.
And end up spending their whole lives chasing vanity.
I am fed up!
I am fed up with the lies that we need to look a certain way to be beautiful.
I am fed up with striving to be something I am not and never will be.
I am fed up with discontentment and insecurity.
I am fed up with the pressure women feel to appease the lustful eyes of a man.
It’s time to exchange the lies for TRUTH!
We must begin to believe that we have been fearfully and wonderfully made by a Creator who does not make mistakes!
We must begin to believe that we are unique and were knit together by a loving God in our mothers womb.
We must begin to believe that true beauty is NOT defined by body image but by heart condition.
You can tell me I am beautiful, but unless I believe it for myself your opinion means nothing.
Please do not get confused:
I am not against outward beauty, fashion, or makeup. I’m not against dressing up or celebrating femininity.
I AM cautioning against the obsession of these things.
How do you feel about yourself when the makeup is washed off? How do you see yourself when looking in the mirror? Are you fearful of people seeing you “undone”?
My point is this:
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
Standards of beauty differ from culture to culture & from person to person.
Therefore, we can derive that aesthetic beauty is subjective. Why then, work so hard to obtain it?
1 Peter 3:3-4 exhorts women specifically not to let our “adorning be external by the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing we wear. But to let our adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.”
Proverbs 31 when describing a desireable wife does not mention anything of outward beauty but all of inward character. Proverbs 31:30 tells us that “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”
Lastly, 1 Samuel 16:7 says that “The Lord sees NOT as man sees.” And goes on to explain that “man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
I have been given the opportunity to teach on beauty and self image next week at Daughters. I will be holding two workshops on Wednesday, June 8th and will be speaking in the chapel service on Friday, June 10th. Leslie Sanazaro who is a gifted and inspiring singer/songwriter from the states will be joining me on Friday with some pieces from her new project “Daughters of Cambodia” that talk about beauty. I am so excited! She’s a great musician and you can download her music for FREE here.
Please pray for me as I am preparing and praying about what to share/how to share it. Please pray that I wouldn’t be sharing my own ideas but that every word spoken would be spoken by the Spirit of God. Please pray that I would believe with all my heart the things I am teaching. Please pray that next week would be powerful and that each person present would begin to believe that they are…
BEAUTIFUL!
I absolutely love this entry. I appreciate your words and your provided connections with relevant bible verses. I welcome you to check out a project I have just started. Our passions are parallel 🙂
You’re so sa’at Mari. I’m proud of you and excited to discover with you what beauty really is and see you share that with everybody at Daughters 🙂
You got the passion!