Make Me Beautiful

 

“Make me beautiful!” she announced as she plopped into the black vinyl, revolving chair at the upscale salon. Smiling, a glimmer of hope flashed in her tired eyes, as she shoved a picture ripped from a magazine into the stylist hand.  “I want to look like this!”

The stylist began to work her magic. An aromatic candle flickered on a shelf over the shampoo bowl, a relaxing massage of the neck, shoulders and hands followed the shampoo. The young mother of three energetic kids closed her eyes as the stylist began the haircut.

After blow-drying the new hair-style into place, the stylist gushed over the young lady’s shoulder, “What do you think?” Looking from the final touch up on the hair, she looked into the mirror to see the client’s reaction reflected in the mirror. She couldn’t believe her eyes.

The client’s face was clouded and tears spilled from the ladies eyes as she viewed her new hairstyle. Turning her head slowly from one side to the other and then back again, she couldn’t say anything. Yet, her tears said it all.

She didn’t look like the model in the picture.

She wasn’t beautiful.

The same tired face stared back at her in the mirror.

Same hooked nose.

Same wide, double chin.

Same dull eyes.

But the haircut wasn’t the problem.

A haircut or facial or outfit can’t make someone“feel” beautiful.

It can help, but beauty is measured with a yardstick that is constantly changing.

Feeling beautiful is an attitude.

It is an emotion that changes with the tide of popular opinion, fads and mental health.

It can be ripped from the heart with a single word or an imagined whisper.

Take Care of Yourself

While I agree a good self-image must begin with taking good care of your body, it must not end there!

Eating healthy, good grooming and smelling good is a great beginning place, but with a skewed attitude you can still feel ugly. Viewing yourself with a distorted attitude is like viewing yourself in a trick mirror at a carnival. We know the mirror image is distorted at a carnival, but somehow we believe what our mind or culture tells us about what we see in the mirror.

Some suggestions to help you feel beautiful.

(Please don’t brush these aside!)

1. Nourish your body, mind and spirit.
2. Receive and give love. You need both.
3. Absolutely BANISH negative self-talk.
4. Use a new mirror to describe and define real beauty—God’s Word. Fill your mind and heart with the Truth from God’s Word. What does God say about you?
5. Believe what God says and NOT how culture defines beauty. He made you. He loves you. He believes in you. You are beautiful to Him. That matters.
6. Smile more. Laugh more.
7. Don’t think less of yourself, just think about yourself less. (A C. S. Lewis ideology.)
8. Begin to genuinely care more about other people.
9. Work at worrying less and less about what people think.
10. Accept Jesus as your Savior.