On this June 2nd, the eve of my 29th birthday, I am reflecting on many things that have occurred on my past 29 trips around the sun...ideas, people, places, experiences...each one, for better or for worse, helping to create the person I am today. Some things were difficult; some were simple; some were joyful; and some were full of sorrow. Some make me laugh; some make me cry; some make me blush; and some leave me with a breathless gratitude that I cannot even begin to put into words. I will be reflecting more deeply on those things tomorrow on my other blog, MissNOLAssippi, but all of these musings combined with some recent thoughts led me to create this new blog as I make my final approach to my 30th year of life. This blog is dedicated to all of the girls and women I know, and it is driven by the absolute truth that I know...the TRUE standard of beauty.
You see, in the past several days (and I am assuming it is because swimsuit season is upon us), I have seen several of my friends post various articles, memes, and other thoughts about beauty and body image on various social media sites. Some are meant to be funny (an orangutan with its belly out as a metaphor for what one feels like swimsuit shopping); others are meant to be empowering (the "this is a plus sized model?" photos); and others still, whether knowingly or not, end up leaving me (and I am assuming at least one other woman out there) feeling inadequate and insecure (hello, unbelievably skinny model wearing a cute chevron string bikini on Pinterest). Before and after pictures of various diet and/or exercise program success stories show up on feed after feed, and inspirational workout 'til it hurts quotes pop up time and again. Let me preface this entire post by saying that I am in no way trying to degrade women who work out to be or who are naturally thin, nor am I going to glorify ignoring your body and doing whatever you want to do because that is what beauty is because NEITHER of these extremes is looking at beauty the right way. Instead, I hope to share a bit of my gospel-centered world view...to shine a light on and magnify what I know to be the one and only TRUE standard of beauty...a standard that doesn't change with the shifts in cultural expectations...a standard that doesn't rely on outward appearances or anything we can do to satisfy its criteria...a standard that is out of this world and completely attainable NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE OR WHAT YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES.
Let me explain: our culture, particularly in the past several decades, has fully and completely embraced a completely convoluted, diluted, and superficial definition of what is beautiful. Instead of beauty being defined by something true and certain, it is defined by the ever changing opinions of the media machine that dictates so much of what is acceptable and what is despicable. Instead of women being praised and appreciated for the features that make them unique and the bodies that make them who they are, they are instead judged and measured by all of the things they are not. Page after page of magazines, catalogs, and websites show us women who are about 6 feet tall, a size 0-2, have pouty lips, full chests, firm butts, tan skin, flat stomachs, and not a "jiggly bit" in sight. Our commercial culture takes an EXTREMELY SMALL population of the world's women that fit into this mold and parade it in front of us as if it is the norm. Many of these women are genetically predisposed to look like they do (in addition to diet and exercise - not discounting these things), but many more of them go to unhealthy extremes to maintain this appearance in an effort to remain employed as a "model" of current beauty. Additionally, editors go to great lengths to make sure that photos and images are digitally enhanced and altered to make certain the women they portray are shown to the utmost fulfillment of these unrealistic standards. Often times, admittedly by many of the models and actresses themselves, the women do not match in real life the images of them we see on the pages of our favorite fashion and beauty magazines. For the rest of the population, having any feature that falls short of these images is to fail in obtaining the label of "beautiful."
What is the damage this has created? Quite simply put, it has created a generation densely populated by women who are unsatisfied with their appearance, uncomfortable in their own skin, and insecure about how they look. Whether it is that they aren't tall enough or thin enough or curvy enough or tone enough or are too toned...their hair isn't wavy enough, long enough, straight enough, blonde enough, smooth enough...teeth aren't white/straight enough, nose not straight enough, eyelashes not long enough, skin not even enough...the list goes on and on. It has shamefully made us ashamed of what we look like because it isn't what we see in the pages of a magazine or equal to what we believe (wrongly so) the standard of beauty is. How can I be so certain that the standard is wrong? Easy...I know what the right standard is.
As a Christian, I believe in the greatest love story that has ever been. The God who formed the foundations of the world with a word gave life to creatures He made in His own image (Genesis 1:26-27). He called His creation man and woman, and He blessed them. As He had created light, skies, land, oceans, animals, stars and everything else, He had said they were good. But when God created man, He said His creation was VERY good. The great and all-powerful, all-knowing God of the universe found such beauty in us that He deemed us His own very good, blessed creation. That alone is amazing...incredible...unbelievable; but His love for us doesn't end there. No indeed...it only begins there. In our pride and self-centeredness, we told God (as we still do), "We don't need You. We are perfectly capable of making our own decisions and providing for ourselves. We don't want You or Your rule over our lives...we want to be independent and self-sufficient." This is what sin is. We tear ourselves away from God believing we know what is best for us, and He lets us do that despite the fact that it removes us from His presence. BUT because of His great love for us, He wouldn't...He couldn't...leave us separated from Him with no hope for return. He found us so beautiful, so desired, that He offered Himself up as a sacrifice for our betrayal of Him. It is overwhelming to think that the Sovereign God of the Universe found us so beautiful, wanted, and loved that He humbled Himself to a human life and a brutal death on the cross in order to give us a way back to Him.
Let that sink in for a minute...how beautiful must we be that God would not leave us to our own destruction but that He would give us a way back to Him. Wow! Bask in that beauty!! If we can believe that truth with all of our being, then the smoke in mirrors and facades that our culture and our world try to portray as beauty would dim to nothing compared to that reality.
I am not saying any of these things in a condescending way. I myself certainly (even still) struggle at times with accepting my body. But I no longer allow myself to be defined by those moments of insecurity. I, instead, rely on what I know true beauty to be. I believe my husband when he says that I am his standard of beauty. I believe the look in my baby boy's eyes that seems to gaze upon my face like it is the best thing he has ever seen. Don't buy into the lie that beautiful is something you are not! This is the idea I will be exploring and expounding on in this blog, and I hope you will find strength, power, and encouragement in my musings.
You are beautiful because the true standard of beauty is God's love for us...and it is unrelenting, unchanging love.
Be a Blessing,
Brittney
