True Beauty

I recently finished John and Stasi Eldredge's book Captivating. The book focuses on women's desires to be romanced, to be needed, and to be beautiful. It is quite an interesting read. I aim to soon read Wild at Heart.

The following are two descriptions of "beautiful women" that were contrasted in the book. The descriptions reminded me of the pressure women feel to "be [physically] beautiful" in this world, while ironically, attaining or "striving" (as Stasi Eldredge describes) for such beauty is exhausting.

Janet is twenty-one. She was on the dance team in high school. Small and petite with a fabulous figure. Unlike so many women in that world of competitive beauty, she escaped an eating disorder. But she runs between five and ten miles a day. She watches what she eats. She's able to wear the cutest clothes. And yet...when you're with her, your heart does not rest. Her beauty impresses, but it does not invite. The reason is simple: She is striving. She is a perfectionist (an extra two pounds is a crisis; a pimple is a disaster). Her beauty feels tenuous, shaky. It is not flowing from her heart. It's almost as if it's forced, from the outside, through discipline and fear.

June is one of the most beautiful women we have ever met. We encountered her a few years ago while doing a retreat on the coast of North Carolina. Her hair was long, swept up loosely and held by decorative combs. She wore unique, dangly earrings and pretty flowering skirts. Her eyes sparkled when she laughed, which he did often, and her smile lit up the room, She was clearly in love with her husband, her face adoring as she gazed at him. June was at rest with herself, at home in who she was. Talking with her, just being with her, made us feel more at rest with ourselves as well. Her spacious, beautiful soul invited others to come, to be, to taste and see that the Lord is good, whatever was happening in your life. She wept at the retreat. She laughed at the retreat. She was gloriously alive and in love, both with her husband and with the God of the Universe. And June was about seventy-five years old.

While reading, I found myself identifying too much with Janet while I long to make an impression like June's. I run (and feel bad when I don't). I watch what I eat. I have "perfectionist" traits. Yet, I love to smile. I love to laugh. I love to believe that my presence is inviting and alive. Why are both beauties so desirable?

As this has been a matter that I've been praying over for quite some time (wanting to "love myself" for who I've been created to be), I've believe I've finally begun to experience just the tip of the iceberg of God's unique love for me. I find myself praying to be a June more and a Janet less, and I don't plan on taking 75 years to live and share it with others.



True beauty, Eldredge writes, is one in which, "A woman invites us to know God. To experience through her that God is merciful. That he is tender and kind. That God longs for us-to be known by us and to know us. She invites us to experience that God is good, deep, lovely, alluring. Captivating."

I can feel beautiful because God created me beautifully. My beauty (my confidence, my love, my caring) invites others to know God. Let's face it, confidence is, after all, attractive!

What a unique way to view beauty! Beauty as a...way to witness for God.

Now that's a beauty to believe in and desire!