On Being Beautiful

Beauty is not defined by clothes or shape or hair or skin

Beauty is something that we wear, not outward, but within

For flesh is like the grass; its days like flowers of a field

The beauty of a lovely heart produces ageless yield

Beauty for all its toast and boast is reserved for the one

Who does not use a looking glass to draw approval from

But knows that there is One who sees beyond glamour’s trite art

He searches and beholds the hidden manner of the heart

Oh God, please make us beautiful, not as the world approves

But give us eyes of mercy, tongues gentle, a heart that loves

For as we look beyond ourselves and vanity and pride

Then you bestow true beauty that the outward cannot hide

© Janet Martin

Never before has the pressure to ‘look good, feel good’ been as intense as in this generation, almost implying we have failed somehow if we do not meet those standards.

There is a standard however we dare not fail to meet; My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. Ps. 51:17

Man sees the outward; God sees the heart…

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." 1 Sam. 16:7