What do you think of when you think of beauty? I think of fall scented days when the sun shines on radiantly colored leaves, a newborn baby’s perfect toes and pink lips, a breathtaking sunset over the Rocky Mountains. However, my mind also conjures up images of thin women with gorgeous, cellulite free legs, long flowing hair, and flawless skin.

Is that the Lord’s view of beauty? Beauty was, after all, the Lord’s idea; the Bible tells us that He is the perfection of beauty itself! Beauty is a gift from the Lord. Look around you – notice the infinite examples of beauty the Lord chose to bless us with each and every day. The Lord could have opted to transform summer’s leaf covered trees into instant nakedness in the fall. Instead, for OUR pleasure, He chose a slow and glorious process of change that includes radiant reds, oranges, and yellows. Fall is such a visual reminder of God’s love for us in the form of beauty isn’t it?

The truth is though, that we are drawn to physical beauty. At some point we’ve all probably favored someone because they were physically attractive. Statistics show that people who are perceived as physically beautiful will earn an average of $230,000 dollars more in lifetime earnings, are significantly more likely to be hired for jobs, and are more often described as “likeable” in pictures when compared to a less physically attractive person. Was that the Lord’s plan for beauty? I don’t think so.

I believe the world’s distorted view of beauty is much like the apple in the garden. It was inherently beautiful, alluring, and delightful to look at, all in God’s perfect design. It was the Enemy who took those characteristics and twisted them - made them dangerous - and in do so, distorted God’s plan for beauty. The value of physical beauty has become something it was never meant to be. Don’t you think that if being esteemed based on physical beauty were God’s plan that he would have made Jesus remarkably, amazingly, drop-dead gorgeous? Instead, the Bible tells us that Jesus had no beauty – that passage is translated into “fine-looking”. Jesus, the Son of God, the Christ, the beginning and the end, was fine looking! That means something to me!

It tells me that beauty our Lord values is not found in the adornments of hair, flawless skin, or a certain size. His plan for beauty is that we reflect Christ. The Bible says that “all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” The Lord’s plan for us is to measure our beauty in light of Christ’s. We are to use Him as our mirror.

Honestly, for as long as I can recall, I have struggled with what I see in the mirror. What I see is a pudgy nose, less than perfect skin, increasingly deepening creases, hair that takes a lot of heat and product to force into smooth submission, and a number of other self-labeled “flaws”. Most of my life people have said that I was pretty, but I’ve never believed it, I’ve never been able to see it for myself. This struggle is something that I’ve really had to work on. Just as I struggled for years with scale addiction, I also later realized that I had full-blown reflection addiction as well. I would search for my reflection in windows as I walked past stores and up to restaurants. I would intentionally migrate toward mirrors in my house, or at the mall. Anything that would reflect my image would suffice. And, the question would always linger, which is the most accurate reflection of what I really look like?

Thankfully, by the grace of God, I’m learning to realize is that none of them are accurate. They are all a false reflection of who I am. They literally provide a distorted view. They do not reflect my profound brokenness over the sin in the world. They do not reflect my deep commitment to prayer. They do not reflect the unimaginable depth of love and sacrifice I feel as a mom. Just as the scale delivers a false value of our worth, the mirror bares a false reflection of who we are.

When I began seeking God as my mirror, I started to see what He sees in me! In my journey toward both a healthy mind and body, I have made a conscience choice to esteem what God says about me in His Word (after all, the Bible is referred to as a mirror), more than what I see in the mirror. It’s not easy! But, as with all things, our choices either lead us closer to the Lord, or closer to the world. I’m choosing to keep my eyes and my mind on my reflection in Christ.

Today, my prayer us, is that we will seek to find our true, accurate reflection through the eyes of the Lord and there alone, the perfection of our beauty shines forth!