Articles
Beauty
I saw a picture of a woman I haven’t seen in over 50 years. When she was in her teens, she was quite attractive, but more than five decades have taken their toll on her face. But that’s OK—provided she is beautiful on the inside.
Beyond externals
Isaac McNally made an interesting point regarding the Worthy Woman of Proverbs 31—it doesn’t say whether she was outwardly beautiful. After describing the excellence of her character, the passage does say, however, “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised” (v. 30). “Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious” (1 Peter 3:3-4).
As God sees it
Whether one is physically attractive or not, it’s what’s inside that counts. When God sent Samuel to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as king over Israel, Samuel was highly impressed when he saw the oldest son Eliab. But God told him, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Once again, we see God’s values and ours so often clash. That’s why we need to be in the Scriptures daily, to re- program our thinking to be in line with His. From the inside out.
