When I worked at camp this summer the Lord taught me a lot
of really cool things and ironically enough it was usually through the
conversations I had with my campers.
One such instance of this was when I was talking to an 8th
grade girl about what beautiful really is. We talked about the way that the
world defines it and the way that God defines it and the way that we define it
for ourselves.
As we sat there with our bibles opened to Proverbs 31, she
asked me what I thought made a girl beautiful. Tough question right? And if you
have ever been any kind of counselor before you know that there are these
precious yet terrifying moments when you have absolutely no idea what to say
but somehow when you are obedient to just open your mouth and speak the Lord is
faithful to give you the right answer. And this was one of those times.
It was a simple answer: God made you and He made you
beautiful. He doesn’t make mistakes. And we are most beautiful when we are serving
Him.
And I’ll never forget the huge grin on her face (I know- cheesy line but so true!). She looked
at me and said, “Then how dare anyone say I’m not beautiful, especially me!”
Wow. Insightful 8th grader right?
The funny part about the story is that I was sitting here
with this girl, Indian style on the porch of the dining hall with my hair still
drying out from spontaneously jumping in the lake after losing a bet with a camper,
absolutely zero make-up on, and an old t-shirt and shorts. Beautiful was the
last thing I would have called myself in that moment.
But she was so right.
How dare anyone say you aren’t beautiful? Especially you.
*Another counselor shared this poem with us:
If I was Noah Webster
I would have had the blind write the definition
for
Beautiful
Because if the masters of Braille
Were entrusted with the duty
Of labeling beauty
Maybe our world would look a little different
Maybe I
Would look a little different.
So if Beauty resides in the eye
Of the beholder
We all need corrective lenses.
Because we’re all pupils
Of what others say is beautiful
But I’m tired of learning;
And I’m finally done searching
Because I found Beauty
On the corner of Lies & Loneliness
Prostituting her character
But only growing in bitterness
She’s best friends with
Backstabbing Bulimia
And Beauty intimately knows Insecurity
She has permanent ties to
Too skinny
Too wide
Too outgoing
Too shy
Too much
Not enough
Don’t be tender
Just be tough
So
Beauty set sail on the pursuit of perfection
Moved along by the winds of what she wished she
looked like
With make-up in her right hand
And a curling iron in the other
But those things made poor paddles
When flawless features eventually failed
And her boat began to sink,
Leaving her
Shipwrecked on shore
Forcing her to face
Who she was before
She gave lies a voice.
Before Expectations
Told her she didn’t have a choice
But things are never clear
When Beauty stands in front of the mirror
But Truth has 20/20 vision
And when asked
“What makes a girl beautiful?”
His reply surpasses the clique answers of
confidence
And instead dives deeper than the three layers of
skin
Beauty’s made her home in.
He says,
Beautiful is when
You can set her soul next to a sunset
And see that Jesus painted both.
Beautiful is when
She wears her mistakes
But doesn’t live in them
Because she
Intimately know the God of grace
Beautiful is when
She see her scars as stories worth telling
And she uses her healing as a way of helping
And when
Wrinkles cover her face
Because a lifetime of laughter and joy
Has put happiness in its proper place.
And beautiful is when
A woman of the Lord
Carries her cross daily
And knows that the One who gave Himself up for
her
Loves her greatly
Because
Charm is deceptive
And beauty is fleeting
But a woman who fears the Lord
Is one worth keeping
- SARAH WYCKOFF
