Beauty & Virtue
For as long as I can remember, I have loved people watching. A few years ago, I started REALLY looking at people’s faces. You know, the world tells us what it means to “be beautiful”…
Now, don’t get offended, but I have come to the conclusion that MOST of the people on this planet would NOT be in the world’s “beautiful” category. The Bible even tells us that when Jesus was here “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him”. (Isaiah 53:2). I don’t think He was ugly, but He sure didn’t stand out.
Most people nowadays would have the same description as Jesus Himself, nice, average looking, not ugly but also not standing out. Sadly, we can get caught up comparing ourselves to the world’s standards, instead of God’s standards or just accepting ourselves for who we are…how God made us.
1 Samuel 16:7 says, “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or his stature, because I have rejected him. Man does not see what the Lord sees, for man sees what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart”, and John 7:24 says, “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.” Finally, 1 Peter 3:3-4 tells us that our beauty should not consist of outward things, but of what is inside the heart.
Have you known someone who is beautiful on the outside by the world’s standards, but is not beautiful on the inside?
I read a quote a long time ago by Woodrow Kroll…
“Beauty without virtue is like a flower without fragrance.”
Virtue is defined as:
1. moral excellence; goodness; righteousness.
2. conformity of one's life and conduct to moral and ethical principles; uprightness
Luke 6:45 says, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. Garbage in, garbage out! Good stuff in, good stuff out!
Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
The world is going to tell you all sorts of things are ok that definitely are not! This day and age is going CRAZY with all sorts of ungodly (unethical, unmoral) attitudes and actions. This world tells us it’s ok to be beautiful on the outside with no regard to the inside. Don’t listen to that! We need to be filling our hearts and minds with GOOD things. Those good things will then spill out into our everyday lives as we walk through this world as beautiful people.
