Beautiful

Since I finished school, I have been doing a lot of reflecting on adolescence (even though I'm still in it for another 2.5 years grr) and school and I guess womanhood and how truly valuable it is.

I think both the church and secular society has completely missed the point of what it means to be a woman. I think God created Eve and her daughters to be beautiful, desirable, lovely, captivating. So let's think about this. Beauty... sure, we see the cultural notions of beauty. Tall, thin etc and it is the goal of many women to be this, which is why you can seriously increase sales by using the "fat free" claims. But anyway, most women don't fit the stereotype of media beauty and consequently doubt themselves and I find it sad. The other way to consider beauty is what many churches and motivational groups do and make claims that beauty is nothing to do with the physical, it's all who you are. So society can really be broken up into the women who strive to be physically beautiful and women who forget about physical beauty in the search for inner beauty. But here is something to consider... maybe God wants us to be both.

I think a woman is most beautiful when she knows that she is desired and is playing an irreplaceable role in whatever she is doing. For example, I know that I personally feel most whole and exude the most "inner" beauty when I am in the company of Antony. Why? Because I know that he desires me, that he is captivated by me physically and emotionally. Great news is that we don't need a man for this, because we have Jesus.

Personally, I am sick of seeing women at church hide behind old hairstyles in an attempt to not be noticed or because they feel inadequate compared to magazine girls. Sure, if they are comfortable how they are, that's great and I certainly do not condone women being over the top, I guess I am simply saddened to see beautiful women hide because they are afraid or have been wounded in the past. I am sick of seeing women hide behind their business and not giving others a chance to simply get to know them. Think of Mary and Martha... Jesus did not want to know about how clean the house was or how well the women could cook, he simply wanted to know them. To be in the presence of beautiful women. So why do church women spend so much time doing the chores and "pleasing" everybody?

My next gripe is when women want to do a man's job. Now I am all for equality and bla bla bla but seriously, men want to be strong, to be capable and who are we to stop them?

Imagine, a society where women had the balance between physically caring for themselves to be attractive and having a calmness, compassion and strength that makes a beautiful soul. Imagine these women were valued not because of the things they did, but because of their very presence. Imagine our men were strong and capable. They wanted to care for, desire and love their ladies, and the ladies loved it. God created man and women to need each other. Adam needed Eve as much as she needed him. Women say they can do anything they don't need a man... that is pure selfishness because our men actually need us.

For so many years I have been afraid that I too may actually be beautiful. It was a word that I thought too strong to use for myself. I am learning however, that God created me, the Daughter of Eve to be a reflection of the persona of God himself. Woman is God's beauty in life form. Man is God's strength in life form. So you know what, I will not be afraid to be vulnerable, I will let people see a calm and passionate soul. I will allow people to enjoy my company, desire my presence so that I may be a true reflection of a loving God. And the cool thing is, every woman can be that without being a 1950's housewife. That is ultimately what a lot of us are scared of, that vulnerabilty and submission is only accomplished by being the good wife, good mother, get no say lady. In fact, you can be beautiful no matter what you do. Ask God what it means.

"Am I lovely?" says a little girl to her Daddy "Yes, my Princess, you are MORE than lovely!"