The world is obsessed with beauty.  Billions of dollars are spent each day on makeup, youth restoring creams, cosmetic surgery, diet plans, working out, botox and cool sculpting.  They pump fluids into their wrinkles and suck fat out of unwanted spaces. It seems that no one is satisfied with what they were given in the first place.

The old saying, “Beauty is only skin deep.” always confused me as a teenager, especially when so much emphasis was placed on physical appearance. Young girls compare themselves by what they wear, how they fix their hair, what their teeth look like, if they can wear skinny jeans, and how they apply makeup. It took me years to learn how to pluck my eyebrows.  My mother, on the other hand had perfect eyebrows, thanks to her Maybelline eyebrow pencil.  She wouldn’t be caught dead without it.  In fact it was one of the necessities I’d pack for her if she needed to go to the hospital.  She may have looked sicker than death, but she had her eyebrows.

Women look for ways to stay young, to seem glamorous, to display glorious, color enhanced hair.  As hair is lost to age or disease, you can now get it replaced or find the perfect wig to wear until your own hair grows back.  The diet industry is huge because people aren’t happy with who they are.  They also face the threat of health issues if they don’t, but the “quick fix” always seems to be the remedy we want.

How we look on the outside is important to most of us, very important to some of us and the only thing to many. Maybe it’s time to dust off that old saying again and start looking deeper. Here’s what God’s Word says about inner beauty:

“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

One thing we all share is the ability to change.  When our inner-self changes – when we submit to God and His plan for our lives – when we cast all our burdens onto Him – that deep down beauty will come to the surface.  When we realize the price that Jesus paid to make us presentable for God, that’s really what matters.