What constitutes beauty

MK, I agree with you, but I think we all know what constitutes beauty in this life. It's a certain physical appearance. People may say, "well, pretty is as pretty does", but do they really believe it?

Humanity has been separating the beautiful women from the not-so-beautiful women forever....it's not just a 20th century American idea. And while in the animal kingdom, it is often times the males who are more adorned, in the human realm, it is the women who bears this burden. Some women, whether they be beautiful or not, bear it with grace and dignity. Others can't rise above their beauty or their lack of it due the importance placed on it.

There is nothing wrong with being beautiful. I don't cry too hard when I look in the mirror. :laugh: :laugh: My mother is quite the beauty queen. She is not sinning in being overwhelming attractive, but she would be if she ever exploited it for personal gain.

The problem with beauty, or should I say the response to beauty, is that we make judgments as to a woman's worth as a person based on their outward apppearance. There is the whole ugly (pardon the pun) crux of the matter.

Here's some scripture (I didn't list all that I found) for everyone to chew on concerning the physical attributes of women or the lack thereof and how it has been a burden for both the beautiful woman and the unattractive woman over eons of history.

• Genesis 6:2 - The Godly men of the descendants of Seth weren't content with their own women, some of whom I'm sure were very beautiful. But when they saw that there were beautiful women amongst the ungodly people of Cain's descendants, they brough great destruction upon themselves by intermarrying with ungodly people for the sake of a pretty face that was forbidden to them.
• Genesis 12:11 - Sarah, who was Abraham's half-sister and wife, was described as a great beauty. More than once, because of her looks, she became a pawn in a deadly mix of lies and greed between her husband and other powerful men.
• Genesis 24:6 - Rebecca, Isaac's wife, was described not only as being beautiful, but as young and a virgin. Those seem to be her only calling card to being worthy of being a wife. Those three attributes come up over and over in the bible.
• Genesis 29:17 - The bibles says that Leah has "weak eyes" and that Rachel was beautiful. Whatever that means, with it being compared to Rachel's beauty, there must have been something about Leah's physical appearance that was unappealing to Jacob. And Leah was hated for it and hated for being a third-wheel. The bible says that God, Himself, saw that Leah was hated and he had compassion on her and blessed her. She craved Jacob's affections, but he never loved her, but only showed partiality between his wives and his own children all of his life.
• Deuteronomy 21:11-14 - When God's people fought with their enemies, they were allowed to kidnap any foreign women that they considered beautiful and were sexually attracted to. They were allowed to dishonor these women, yes the bible says "dishonor" by bringing them home, shaving their head, giving them only 30 days to mourn their families, and then consummated the relationship. The bible says that if these women did not please them, that they could not sell them because they had been dishonored.
• 1 Kings 1:3-4 - Here is another example of the physical attractiveness/sexuality of a woman being where mortals place her value. When King David was dying, his servants got the notion to put a woman in bed with him to keep him warm and alive as long as possible. The bible says that they "seached throughout Israel" for a beautiful girl to attend his needs. They found one, but by that time the bible says he was too far gone to have relations with her. It seems to me that if they had spent their time giving him proper nursing care instead of having a beauty contest....who knows....
• Esther 2:2-17 - (Esther is one of my favorite women, but not for her beauty) When King Xerxes wanted to replace Queen Vashti, the search went on once again for those famous three attribute: beautiful.....young.....virgin. The beauty contest involved cosmetic treatments before the king would make his decision. The bible says that Esther, in her appearance, "found favor" with the King. Even so, before their union was consummated, she was placed on a special diet and had to undergo 12 more months of beauty treatments.
• Job 42:15 - After Job's sufferings, he was blessed with 10 more children. The bible says that his 3 new daughters were more beautiful than anyone in the land. It doesn't say if their character was noble or not, but they were indeed "lookers". It says that they got to share in their father's inheritance with their brothers and implies by the sentence structure that it was because of their beauty.

If we are to focus on the true beauty and the true worth of a woman to a man and to society, then we need to look at three different types of scripture. One is by King Solomon, one is a testimony of Mary, and the last a message by Jesus Christ, Himself.

• Proverbs 11:22 - "Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is the beautiful woman with no discretion." That's pretty self explanatory and needs to related to Paris Hilton and her cronies.
• Luke 1:28 - The angel, Gabriel related to Mary that she had found favor with God. Just as many women in the bible, like Esther, and in today's time, like Brittany Spears find favor with mortal men because of their looks, Mary found the ultimate favor.....favor with God, Himself, for something far more important....her heart.
• Matthew 27:18 - Jesus describes the woman who annointed his feet with oil as having beautiful actions. "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me." Just like Job's daughters, this woman received a permanent place in history, but for a different reason. Jesus said that whereever the gospel was preached, her story would be told of her beautiful actions.

It is a woman's lot in this life to modestly adorn herself and take care of her body and to make herself as as innocently attractive as she can to find the favor of a man. Be that good, bad, or whatever your opinion, it is a concrete reality that isn't going to change.

But another reality is that it is of a far more greater importance to find favor with God and to be so awesomely blessed as to have Jesus Christ, Himself, say to us as women, "...she has done a beautiful thing to me."

May we as women as we strive for all kinds of beauty, strive the hardest of all to win the favor of Jesus Christ.