Beauty In The Eye of the Beholder Part 3

God gave us eyes to see, thanks to him, we have the ability look. But, as we walk through life our vision can become warped by exposure to the things of this world; the good and the bad. Not only does our vision blur's God's truth as we grow and learn on this planet, but this exposure can thwart the way that we view others.

Have you ever looked at someone, and automatically, you've mentally placed them into a certain category. For example, a homeless person. I bet you, even thinking about this sort of person, presumptive pictures have already popped up in your mind. Why? It's because we usually see the same old scraggly dude, covered in dirt, with a sign, pandering money on the side of the road. And most of us(don't even lie) look past the surface, we just feel pity and move on. Same goes for celebrities. When we think a celebrity, we think glamour and a fun life. And most celebrities are living the life; most homeless guys do tend to look the same after being on the streets for a long time.

What I am trying to say is that when we have seen a pattern over and over again, our soul takes in what we see and we began to look at things in the way that they have been shown to us. Because of this, we identify or deal with certain situations a certain way. One example of this is racism, I don't need to go any further.

Back then I was reminded of how dark I was, because of this, I used to be very surprised whenever I saw an interracial couple, specifically one with a dark skinned female and white guy or even a light skin guy. I viewed this as impossible and automatically assumed that the guy would probably cheat on her or had low self-esteem issues himself, and that's probably why he was with her. That's what I saw when I saw interracial people. If anyone knows me, yes, those thoughts have run through my mind in the past; sucks.

It gets ugly, because growing up with little money, my parents doing the very best that they could do, I saw the way people treated them and the way I have been treated. So for a while if I ever saw someone who didn't wear the latest styles or couldn't afford things like all the other kids could I would be afraid for them, looking at them with pity, because in society, I believed they had no status and no one was going to respect them. That came from my broken little heart. I was projecting my own low self-confidence unto others and over the years I've had to let go of that way of thinking because I don't want to be like everyone else; superficial. It's even worse that I looked at others and projected unto them the same beliefs as the people who put us down and saw my family as nothing. Honestly, even now I still have to watch my thoughts about myself and others.

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." Philippians 2:3-4 NIV

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Just as we have a beholder, we are the beholders ourselves, obviously. We can choose to see whatever we would like to see when we encounter others, but as Christians, aren't we supposed to be more and more like the guy who died on the cross for the world, the ugly, prideful, perverted world? We should be gentle as a dove and wise as a serpent; assessing what we see with discernment but not jumping to conclusions based on preconceived notions, what others tell us to see, or trauma and pain.

When you see people, what are you really thinking? Are you looking down on them in your mind? What you think of others when you see them still reflects on how you see yourself, or really, how you feel about yourself. And from looking within, if you come to the conclusion that you have high self-esteem and it came from comparing yourself to others just to draw that conclusion, then you still have a problem. You can't draw your self-confidence from putting others down or comparing yourself.

Look within yourself and love yourself. Look at others and see the Christ in them. Look to God and and His grace and believe that you are made His image.