Beauty Is In The Eye of the Beholder Part 2

So last Sunday we talked about God being our beholder; not society, not what some guy thinks, but what He says about us and how He views us. Ultimately, His truth should be our truth, because... that's the truth.

Moving forward, what I love about the Lord is that He tends to touch on the matters of the heart more than physical stature. Once again I say, He TENDS to touch on the matters of the heart more than He does on physical stature. In doing so, it relieves the pressure from living up to our own worldly standards. It's better trust God's vision that our own. Our vision, tends be warped from all things that we experience in life, which is what we will talking about today.

There's been quite a few times when God has spoken about physicality and being healthy on the outside, but what I love most is that He created us in such a way that our insides usually reflect our actions and our beauty overall. When we rely on His opinion of us, it forces us to look within and find out if our inner image still matches up with what He originally put inside.

"But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.'” 1 Samuel 16:7 ESV

If there is one goal that you ever want to achieve in life, it should be inner beauty. I'm not talking about the kind of inner beauty that the world comprehends; being politically correct and doing good deeds. No, that can only take you so far, and I hate to break it to you, in case you didn't already know, but that's not what gets you into heaven(It's Jesus). I'm talking about spirtual inner beauty. What is going on with your soul, dude? I can guarantee, that whatever is going on with your soul seeps out into the open, no matter how much you try to hide it. I'm sure you've heard about inner beauty in a variety of generic ways but I'm going to touch on this again, anyways.

What is the soul? Your soul is your mind, will, and emotions. All three of these factors are variables that change according to your surroundings. If you've been exposed to domestic abuse, rape, betrayal, etc., these horrific events can definitely affect your soul. Same thing goes for happy experiences; daddy and daughter date, experiencing your first cruise on your birthday, and even marrying the one you love, all these events shape your mind, will, and emotions. Even as a toddler, certain things your parents have done, shaped you into who you are today.

Your thoughts, your actions, and how you feel, boils down to what you've experienced in life, and, then in turn, your choices continue. It's a cycle, the more you go in one direction the more you continue to go in that same direction, until you stop and decide to make a change. What you do now shapes what you do later and what you put in your body, DEFINITELY has an impact on your shape (unless you have a disorder or a really fast metabolism). So we can draw the conclusion that what we've experienced in life has shaped us into who we are today, the pretty and the ugly. This awareness opens the door for change.

When we are unaware of our bleeding wounds, that's when it becomes dangerous.

For example, we've all seen or heard stories of a boys who grew up in a broken home, whether it be abusive physically and/or emotionally. Let's just say that the boy's father is violent and he and his family lived in a poverty stricken household, in the projects, also, gang-banging was major in their neighborhood. That same boy grew into a man and decided to lead a different from his father. He moves out of the neighborhood and finds a good job, he gets married, and has a happy ever after, or so we assume.

Yzzy, what's your point, weren't we talking about beauty? Trust me I'm getting somewhere.

When we look at this same scenario of the boy who grew up in a broken home, because of the brokenness in his heart from living in a traumatic situation, he could have gone down the same path as his father, violent, or, he could have chosen to be a part of a gang. Or, he could have gone into this new and improved life, with financial comfort, a cozy home, and a beautiful family, again, never truly dealing with the hurt that His father caused; just letting it fester until one day, his pain is triggered, and what's really going on in his soul begins to creep out, maybe in his drinking habits, or his work ethic, it doesn't necessarily have to be violence.

As people we tend to ignore the pain and traumatic experiences that we've suffered in the past. Even now, as adults, when something happens, we revel in the pain but do nothing else about it; we don't seek healing. We just try to be strong and independent, that's what society wants us to believe, because trying to get help is a "sign of weakness." More so, our unhealthy emotional coping mechanisms are generational. We want to be our own superheroes instead of remembering that Jesus already saved us, He's our superhero.

Going back to the boy that grew up, we can say that his father is mighty ugly from all the things that he's done to his family. But what if the father looked like a Brad Pitt, this probably sounds ridiculous, but seriously, what if he's really hot. It still doesn't matter, his soul is ugly. But is it ugly because he was always hideous on the inside or is it due to wounds he never dealt with. Let's just say, no

one knew that the father had been sexually abused by his uncle and made up his mind to fight in order to prove his masculinity, even at the cost of beating his wife and kids, the man was truly unhappy. No one would know that on the inside the father's crying out in pain disguised as rage. Now, just because he was abused doesn't give him a free pass to be ugly to his kin, because everyone has a choice. Hurt people, hurt people.

Then there's me. I used to rely on my beauty to get what I wanted from a man, well a boy. Even after I became saved, that thought process took a while to leave my system. And what I learned is that those actions came from being hurt as a young girl. From being told that I was too dark and other memorable incidents in my life. Those wounds dictated my mind, will, and emotions. I'd never dealt

with the pains, and I walked around with a dark soul, hurting people as I went. During that time if you flipped me inside out, meaning my soul is on the outside and my physical beauty on the inside, you would run. Because I'm sure I looked like one of those people on the smoke commercials, not pretty, and there was definitely some demons, for sure. If we could have a dating app that showcased our soul, dating would be a lot easier, life would be more simple on social media.

Now just because you have wounds and you slipped up and messed up in life doesn't mean you're ugly. We are human, and our souls are not perfect but don't allow those wounds to fester, puss is ugly. Don't forget that we are righteous through blood of Jesus and He gives us grace, but that grace is empowerment to change and become better and better everyday, to let go of past, present, and future wounds, to allow Christ to define us and not life-situations. Out with the old and in with the new.

"Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him." Psalm 62:1

So ask yourself, and be really honest, are you spiritually good-looking? Are there soul-ties to people that you need to break off? Are you're involuntary and voluntary coping mechanisms and actions generational? Is your lord(Authority) and savior Jesus? Don't be hard on yourself, take this as an opportunity to look deep within, even write down, the things that have wounded your heart and try and see if those wounds have warped your view of the world and people or even yourself. Check to make sure that your actions derive from good health instead of pain and anger.

Prayer

My father in heaven, I pray that whoever reads this encounters you in a new way, in a way that they have never experienced before. That they may know that you love them and that you truly care. I pray that you touch their hearts and bind up their wounds, that healing takes place right now in their lives, that the tears flow that they have been holding in for years. I pray that you give them beauty from ashes and all trauma and fear melt away as they continue to seek you. I ask that they may encounter you as a true father and healer. That they may know your name is love and not punishment. In Jesus name I pray, amen.

Grace and peace to you. :)

Beauty in the eye of the beholder Part 3 will be released next Tuesday.