Beautiful (part 2)

So this is part 2 of the Blog-series "Beautiful."... lets dive right in and see if we can swim:

I believe that many women and girls do not feel beautiful because of the unfair comparisons that they make. Comparisons to the other "more beautiful" women in Hollywood, or on the magazine covers. However, is this 100% Hollywood's fault? Or did Hollywood just start taking commercial advantage of the identity crisis that many women were already experiencing?

See, when you wrap your identity up in the wrong thing(s), you end up dismantled from the outside in, and beauty is supposed to come from the inside-out. I propose 5 aspects of the female condition that many women wrap themselves up in. If your identity is even partially wrapped up in one of these 5 things, you will never feel trulybeautiful:

1. Appearance: There is a false formula that women use when it comes to beauty: more makeup + less clothes= more attention which leads to feeling more beautiful. If you could only wear the clothes that she wears, you would feel more beautiful. Or, "if I could just get my hair to do what hers does, I would be happy with it, and feel beautiful." The fact is, you spend MONEY on everything under the sun that will supposedly make you feel beautiful, yet at the end of the day, in the checkout line, when you look at the magazines, you still dont add up to "her." Maybe stop spending all your time, and money, trying to cover up or change yourself, and learn that you are already beautiful, and if people cant see that, its their problem! (atleast until next weeks blogpost, then you may discover it is your problem...*that was a teaser, by the way :))

2. House: "If my living room looked like that, i would feel so accomplished and proud." "Come on in the house, sorry for the mess "<--even though you just spent all day cleaning it, you still apologize for a mess that doesnt exist. Proven fact: Women identify themselves partially with the condition and decor of their house. The question is, are you more concerned with the wellbeing of the "home," or the house? Nothing wrong with keeping a clean, well decorated house...but when you do it because you want people to walk in and say "her kitchen is so much prettier than mine" then you are SINFUL. "Caleb, whats wrong with wanting people to admire my kitchen above their own?" well, it makes you a stumbling block for them to covet (you know, on of the 10 commandments? You shall not covet?) and it also probably means you saw a kitchen somewhere that you thought was the greatest kitchen ever, so you went and spent $15-$30,000 to redo yours...so now you are a coveter, and a terrible steward of money. Ladies, dont diminish your identity to a place where it can be bought at a cabinet retail outlet...

3. Relationships: Do you define your beauty by how much you can get a man to give you attention (husband or not)? Somehow, if he is pursuing you then you feel more beautiful...but when he isnt pursuing you, you feel less beautiful. Guess what? HE WILL NEVER PURSUE YOU ALL THE TIME. He is wired to need some time to himself...by God in fact...notice Jesus would often drift away into His on little world, even when it seemed like He was needed most? The village of Capernaum, the disciples wake up and are like "all these people are needing healed and taught, where is Jesus?" So they go on a search for Him and they find Him under a tree out in a field just chillin'. Jesus NEEDED that time to not "pursue" anything, just to be alone with God...and even, just to be alone with Himself. So maybe your "he" wants to sit on the couch and watch the game, and ignore you a little bit...it isnt because you arent the most beautiful thing in his life...it's because he NEEDS to be in a quiet place for awhile. You can feel beautiful during those times only if you take you identity and emotions out of his hands, stop relying on him to make you feel beautiful, and understand that you are already beautiful because "the king is enthralled by your beauty!

Stay tuned for the final 2 premises...I will let you digest these first 3...