Thankful Thursday- True Beauty

Today’s Thankful Thursday theme is beauty.  My favorite verse on beauty is in I Peter 3:3-4 which says

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes.  Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

First of all to expel any chances of legalism, let me clarify that I do not like this post because I think it tells women what not to wear (that is the job of Stacy on the TLC show LOL)  Just to clear that up I looked up the verse in my Matthew Henry NIV Commentary.  Braided hair was commonly worn by “lewd” women in the contextual times and adorning yourself in gold bangles and jewelry was considered sensual and excessive in that culture.  Do I believe that applies to us today? No- does it matter? No.  That is not the point of the verse.

The point of the verse is how to accomplish something of great worth in our heavenly Father’s eyes and that is by possessing a beautiful inner self, a gentle and quiet spirit.  This chapter starts off by telling women how to act and behave, even if your husband is not a believer.  When you read it in that context doesn’t it make complete sense that Paul would be talking about having a gentle and quiet spirit.  Back in Proverbs 19: 13b, we learn that a “quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping”.  Basically, we can all recognize that a nagging and argumentative approach is rarely effective when dealing with anyone, including our husbands.

What is beautiful (and most similiar to God’s Way) is a person who approaches life gently, not looking for a fight or to prove they are right, but looking for common ground.  The best witness we have (and certainly the most attractive one) is to let God’s light shine through us, through our souls.   The blood of Jesus has wiped out every piece of ugly we have.  If we choose to let that beautiful soul shine through, true beauty is reflected in our inward and outward appearance. 

And for that I am truly thankful.

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