Your Beautiful When You are....

What is beauty.  I have recently been challenged to think about what my idea of beauty is.  I started to think of all the things that I see as far as physical beauty.  Long hair, smooth skin, thin, strong, stylish.   I thought back over all the people that I thought were beautiful in my life.  I realized that they did not always have all, or sometimes any, of these physical characteristics.  What was it that made them seem so beautiful to me.  I can think of 2 specific cases.
  One was a boy I had a crush on.  I thought he was so handsome.  He loved God, He was so good with children, he was kind and funny.  A few years later when the crush was over and I was able to look at him without rose coloured glasses, I realized that physically he was not a handsome boy really, but the wonderful things about his Godly character (which I eventually saw differently) is what had made him so handsome to me at the time.
  The second was a woman who one day I looked at a photograph of her that just really captured the essence of who she was to the core and I thought "Wow, she is so beautiful".  Something that I had not noticed before.  She is not the picture of traditional Hollywood beauty, but she really was and is gorgeous.  I realized that the photograph had really just captured her heart.  She is a sweet, kind, hilarious, patient, amazing Mom, who is truly seeking to grow in Christ and seek Him in everything. I could see every  ounce of that inner beauty shining through in that picture and I saw a truly beautiful woman both inside and out.  Her inner beauty had translated into outer beauty.
  There may be purely physical things that make a person beautiful, but, at least for me when Godly characteristics shine through a person can be absolutely gorgeous.
  So what does this all mean for me on my journey to be healthy and beautiful.  Well it means that while I will never be a picture of Hollywood beauty, I can radiate the beauty of our Lord to those around me; so as I am working on the outside of this body I must also work very hard and improving the inside as well.  I need to seek Christ, and become more like him each and every day.  I must draw near to Him so that I can see what I need to do to imitate Him more thoroughly in everything that I do.
In conclusion - Your Beautiful when you are Godly.