The Secret to Beauty

Hey y’all!  WHEW!  These past few weeks have been crazy busy and left me in a whirlwind – there is just so much that has gone on!  Two family, birthdays, a mission trip, a doctor appointment, I’m leaving again tomorrow for a week… July is just flying past!  But, I said that I wanted to blog more often this summer, so I wanted to take a few minutes to update you about a part of my life and some lessons I’ve learned through it :)

So, recently I went to the dentist for some concerns I had about my mouth.  I have this weird bump on the roof of my mouth, y’all.  Well, I found out what it was… a permanent tooth that never came down because the baby tooth never fell out.  Oh great!  So yeah, we’re going to have to take care of that soon.  I’m not going to get into details, but… let’s just say, it sounds really painful.

On the way home from the dentist though, I had a very bad attitude for no reason.  I’ll be honest with you: I was mad at my parents, mad at the dentist, and just all around mad at the world.  My parents have always told me “You’re beautiful the way God made you,” but when they said that the teeth issue was going to have to get taken care of and I’ll have to get a bunch of stuff done to my mouth, I was really upset.  I didn’t understand why I had to get this done, if God truly made me beautiful the way I am.  Cause, if I’m beautiful how He made me, why would I need to change anything?!

Oh, and I also hate to spend money.  I want to make sure that I spend it very wisely and NOT on myself, and I want to save as much as possible for things like birthday presents (I have a lot of siblings, so it’s necessary to save for that!).  So, naturally, knowing that dental stuff costs money, I was upset that we have to spend so much on me. My mom told me this: “One of the responsibilities God has given us as parents is to take care of our children.  We felt that this was something that legitimately needed to be addressed, and it is our privilege to take care of you in this way.”

Girls, God truly has made you beautiful the way you are.  We can go ahead and establish that truth.  When you look in the mirror, it’s so often hard to find that beauty because all we see are the blemishes.  And when legitimate issues have to be fixed – like my teeth – we think that they are blemishes and hindrances that have marred our faces and therefore, made us ugly.  That’s not true.  Because of sin, we all will probably have issues of some sort with our bodies.  Our flesh has been dying since the day we were born.  Some issues are legitimate concerns and need to be addressed, but they aren’t reasons to blame God.

Okay, so we've established the fact that God made us beautiful... but if you're a normal girl, you're probably tempted to ask, exactly where is that beauty?!

God truly has made you beautiful, because He gave you a smile.  So no matter what issues you may have with your face, you can still smile with your eyes and with your mouth. And I believe that the secret to beauty!  Because a smiling girl, no matter what issues they may have with their face or body, is going to look absolutely breathtakingly beautiful in appearance if she adorns herself with a smile.

So no matter how I feel about the issues with my teeth that have to be fixed, I need to remind myself that it is a privilege to take care of these issues; not because God didn’t make me beautiful or there’s something wrong with me and I’m ugly.  And, I need to remember that despite any issues, God has given me a smile that can make me beautiful in an instant.

So girls, the next time you look in the mirror, remember that God’s given you the secret to a beautiful outward appearance, no matter what color your hair is or how clear of a complexion or how straight of teeth you have.  He’s given you the simple recipe: a smile.

But, I want to quickly make a point here.  I’ve been talking about our external looks in this post and our outward beauty.  But remember, that beauty really doesn’t count in the long run!  Be beautiful on the inside.  If you want to be truly gorgeous inside AND out, you’ve got to cultivate the inward beauty.  And then, put on a smile! :)

(Well, I hope that all made sense… xD)

So, chins-up, girls – and let the world see your beautiful smile!  And don’t forget to be truly beautiful on the INSIDE first!! :)