Where True Beauty Lies - Martin Wiles

Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. 1 Peter 3:3 NLT

“I was just trying to get pretty for you.”

My wife is a beautiful brunette, but for the past several years she has been highlighting her brunette hair with blond streaks. But the last time she had her hair colored, something happened. Since we didn’t have the funds for her to get her hair colored and highlighted, she chose to have it colored … blond.

 

As the beautician applied the chemical, my wife felt a burning sensation. When she got home, she looked in the mirror and saw that her scalp in the back was red. Things got worse. She developed headaches, then a tender scalp, and finally puss pockets.

A week after the coloring, she took a picture and sent it to our daughter-in-law who’s a nurse. The verdict? Infection. So my wife paid a visit to the local urgent care center where the doctor prescribed an antibiotic.

When my wife called to tell me the verdict, I said, “The next time you want to get pretty for me, just stay the way you are.”

Peter told first-century women not to go overboard with outward beauty, but to care for their inner beauty. Still good advice—for men, too.

Personally, I’m glad folks don’t face the world looking as they do when they first get out of bed—myself included. We wouldn’t look as we normally do, nor would we smell the same—at least not our breath. Outward grooming and good hygiene are important, but they are just that: outward.

What we do to dress up our outsides might impress others for a while—the boss, the boyfriend, the girlfriend, the wife or husband, the best friend—but it won’t last. Eventually, those we try to impress with our outward looks will see the inside through our actions and attitudes.

I’ve known some people who were gorgeous or handsome on the outside, but ugly on the inside. Their words or actions made them that way. We can’t hide forever what’s on the inside. It will color our lifestyle.

While tending to the outside is important, caring for the inside is more so. When we are in a right relationship with God, our inner beauty will shine through, and this is the light God wants others to see more than our outward appearance.

Make sure your inner beauty is the true beauty others see.

Prayer: Father, beautify us on the inside so others can see Your beauty shining through us.

Tweetable: Where do you try to find beauty?

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