Beauty Queen

When I was in elementary school, we had an annual “competition” for Prince & Princess and King & Queen of our school. I remember one year – I was in second grade, my sister was in fourth – I won the title for Princess and she won for Queen. We both were so excited! We got these little awards… her trophy was a tad bit bigger than mine – after all, she was a Queen. And we got these beautiful long stem red roses.
When they put those roses in our little arms, tears came to our eyes… not because we were so touched, but because they were filled with thorns! No matter, though. We stood there and waved to everyone, in our best royal waves, acting as if nothing in the world was wrong. Why? Because that’s what women do. We can sacrifice a little pain for our beauty… Even little girls knew that.
When I turned 11 years old, I BEGGED my mother to “fix” my eyebrows. I was one of those unlucky girls that had the whole uni-brow thing going on… I still do if I don’t wax every six weeks. Anyway, after begging and pleading and swearing that I would “keep up” with them, my mother sat me down and began “plucking”. After about 2 minutes on ONE EYE, I begged her to stop! I didn’t really care if my eyes matched or not at that point. But, we women must go through these things to be pretty, so I sat there until she was finished. (The same thing happened when “I just couldn’t live another moment if my legs weren’t shaved”, and I about bled to death from all the teeny tiny cuts I inflicted on myself.)
But seriously, why do so many women go through so many unnecessary options to maintain what the world believes is the standard of beauty? Some drive themselves crazy by jumping on the scale every day or suffer from eating disorders, some spend hours at the gym - beyond what is healthy, some buy every ointment they can get their hands on for their “imperfections” or go under the knife for radical plastic surgeries. It’s so unfortunate because we all should be measured (and accepted) by the beauty of our hearts… not our bodies.
1 Peter 3:3-4 (NIV)
3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. 4 Rather, 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.