Why lipstick ain’t as good as it used to be…

With lipstick smeared and fingernail polish chipped she walks on wobbly feet in her high heels. She awaits her prince charming.

She said she would marry him one day and she meant it. He is after all her first crush. She anticipates his arrival and the three words that make her heart sing, “you are beautiful”. Her daddy is home.

I think girls of all ages long to know someone thinks they are beautiful. Years pass and we are all grown and we are still clamoring within our hearts for that validation.

This world withholds this kind of approval from most of us girls. The requirements of beauty are lengthy and you can find them listed in numerous places. I most often find them on the days I need a cut and color and my gray is shining. Or maybe my pants are a little tight and my makeup has vaporized. I read a sign once that said the average women eats six pounds of lipstick in her lifetime. I’m sure it’s true because I certainly appear to never have any on. 

Our lipstick has failed us. So has our scale, our jeans, and every shiny magazine that awaits us at checkout. The Dove Campaign For Real Beauty has some interesting results. Eighty percent of women agree that every woman has something about her that is beautiful but do not see their own beauty. My word, there are a lot of us that feel the same way.

How can we feel beautiful when it seems so unattainable? It’s not enough for others to tell us we are beautiful. What do they know we ask ourselves secretly? We don’t feel pretty. I’m still searching for the answer cause well, you know…

Young women trade their virginity and their reputation to feel it. They Snapchat pictures and hope against hope that he sees pretty. We visit chat rooms, wear clothing that we shouldn’t and have secret conversations searching for…

Proverbs tells us that physical beauty is fleeting. I often look in the mirror and think, who is this woman? I have been kidnapped. Where does this strange woman have me hidden? Real is not cover worthy. Don’t even get me started on plus size stores pinning their clothes on the mannequins to make them look smaller.

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment…Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit…” 1 Peter 3:3-4 (NIV)

Yeah, yeah, I know Lord but it’s a struggle that us girls need help with. You know that beautiful bodies are the things that we feel we must run after – sometimes at all cost.

why lipstick ain't as good as it used to be

So what I offer you today is what I take for myself. We’ve got to know what we don’t feel. If we don’t begin to believe God and get this now, we will leave this world behind thinking we need something we have. We will long for what already lies within us.

How, Oh Lord, how? Help us to grasp the beauty You see in us. We just don’t see it ourselves. Will You send us sweet friends to remind us of our beauty? Will you enable us to be that sweet friend to others? Will You speak to our hearts in the stillness of our time alone with You? Will You sing over us the words of Song of Songs “Behold, you are beautiful my love, behold, you are beautiful!…You are altogether beautiful my love; there is no flaw in you.” And, give us the strength to believe sweet Jesus. Amen.

Joining with other write

Jennifer Dukes Lee – #TellHisStory                 Holly Barrett – Testimony Tuesday

Susan B. Mead – #DanceWithJesus                 Barbie Swihart – The Weekend Brew

Kelly Balarie – #raralinkup

Kathy Gossen – Titus 2 Tuesday

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40 Comments

  1. I love this Carmen! I have 2 daughter and long for them to see how beautiful they are in Jesus’ eyes and value themselves the same way … then I have to ask myself, “Do I?” Thank you linking up with #RaRaLinkup

  2. I have a whole story I could tell of natural beauty and how I’ve been hurt by supposedly well meaning “friends” because I don’t wear make up and I have a bad case of rosacea. I have considered make-up before but my husband says that he thinks I’m beautiful just as I am. Sometimes I believe him forgetting about my skin problems then other times I look in the mirror or someone has to ask me what’s wrong with my face and I struggle. I’ve thought about writing a blog post about this very thing but haven’t brought myself to do it. I really enjoyed this encouraging post, Carmen. I’m glad I found you at the #DanceWithJesus link up.

  3. Carmen, what an amazing post! When I was in college I worked as a Substitute Teacher at a high school and my heart often ached for teens and young women who hadn’t realized their beauty and worth. Reading your post has set a fire in my heart to truly seek THE LORD in prayer on this. Thank you so much for sharing this! Infinite blessing to you, Love! :-)

  4. Beautifully written, my dear. Beautifully! I have been one of those girls. But the hand of the Lord….oh, when He comes into the picture, healing things happen. On a different note, I had to laugh because just this morning I was making notes about this very topic and was watching a Dove video. :-) Then, I read your post. Go get ’em, girl!

  5. Beautiful post, Carmen. I loved what Phyllis said up there too. This is such an important topic for women, isn’t it? I wrote a post on this same 1 Peter verse, but I think you’ve hit the nail on the head when you say that we longed for that affirmation for our dads first. (I was pretty fortunate in that department, but know so many women who were not.) I look forward to sharing this on social media!

  6. Hi, it’s good to read something from you.The words that came to mind as I read were “the beauty of holiness”. While I am not quite totally blind yet, I realized that there’s another blessing in not being able to see – I don’t see my physical flaws, which is good because I have plenty other flaws to go around. Thank you for writing.Blessings!

  7. Hi Carmen! This is such a great topic I wrote a post about this too, and I think we can’t hear it enough. Who should tell us that we are beautiful? I think it’s us.
    We all look around for standards of beauty, but again, who sets those? God made us perfectly, and we are perfect in his eyes. I must strive to see myself in his eyes.
    Nice to meet you! From #Ra-Ra lInkup,
    Ceil

  8. Carmen,
    Your beautiful words brought tears to my eyes. How very true that we never outgrow the need to feel loved and highly valued. What a precious gift for your little one to have a daddy to tell her she is beautiful. We make an effort to tell our girls as well. I wish my dad had made me feel loved and special.
    Blessings,
    Kamea

  9. I have read that beauty arises, that we are most beautiful, in those moments when we are free of the demands of our own ego. When we are peacefully and lovingly going about our lives. When we are smiling and laughing and at peace in our own skin, in other words, when we are free of self-focused, self-centered thoughts and when we are not busy being self absorbed, we are often focused on meaningful tasks or on listening to others. It is then, that our hearts, minds and energy fields are more Christ-like and the experience that others have when they are in our presence, a beautiful one. We are beautiful when we feel beautiful.

    Nice words huh? Laughter!! Notice how the word Photoshop, and any of the things it can “enhance”, don’t even appear in that paragraph? I spend a great deal of my life in a business in which Photoshop plays a key role. And even knowing the myriad ways that Photoshop is used to create unrealistic ideas about beauty, I still fall victim to the very things that you wrote today Carmen. Thank you for inspiring me to dig deeper and look somewhere other than the mirror for my own.

  10. “We’ve got to know what we don’t feel.” So true, and something I try to drive home to my daughters. That last paragraph really hit home with me, and I’m going to be pondering on that for a while. I truly don’t want to leave this world longing for something I already have. Thanks for this.

  11. Carmen, I love this post. So true. So true. We chase after what we already have. How twisted up we get when it comes to being comfortable in our own skin. Thanks for a call it like it is post. Linking with you at Tell His Story.

  12. Carmen, your beautiful face is what made me click on your post for the first time. Then I got to meet your beautiful heart! So grateful for your words today. They are most certainly true — it’s easier to see beauty in others than in ourselves.

  13. Hi Caremen, I came over from the Ra Ra link up. I loved reading these encouraging words that you shared. It’s sad, isn’t it, how we’re often so much harder on ourselves than we are on others. I never look at someone else and think they’re ugly, but I do it to myself on my bad days. What you’ve shared here is so true. We need to remember what God says about us and believe it.

  14. Wonderful words this morning. Every girl and every woman should hear these words. Thank you for everything you do. You are a Classy Lady. Love you much. May God continue to use your words and thoughts.

  15. Thank you for giving us this reminder today. Real beauty comes from within and can’t help but show on the outside. Like you said others can see it but we can’t seem to see it in ourselves. He has made us beautiful. We are all unique and beloved daughters of God. We can see it in others. Why can’t we see it in ourselves? I appreciate your prayer at the end. May God bless you, Carmen. You are beautiful!