Lies Women Believe
BY:
Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Lies Women Believe Physical Beauty Is More Important Than Inner Beauty This message is one our culture preaches in earnest to girls and women, beginning in earliest childhood. It comes at us from virtually every angle; television, movies, music, magazines, books, and advertisements. In nearly perfect unison, they paint for us a picture of what really matters. And what matters most for women, they insist, is beauty – physical beauty. I believe that our preoccupation with external appearance goes back to the first woman. Do you remember what it was that appealed to Eve about the forbidden fruit? “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it” (Genesis 3:6). The fruit had a functional appeal (it was “good for food”); it also appealed to her desire for wisdom. But equally important was the fact that it was “pleasing to the eye” – it was physically attractive.
The Enemy succeeded in getting the woman to value physical appearance more highly than less visible qualities, such as trust and obedience. The problem wasn’t that the fruit was “beautiful” – God had made it that way. Nor was it wrong for Eve to enjoy and appreciate the beauty of God’s creation. The problem was that Eve placed undue emphasis on external appearance. In doing so, she believed and acted on a lie.
The priority Eve placed on physical attractiveness became the accepted pattern for all human beings. From that moment on, she and her husband saw themselves and their physical bodies through different eyes.
Callout:The deception that physical beauty is to be esteemed above beauty of heart, spirit, and life leaves both men and women feeling unattractive, ashamed, embarrassed, and hopelessly flawed. Ironically, the pursuit of physical beauty is invariably an unattainable, elusive goal – always just out of reach.
What can set women free from this bondage? Only the Truth can overcome the lies we have believed. God’s Word tells us the Truth about the transitory nature of physical beauty and the importance of pursuing lasting, inner beauty:
“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised” (Proverbs 31:30).
Nowhere does the Scripture condemn physical beauty or suggest that the outward appearance does not matter. What is condemned is taking pride in God-given beauty, giving excessive attention to physical beauty, or tending to physical matters while neglecting matters of the heart.
We as Christian women should seek to reflect the beauty, order, excellence, and grace of God through both our outward and inner person. As I get older, I want to focus on those things God says matter most – things like letting His Spirit cultivate in me a gracious, wise, kind, loving heart.
The fact is, if we devote our time and energy to staying fit, trim, glamorous, and youthful looking, we may achieve those objectives – for a while.
But the day will come when we will regret having neglected to cultivate that inner beauty, character, and radiance that are pleasing to God and last forever.
.DeMoss, Nancy Leigh, Lies Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free, Chicago, IL, Moody Press, 2001. |
