~God's Beauty Queen~

This is me dressed up for a costume party this year as Ms. Minneapolis...I have a last name that has acquired many nicknames, one from my good friend Patrick, Ms. Minneapolis.

I was at the post office the other day and a man was walking towards me smiling and stopped and said, "You are a beautiful woman." Why is it easier sometimes to accept this from complete strangers and not believe it for myself, from God, or from close loved ones. So this blog is about beauty, my beauty in Christ. I pray I truly grow in beauty that is outlined below for all to see Christ's radiance and beauty through me.

Isaiah 52:7How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

Ecclesiastes 3:11He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

I have felt like God has been leading me to do a post on beauty to teach me something He wants me to accept. I was resistant....however, tonight as I was thumbing through a new devotional book I bought today, this was the first entry I turned to.

"God's Beauty Queen" Proverbs 31:30 "Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised."

As she walked across the stage in front of the crowd, I smiled and wondered at how quickly time had passed. Our oldest daughter, Lindsey, was in a beauty pageant, and she was stunning! Though she looked like a grown woman, my mind reminisced of earlier years when she still played with Barbie dolls, and had fun "playing dress up" with her friends. At the end of the pageant, when they placed the crown on Lindsey's head, it became obvious that others recognized her beauty as well. We were grateful and proud.

God has beauty queens. He measures beauty differently than the world does. In God's eyes, beauty is within a person's heart. A godly woman who loves Jesus and "fears the Lord" is a beauty queen in God's sight. She cultivates "the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God" (1 Peter 3:4). Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Outer beauty may be a blessing, but it will not last. Time and circumstances diminish its glory. Inner beauty, however, increases and intensifies through the years.

To posess true beauty, we must trust Jesus as our Savior, and then cultivate our spiritual lives through Bible intake, prayer, worship, witnessing, and fellowship. Then, when we see Jesus, He will crown us with His righteousness (2 Timothy 4:8).

God has many godly women who revere Him and possess a Christlike spirit. Regardless of their outward appearance, they are the most beautiful women on earth. God Himself will honor and crown them one day. They are all first-place winners in His pageant. He is their proud Father, and all of them are His precious beauty queens! Taken from Morning Manna by Steve Gaines

"And this is grace an Invitation to be Beautiful......" Add To The Beauty-Sara Groves