On the way back from the wedding, I turned to my husband Todd and asked, “Did you see that beautiful woman by the door of the church?”  I wanted to help him make connections of who she was related to, but Todd was not getting it.

“What woman?” he asked, a little confused.

“You didn’t see that beautiful woman by the door?”  I asked incredulously.  There might have been different attractive people at the wedding, but there was one who was particularly stunning.  How could anyone have missed her?

From the back of the van, one of my children blurted out, “Mom, of course Dad didn’t notice her!  She was a blond!”

Even my children know.  Blondes have never caught Todd’s eye.  It’s always been dark-haired spunky women.  I’m amazed that God did that for me!  I am definitely not everyone’s idea of beauty!  I’m tall with skinny arms.  I can be clumsy and awkward, and I talk too much.  But I am Todd’s idea of attractive!  Amazing!

Equally amazing has been God’s idea of beauty.  His idea includes the hidden heart, “which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.”  It’s not the expensive clothing that women can get so superficially preoccupied with, but a gentle and peaceful spirit that is precious in His sight.  That’s what God thinks is gorgeous.

If we could look in God’s mirror, we would see it from a perspective totally different than what is being screamed in the ads, different from the values being flaunted.  According to theloop.ca, the average woman will spend around $300,000 on makeup alone in her life!  I have spent enough time with teenage girls to know that many have spent hours agonizing over whether they are attractive.

But what about what God thinks?  What about the things that He values so much, that when He sees them, He says, “That woman is beautiful!”  The self-control.  A submission that in honor “prefers one another” and yields to others.  This is so different from the image that the world holds up of “gorgeous” women with condescending and provocative ways.  The magazines may find it breathtaking, but God does not!  He is disgusted by self, whether He finds it in Hollywood or in us good, holiness people.

I’ve been so blessed to be around a number of truly drop-dead gorgeous women!  Women who loved me when my attitude was not truly loveable!  Women who went the second mile when the first probably wasn’t so pleasant.  They gave me the benefit of the doubt; I could feel their lack of judgment.  I have seen their beauty, and I want it!

Their hair may be thinning.  Their skin may not be flawless. But, oh, what gorgeous women!  I believe God thinks so too!

O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness:  fear before him, all the earth. Psalm 96:9