What is Beauty?

  
   A big problem amongst women is their complete misunderstanding of beauty. They look to others to define what beauty is. And that beauty is almost entirely unattainable. Now I typically try to avoid being cliche, but in cases like this, it is very hard not to be. So I will try to approach this from a semi-new perspective that is different from what the culture says about what makes you beautiful. Before giving the biblical reasons behind it, I want to start with an analysis of the culture.
    In the media, we are constantly bombarded with photos of beautiful women. Whether it's in line at the grocery store, surfing the web, or on TV, all of them appear unbelievably gorgeous. Now, not only is it true that the majority (if not all) of these are air brushed to look unbelievably gorgeous.But they have an advantage: they can afford the health foods without hormones, expensive trainers and such.
    Us everyday Janes, have trouble paying for regular food with tons of added hormones (weight gaining by the way) and sugars. These are cheaper, and we still have trouble paying for those things on top of bills. We also are not paid to work out. Think about it: people get in movies and are paid large sums of money to work out to look gorgeous in their close ups. So this in turn makes it significantly harder for us to stay skinny. My solution was going vegan, cutting out those hormones and cholesterol anyway. But for people whose parents are opposed to that, it can be very hard to make such decisions, especially if they make you the dinners and no one will do it with you.
  On top of it, movies like Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and Beauty and the Beast, both emphasize how important your individual "inner" beauty is, opposed to other people. But they do so using insanely gorgeous people, which in turn makes you feel worse. Because you are not half as beautiful as them, and they're worried, you're in big trouble.
   Let's Play a little game called: Spot the Differences:

 As you can see from the picture, Ms. Diaz appears TOO skinny, but yet...despite bone show, they manage to make her look even skinnier. Hey? Who needs that bone anyway? It just holds up your body. You can do the rest of the game by yourself.
   Now,we've all at least heard of Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and love. Well, let's take a look at a piece of art that shows this most beautiful of women, shall we? Warning, censor zone.

Now, I'm not sure which is which, so just take a look at them all (this is by Peter Paul, made in about 1635-1637.)  Is this quite what you would expect from the goddess of beauty? Well, the time period from which it came, was a time of poverty and monarchs. Beauty, was actually considered woman who were the fattest amongst them. It meant they were wealthy enough to afford a lot of twinkies (yes believe it or not, they were expensive then.) They were also most beautiful with rotten teeth, because it meant they could have tons of sugar. When all their teeth fell out, and they realized how much harder it was to wolf down a steak, what better answer than to rip out the teeth of peasants and use for themselves?
   I have also heard from some people (I have not had time to double check this information, but I do trust the source) that there is (was?) a TV show that showed African women, being shipped off by their parents (in today's time) to go to fattening camps. They were fed high calorie foods explicitly to cause them to gain weight. In interviews, they would say, "Look at my beautiful stretch marks."
   Starting to notice a trend here? Well, if not, here it is: Culture defines what beauty is does it not? And what does that beauty seem to be? Whatever is the hardest to attain! Women in the 1600's had a hard time affording food of any kind and were always skinny. In Africa, people die from starvation regularly, and yet beautiful is the 400 lb woman. Today in America, it is the opposite. Impossibly skinny is beautiful. This causes woman (young and old.)
    Psalm 139:14 says, "I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well." It is also said in Genesis 9:6, "“Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man." 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" So you can see from this, that you are made in the image of God, and God is kinda perfect in every way. When you look at your body and are filled with sadness because of it, God in turn is sad because you don't find HIM efficiently beautiful.
  It says that you are not your own as his temple and that you are His. So why on earth would you keep hurting yourself by making you lose weight? You damage the temple of GOD! The creator of the universe. Picture this okay: look at where you are and zoom out to the outside of the building you are in. Zoom out further to see the street, keep zooming until you see the area code. Keep going until you see the city, and then the state, and then the country, continent and then world. If that isn't enough zoom out further, past the moon and Mars and Saturn and past the dwarf planet Pluto. You are now towards the edge of the Milky Way (no, not the candy bar.) That is only one a a billion galxies! Now look at yourself from that spot. God has all of this in his hands, He's got the whole universe and beyooond in His hands. You seem pretty insignificant now huh? The fact that God gives a single ounce of recognition towards you is amazing. He goes beyond that! He not only recognizes, but loves you. And you are hurting His dwelling place every time you make an unheathy decision for your body. Whether it be eating too much junk food, or too little food in general.
  When you do this, you are spitting in the face of the man who died for your life. Saying He didn't do a good enough job so you don't care or you're going to fix perfection. He TELLS you explicitly that you are wonderful! That's amazing!
  All this is to say, the culture WANTS beauty to be unattainable. Doctors make millions every year just on anorexics. Make up lines, and clothing and work out commercials are getting exactly what they want out of you: money. It all relates back to selfishness in the end. You are being selfish for thinking you're not good enough, and the media makes millions off their beauty products and the next "Sure to get you to lose 30 lb" diets. And GOD is the always the one who gets hurt, and He never did anything to hurt you.
  What might I say is the cure to this? Be healthy! Don't be afraid to have your stomach show slightly when you where a tang-top. I cut out meat and dairy, because there is so much junk in all of it (organic or not) that it was just beyond ridiculous. It was hard yeah, I LOVE meat, but I wanted to live long and be healthy. I didn't lose weight, but my body looked healthier. I no longer have an acne "problem" (quotes because I still get a zit now and then, but not all over my face acne) and my body just felt and appeared healthier.
    So next time you think you're not good enough look wise, think about this: Is this what the culture wants me to think? Think about Aphrodite and how much prettier you are in comparison to her;) And also, remember that the only one you will ever be completely good enough for will appreciate your decision.