BEAUTY AS A TOOL OF SURVIVAL

A Rebellion of Innocence: inner armor, not outward display

Proverbs 31:30 “ Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman that fears the Lord, she shall be praised.”

I thought my rebel days were over!!  Observing the chaos of the world today, I guess not. The beauty realm has been invaded by darkness. I am officially a rebel for the winsome and for innocence again. 

My love of beauty is a life-long joy! The hopeful, the tender, the compassionate, the empathetic, the gentle, the kind, the  authentic and genuine, all these carry me day by day and always have, even through dark and very difficult times. I cling to God and His Son, Who are the very essence of beauty, both of the Spirit and the material realm.  Symmetry, harmony, practical reality, strength through difficulty, honorable self-restraint and honorable self-sacrifice for the support of the suffering, the brokenhearted, this is true and eternal beauty. 

It now appears that in 2024, we are awash in cynicism and dark thoughts and wishes.  This is not from the realm of God, this is from that fallen angel, the devil. Dark thoughts and cynicism do not produce anything of beauty. From my own direct experience with being a terrible cynic (still recovering, so NOT pointing fingers but simply and sadly observing), the face of the cynic does not often age well, filled with anger, sorrow, sadness, emptiness.  I can still see the anger, grief and sorrow etched on my face. Even as God is gradually lifting the terrible weight from my soul, the results  of my own cynicism still mar my face at age 71.  I tell you from blunt experience,  the inner self is clearly reflected and the body cannot lie, especially as you age.

The realm of physical human beauty has become so incredibly focused on the exterior display, the shallow, the outside only. The status of wealth symbols, the seeming celebration of darkness and debauchery and rebellion, this feels overwhelming to  the beauty realm.  To me, this is not true beauty, which is humble, in  divine order and a gentle spirit. Instead it has become a hunger that is never filled.  I don't like it one bit.

Growing up, while I was not a huge " fashion girl ",  I did look forward to sitting on the grass of our back yard in August and flipping through the Montgomery Wards catalog for new elementary school year dresses, measuring how much I had grown in that previous year.  Not high fashion clothes but simple, sturdy and modest, these were the basic garments of my school years through 7th grade.

Upon entering 8th grade, emotional disaster struck my life, with the overnight death of my Mom of a massive stroke, a month before my 14th birthday in 1966.  Two years later, an older brother was killed in Vietnam in 1968.  I was knocked down so deeply in the emotional realm that I was shattered for a very long time.  Next to childhood, the heart of adolescence is the most intense and formative time of our lives. Our persona is grilled  and baked and shaped by those two intense times, both emotionally and physiologically. Ones' view of oneself is shaped as you go into puberty, with the sheer intensity of the physical changes overwhelming you.  Clothing was dropped from my focus and I fell into hippie range: pants, no bras, funky jewelry, thrift shop finds, granny glasses and no real fashion sense.

 Beauty does evolve as your physical self ages.  Never being a flamethrower in my adulthood, I refrained from the overtly sexual. The flagrant, to me, is not beauty.   True beauty does not shout. "Seduction", which I never deeply sought, is not overt but subtle. Thus is how beauty is to me, not loud but empathic and a deep current.

Even in examining the great "seductresses" of human history, many were not considered great beauties but instead focused on their humor, their high intelligence, their ability to consider the condition of  others, their gift of lively conversation and their rugged and independent spirit. They did not get "captured".  The heart of all this examination, for me, is not that I admire seductresses, as I believe the best seduction happens within the core and holy covenant of a Godly marriage between one man and one woman, for life. Yes, this is a very difficult path to tread and considering the 50% divorce rate, not a good accumulation, even for Christians.

I admire a Servant's Heart instead, as that produces inner beauty, which then is reflected on the face.  I would hope that many are simply slowing down and partnering first with God, to find the honorable husband or wife, for life and to not take marriage lightly.

That being said, and considering my own life, in which I never formally married,  I am well-aware of the very high mountain which I never successfully climbed.

I am not a seductress in any manner. I am a simple woman of God and follower of Christ, who walked in the darkness in rebellion and found my stumbling way back. I seek to be a conduit for the love of God to the brokenhearted.  I can still love beauty, which reveals itself as the positive virtues I mentioned above. I can enjoy the staggering beauty of nature, color, shape, texture, and the beauty of human faces and the challenges they have endured. I would take a lined and careworn face over a smooth and  shallow face which has no love of empathy, only for the self. Narcissism is a dangerous trend, only followed by emptiness and loneliness.  

Partnering with God is a good path, one of a Servant's heart and the joy of seeing the tears dried on someone else’s dear face. That in itself, brings forth true beauty.

"As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15

Wendy Elizabeth Williams, July 20, 2024

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