Whether we want to admit it or not, our perceptions shift with the culture. Country to country, state to state, decade to decade- we risk having our thoughts and actions defined by the norm. Sometimes the norm is attainable, sometimes it isn’t.

I’m talking about appearances. We live in an image-saturated society- billboards, television commercials, and magazine ads try to show us who to be, what should make us happy.

I speak as a woman who used to be especially susceptible to this insecurity. A woman who grew up sometimes feeling not enough of one thing or too much of something else. But God has shown me in the last couple of years that such thinking is exhausting and futile.

Instead of always thinking we should be something more, God wants us to step into who we are. He wants us to focus on letting Him refine our hearts, giving Him room to let the fruits of His Spirit grow.

1 Peter 3:3-4 says that “your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”

I don’t think it’s sinful to be conscious of one’s appearance or to desire to feel and look beautiful. I believe that women in particular were created with this innate desire. But it is sinful when we focus more on our outward beauty than on the beauty God longs to cultivate inside each one of us. When we put our worth in body image instead of Godly character.

Meditate on those words. Our beauty should glow from inside of us. The beauty of our inner self is unfading. The beauty of our inner self is defined by a gentle and quiet spirit. What billboard is going to tell us that?

Peter goes on to talk about the holy women of the past in verse five. Women like Sarah and Hannah and Deborah and Ruth. These women let their hope in God define their character and their interactions with those around them.

They carried a holy beauty. By delighting in God, He delighted in them. By finding security in God, He granted them peace within their souls.

Will we allow Him to do the same with us?