Well right now I am on the other side of the world visiting Southeast Asia. I probably won’t disclose the exact location until I get back, but if you want a hint I can tell you that Passion will be doing a concert here on August 3. That’s all I’m going to say!
So far the trip has been amazing! We have visited the biggest Muslim mosque I’ve ever seen (I had to wear a pink robe that covered my head so that I wouldn’t defile the temple–I looked HOT!) and then we went to a Hindu temple that seemed like it was straight out of the Old Testament. People were sacrificing offerings to golden idols and everything!
But one thing that has stood out to me the most has been the presence of women wearing the full, black Muslim covering. These women are actually tourists from the Middle East, not native to the country, but there are a lot of them around so they constantly grab my attention. I can’t help but wonder what it must be like to stare out at the world from a complete veil, no one seeing anything about you but your eyes.
But the fascinating thing about these women is that, while their entire bodies are completely covered, hiding any kind of distinguishing features about their bodies, these women still went out of there way to stand out. Many of them had the cutest little shoes I’d ever seen, or they carried beautiful, eye-catching purses. It was as if they were trying to find a way to make themselves beautiful, even though their bodies were completely hidden from the world.
I love that. I think it reflects something inherent and irrepressible about the female heart. No matter what the world does to hide it, God created women to be beautiful, and He desires that we celebrate that beauty. Our beauty reflects something true about the character of God, so we should never strive to hide it.
That doesn’t mean we should pursue vanity and become obsessed with our looks, but it does mean that at our very essence, there is something about us that reflects the beauty of God, and we should never be ashamed of it. Sometimes that even means resisting our culture’s perception of beauty, knowing that society can also hide our beauty by calling undesirable that which God called lovely. When this happens, Western culture is just as guilty of suppressing a woman’s natural beauty as a strict Muslim culture might be.
Wherever you are in the world today, celebrate who you are! God created you with purpose and detail, so I pray that He helps you to appreciate and love yourself just as much as He does.
Well I’m off to have more adventures on the other side of the world. I’ll try to check back in soon!
What a great blog! I’m glad I tripped over it yesterday. This is good stuff!
Hi Sharon and readers!
I was just recently introduced to your website (through Carolina friends) and am really enjoying reading! I appreciate your insight and look forward to keeping up with your blog. I also went to Carolina and now live in Wilmington, NC.
I totally agree with beauty being a reflection of God. It is awesome to think about how God delights in each of us and had created us just the way he wants… truly beautiful to him. We can celebrate and find joy in this! I am a dancer and recently I have been working on choreographing a lyrical piece to a song by Bethany Dillon called “Beautiful.” and the message of the song goes right along with this idea. The lyrics follow:
I was so unique… but now I feel skin deep.
I count on makeup to cover it all.
Crying myself to sleep ’cause I can not keep their attention.
Thought I could be strong but it’s killing me.
Someone hear my cry, I’m dying for new life!
I want to be beautiful… and make you stand in awe,
look inside my heart and be amazed!
I want to hear you say… who I am is quite enough.
I want to be worthy of love and beautiful.
Sometimes I wish I was someone other than me,
fighting to make the mirror happy.
Trying to find, whatever is missing,
Oh won’t you help me back to glory!
I want to be beautiful… and make you stand in awe,
look inside my heart and be amazed!
I want to hear you say… who I am is quite enough.
YOU make me worthy of love and beautiful.
YOU make me worthy of love and beautiful… beautiful.
As you can see, this is a cry out to God for him to affirm this girl’s worth and beauty- something that every girl desires. I recently had to put a video of me practicing online for someone to view at my church, and thought you may want to check out. It is a work in progress, but enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLq3IUvXkBY
~Lorin