All About You?

Yesterday we spoke of living between the extremes. We started looking at two extremes. One extreme is not accepting yourself the way God made you. I hear women everyday speak negative about themselves. Usually, they are women you think are adorable and cannot imagine why they would feel negatively about themselves. I actually made a mistake yesterday when I said the other extreme was being a good steward of what God gave us. Being a good steward of our health is the middle ground and we will talk about how to do that over the next several days. However, today we are covering the other extreme which is to be totally wrapped up in our self. It is important to feel good about ourselves and do what we can do to take care of our health and appearance, but when the focus is all about us, we enter a dangerous place. In scripture we see several women who adorn themselves with nice clothes, jewelry, perfume, and nice hair do’s. We do not see anything saying that these things are wrong. It only becomes wrong when they forget about the inside. When all the attention becomes only on external things, we have crossed over to the extreme spot. Another thing that pulls, us to the extreme, is pride. Pride makes us believe that we are superior. As women, it makes us flaunt our stuff. It can make us put down other women and talk about their inferiority in their looks, their appearance, or the way they carry themselves. When we live in this extreme we dress to have men look at us, to whistle at us, flirt with us, or lust after us. We don’t just want to look nice, we want men to want us and women to want to be us. The whole focus is us. There is one more thing that can take us to the extreme of being wrapped up in our self. I learned about this attribute many years ago and the older I get the more I struggle with it, and yet, the more I understand it. In Proverbs 31 we read about an example of the perfect Godly woman. We refer to her as the Proverbs 31 woman. She is described as a woman who smiles at the future. This can mean many things. She has prepared well for the days ahead so she doesn’t stress, she trusts God for His provision and care, but I also think it means that she realizes that she will always be aging, she rests in her stage of life. She realizes that you can be beautiful at any age. However, the women who are all wrapped up in themselves fight hard to keep from growing old. They are always looking for the 'fountain of youth'. You can see it in a forty year old who tries to dress and appear twenty! There is an irony that comes from this extreme. Those who think everyone should love them for all their beauty and specialness, end up being a very ugly person. They appear to have so much confidence but in reality they are very insecure because they always wonder if people love them only because they are beautiful.

Have you ever jumped to this extreme? Our society today sells it to us at every avenue. It is hard to not get pulled in this direction. How much time and attention do you pay to yourself? More time than you give God? More time than you spend being beautiful on the inside? Evaluate your intentions for the attention you give yourself. Are you to stand out? Is it all about you? Or is it about bringing glory to God? How do you feel about growing older? Are you okay with being real? Showing the real you? Or are you too busy trying to be somebody you’re not? Let’s learn to be content and happy in our own skin and to be responsible for the great gift of life and health that God has given us!

Let not yours be the (merely) external adorning with elaborate interweaving and knotting of the hair, the wearing of jewelry, or changes of clothes; But let it be the inward adorning and beauty of the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible and unfading charm of a gentle and peaceful spirit, which is not anxious or wrought up, but is very precious in the sight of God. 1 Peter 3: 3-4