Own Your Beauty

I’m not a size zero nor have I ever been.

My hair is natural with big fluffy curls.

Two typical standards of beauty that I have not met.

This past week I was walking through the mall with my mother when a very eager salesman was convinced that he could revolutionize my life by selling me the holy grail – a flatiron.

Why don’t you straighten your hair?

You actually like it like that?

But why?

I have to admit, it was a semi humid day (yes, very surprising since I live in New York and it’s February) so my hair was a super big fro. So it didn’t help my case when I proudly responded that I like my hair just the way it is. He was confused and disgusted. His face said it all.

How sad we live in a world where beauty has been defined for us.

The sensitive girl that I am, that incident could have left me marred and embarrassed.

But God has been teaching me to own my beauty, and that day I did just that.

I’m not some fascist who hates flatirons and people who don’t wear their hair naturally. I do own a flatiron and may use it from time to time when I desire to go for a different look. For years I would get a relaxer, so my sisters in Christ who do perm your hair or wear it straight, I love you and you should keep perming it if that’s your conviction.

My point is that it can be tempting to measure our appearance against the world’s standards. I mean a one-digit dress size and straight, long and silky hair is the epitome of beauty, right?

Absolutely not.

Straight hair, curly hair, plus size, size zero, dark skin, light skin – we are all beautiful because we bear the image of our Creator. If we are not careful to ferociously guard our hearts, we can be yoked to a bondage of slavery. Slaves that believe the lie that we are anything less than fearfully and wonderfully made.

God needs you to be free from the lies you believe about yourself that you are not beautiful. He needs you to believe that He created you to look exactly the way He designed you for His glory. He needs you to be free from people.

He wants you to own your beauty.

Yes, God looks at our hearts and not the outward appearance, and of course internal beauty trumps physical beauty every time. However, I believe God made physical beauty for a reason. Queen Esther was beautiful. God used her beauty to save a nation.

“Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen…” (Esther 2:17 NIV)

It is not a sin to know and walk with confidence in the beauty God has given you. It’s a sin to make it an idol.

You can only own your beauty when you know that you are beautiful – and I’m definitely not talking about how the world defines beauty.

Owning your beauty means learning to be comfortable in your own skin.

You are beauty and beauty is you.

Your hair texture, shape, skin tone, eye color - absolutely everything about you, was all on purpose.

Down to the very last detail. No mistakes.

You look the way you do for a reason, for a specific purpose.

Perhaps to save a nation.

Ladies, do not despise the way God created you to look. If He wanted you to have a certain physical trait, He would have designed you differently. He is the Potter and we are the clay. With great care He fashioned you.

Own the beauty God has given you.

It will put a smile on your face and bring joy to your heart.

"What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its Maker? Does the clay dispute with the One who shapes it, saying, 'Stop, you're doing it wrong!' Does the pot exclaim, 'How clumsy can You be?'

(Isaiah 49:5 NLT)

“For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb”

(Psalm 139:13 NIV)

About the Author :

Endya Joy is a young woman on the journey to becoming a future physician. With a passion for ministering to girls and young women, she desires to be a vessel in which God uses to heal the whole person. She is a girly girl, has a slight obsession with books, and dreams of traveling the world one day. God and family are everything.

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