Beauty

On my way home last night I saw two images that really bothered me. It had rained really hard, a drenching downpour that left puddles in the streets near the gutters and curbs, and as I walked up one of the blocks down the hill from where I live I saw a very little girl in rain boots and a hat posing for pictures in one of the puddles. At first I thought she was with her parents – a man and a woman were with her – and I started to think, “How cute!” and it made me think back to the days when I loved to play in puddles. I thought it was really sweet that her parents were photographing her while she played, but then as I got closer I saw something that was not sweet at all. The woman may have been her mother, but the man was a professional photographer, and the little girl was posing coquettishly, and that’s putting it very mildly. There was something very provocative in the way she was posing, and as I walked by I turned to look at her face and her lips were pursed in a pout that was covered in bright red lipstick. Her whole face was made up more than I have ever worn when I was acting on a stage. She looked like a tiny adult posing for a cover shoot for Cosmopolitan. Only she wasn’t a tiny adult, she could not have been more than six or seven years old.

Right after that I walked through an area near a train platform where there is an elevator that I can take up to the area where I live, and a young woman and her boyfriend were just in front of me. She was a lovely girl, probably no more than 17 or maybe 18. She had dark curly hair pulled back in a ponytail and a beautiful face that made me think of Vivian Leigh or one of the other gorgeous movie stars from the 30’s and 40’s, maybe Hedy Lamarr or even a very young Elizabeth Taylor. But like the little girl, her face was covered in makeup with the same bright red lips. This older girl had tattoos covering her body and she was wearing a dress that was little more than a t-shirt. It was tight fitting with a low back that was worn purposely so that you could see the black straps of her lacy bra underneath. Her boyfriend was dressed like a schlump. Not cool grunge, just grungy. They weren’t on their way anywhere special – this was the way she dresses all the time.

I am not a prude by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve been part of the theater, film, and modeling worlds and I’ve lived in NYC too long to be surprised by anything. The thing that disturbed me about the two girls that I saw was that they both looked cheap when they could have looked great. I know they were both wearing things that are considered stylish, including the makeup and tattoos, but that’s where I have a problem. It upsets me that the fashion industry can sell the idea of a seven year old in red lipstick pouting her lips and a 17 year old who is practically naked, and it makes me even more upset that people buy it.

I love to get dressed up and put on makeup. I don’t usually wear foundation – that wrecks your skin so I only wear that if I have to for stage or film. But lipstick is so much fun, and eye make-up, though I do stay away from mascara if I can because I don’t think it’s good for your eyelashes. It’s just my hunch but I think that if you use it all the time it makes it so your lashes aren’t as long and silky as they naturally can be so you have to keep using it, but that’s just my hunch. But I love to go to department stores, the higher end the better, and if they’re not busy in the cosmetics department and want to give me a makeover I let them. I don’t care if I’m not going anywhere and I have to wash it all off the minute I get home – it’s fun to play dress up and have someone put makeup on me and it’s fun to do it myself.

But there’s a big difference between getting a facial at the cosmetics counter and dressing up like you’re ready to give it away. I love short skirts in the summer, and wearing shorts with cowboy boots. Halter tops and sun dresses are some of the most fun things in life. But to be hanging out of my clothes is not fun. I’ll wear a bikini at the beach, but I’m not going to wear it down Main Street. I think the human body can be beautiful when it’s adorned with beautiful clothing, and maybe I’m old fashioned, but I think it’s much more alluring to not show it all. There’s something to be said for leaving things to the imagination, and there is something to be said for modesty.

1 Peter 3:3-4 says, “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or 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.” When I was still attending my first church, there was a women’s fellowship called “Women of Valor.” I was talking about that yesterday with a woman I know and she started to list all the great women in the Bible. Esther, Ruth, Sarah, Mary – the list goes on and on. There are also the women who were known to be sinners who were redeemed, the Samaritan Woman at the Well, the Woman Caught in Adultery, Rahab the Prostitute. We don’t need to be perfect models of purity to find grace with God, it is what is in our hearts that counts with Him.

When I saw those two girls last night, I had the same impulse in both cases. I wanted to take hold of them and tell them they were beautiful just as they are. I walked around for so many years thinking that I was not attractive at all, even when I’d put on makeup and wear something I thought might be sexy. There are so many pressures on women and girls to look a certain way and talk a certain way and act a certain way that so many women and girls sell themselves cheap to the first bidder that comes along. The Word of God tells us that we are precious in His sight (Isaiah 43:4), that we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14), that we are His Divine workmanship (Ephesians  2:10), that we are a glorious crown in the Lord’s hand and a royal diadem in the palm of our God (Isaiah 62:3), and that we are His treasured possession (Malachi 3:17).  Why would we settle for what the world wants us to be when we are made in His image?

The daughters of God are the daughters of the Most High King, they are princesses, and you men, you’re His sons and princes. Don’t let anyone take that inheritance away from you or tell you that you're not beautiful as you are. Walk in the grace and beauty that He gives us and enjoy what He has given you in Him.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan