The Skinny On Teenage
Body Image and Spiritual Health
by Angie Lewis
Many young women and teenagers are placing great value on looking like the
latest Cover Girl model, and placing little or no value on spiritual health.
I agree, it is important to feel good about the way we look, but I think the
culture is going a bit too far. It is far more important for young girls to
feel good about who they are on the inside, wouldn’t you agree?
What are we teaching our youth of today? Have we, as parents contributed to
this self-indulgent need to look perfect, be thin as a rail, and wear
expensive adornment to be somebody? Have we taught our children that beauty
starts on the outside? Are we telling them that it is more important to
“look” good rather than “be” good?
I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with
braided hair or gold and pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds,
appropriate for women who profess to worship God. (1 Timothy 2: 9, 10)
It is not a sin to get a nose job, and wear expensive clothing and jewelry,
but as we all know, real beauty comes from the inside of a person, not what
they are wearing or how beautiful they look. A modest, kind teenager will
gain more respect and kindness from others than one who dresses in expensive
clothes and is stuck-up and hateful. It all begins in the attitude.
The standards of what society deems important is not what God deems
important. As a teenager, I strived to be accepted by others, but I never
really loved myself. Because of this, I never became the young person God
created me to be. I wasted my teenage years trying to impress others, but
that wasn’t who I was. It wasn’t until I was in my thirties that I realized
God’s love for me. It is never too late to become the person God intends you
to be, but if you wait, it may be too late.
It is important to wear clean clothes and be well groomed, but it is not
important to have big breasts, a twenty-five inch waist, full lips, and a
perfect nose. God made you the unique and special young girl that you are.
Your nose, eyes, lips and chin is your uniqueness that sets you apart from
looking like everyone else. Accept what God has given you and be content to
be who it is you are.
…Instead, 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. (1 Peter
3:4)
It’s easy to be beautiful on the outside, but it is not an easy thing to be
beautiful on the inside. Being beautiful on the inside is a bit more
difficult to accomplish. It takes great wisdom and understanding to realize
the special person you are regardless how much money you have, how skinny
you are, or what you wear. Those things don’t make someone be great. Those
things do not make someone successful. Those things are only a cover up to
hide the true self. To be great and to be successful is to know God! Your
true value in God is what’s important not what others think of you.
Please don’t fall for the “appearances trap”, and become too obsessed with
fashion and looking like the latest cover girl model. Dress to please God
not others. Of course, hygiene and neatness is always important, but even
more important is your inner spiritual self and attitude towards others and
God. Strive to be the person God wants you to be not what the world is
enticing you to be.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and
approve what God’s will is –his pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)
Angie Lewis is the author of three marriage books
http://www.heavenministries.com/