Beauty Doesn’t Exist
A good friend once told me that as long as I was wearing cute, comfortable shoes and had my hair done, I could tackle any problem in the world and look good doing it. Well, after having ankle surgery and being sentenced to tennis shoes only and suffering a bicycle wreck causing shoulder pain strong enough to keep me from being able to do my hair, both of these options were out for me. So, where was a girl like me supposed to find her beauty and problem-solving skills from?
In today’s society it seems that beauty often comes with a price. If you aren’t wearing the right brand of jeans, you probably don’t feel beautiful that day. If your hair is in a bun, and you didn’t find time to put on eye make-up today, you probably don’t feel as beautiful as you normally would.
If your hair didn’t fall just right and your new white Converse high-tops got muddy, you might feel a little less beautiful. If the girl next to you is thinner, you probably feel fat and ugly, and, likewise, if the other girl next to you is curvy, you probably feel like a little twig with no shape. Girls in today’s world are plagued with a seemingly incurable illness related to one’s own idea of beauty; this idea is constantly changing with the people and world around us and, if not treated properly, will soon continue to destroy the happy lives of American girls and women everywhere.
You see, feeling beautiful will always come with stipulations if we’re getting our ideas of beauty from the culture around us, and, unfortunately, for high school and college students across America, that is exactly where it’s coming from. Today’s society portrays a very specific idea of what being beautiful truly is, and if you don’t match this persona perfectly, you will probably feel like less of a human being, therefore consistently acting in a way that is contrary to the beautiful person you are on the inside.
Here’s the thing, though…God makes us beautiful. God created each of us individually, making us all unique yet special in our own way, but because we spend so much time trying to fit a square into a circular mold, we shape ourselves into someone we’re not meant to be, and, before long, we convince even our own heart and brain that we are not enough. So we continue striving to be this example of beautiful that our heads have created. We diet. We workout. We buy expensive clothes we can’t afford. We buy name brand make-up rather than the Target knock-off. We get up an hour earlier to do our hair, but we don’t eat breakfast because we’ll probably feel fat. We won’t go anywhere without our make-up on because, Lord help us if someone we know might see us in public. We attempt to achieve our “idea” of beauty however we can get it. When, in all reality, beauty does not exist, at least not in the sense that we’re wanting to achieve it.
What my idea of beauty is may be completely different from the girl standing next to me. Her idea of beauty is probably extremely unrelated to the next girl’s idea of beauty. Like a winter storm’s first snowflakes, no two ideas of beauty are the exact same; therefore, we are all striving to reach a point that does not actually exists and/or only exists in our own heads, and, we all know, that, when we truly search inside ourselves, we know we’re beautiful, we just want the world to see it as well.
Beauty is simply a fragment of our imaginations that we have conjured up to help ourselves pretend that there is a goal we can strive for in our daily lives. Beauty gives us a standard to reach for. Beauty gives us something to work toward. However, what we miss out on throughout this never-ending search for beauty, is, ironically enough, true beauty in its purest form. Beauty, as society defines it today, does not exist; however, beauty, as it is prescribed from God, exists in the smallest moments of human to human, heart to heart interaction. Beauty is kindness. Beauty is love. Beauty is peace, gentleness, self-control, faithfulness, goodness, and, did I mention love?
Beauty was never meant to be a tangible look that could be bought with a price. Beauty was never meant to be a specific look that is impossible to achieve. Beauty is meant to provide each of us with a sense of belonging to each other. Beauty is meant to be the fruit of the spirit being carried out physically, verbally, and emotionally between humans on this earth. Beauty is encouragement. Beauty is a helping hand. Beauty is a mother caring for her child while the father looks longingly from afar, basking in the moment of his family’s love. Beauty is a senior girl helping a new freshman student find her classes during the middle of the year. Beauty is remembering to ask about someone’s day and sticking around to care about the answer. Beauty is reminding someone that they are on the right track and should keep going, even on the hard days. Beauty is showing up to that friend’s graduation party, even when you don’t know another soul there. Beauty is sending a letter to a long-lost friend just because. Beauty is offering someone a helping hand, because you’d want the same done for yourself. Beauty is from the heart. Beauty is seeing someone for who they are, what they care about, and the kindness they have to give, rather than the way they look on the outside. Beauty is love.
Beauty, the way our world defines it, truly cannot exist. And, if it does exist, can never fully be reached. Beauty is defined differently in each and every situation, and no situation can ever be the same from one person to another, because only God can see our hearts. Only God can truly bring beauty to every and all situations. Because of this, we may never truly know what someone else’s achievable beauty is, but, if we follow His lead, we can surely help make this world a little more beautiful by God’s definition. So instead of constantly letting the world’s definition define our thoughts and actions, why not choose to be love and be kind and be helpful and be friendly instead? Why we are refusing to define our beauty as God would have it rather than attempting to be and feel something that can truly never exist nor satisfy our souls.
Beauty does not exist, but Love always will.
