It's clear. The reflection displays what the heart has been masking for a long, long time. The fear of not being enough.

We've stood before the mirror staring. Staring at what the world calls not pretty enough, not smart enough, not skinny enough, not successful enough, not gracious enough, and not funny enough.

Is it rude to say you and I never will be enough?

We try to brace the tumultuous winds of lies desperately searching for the calm waters of truth. But what if the truth wasn't an easy sell?

Isn't it easier to face the name-calling and not address the foundational issue? To let others fight the battles for us rather than pinpoint the specific problem?

I hesitantly meander back to memories of my time in Junior High with the butchered haircut and carrying the weight of a few too many Doritos. The names and labels that were hurled all hurt. The laughing, the snide remarks created an environment for insecurities and fears to flourish. Beauty, in that moment became distorted, a mere delusion.

Certainly, the comments aided to the insecurity and fear, but it wasn't the cause.

In the beginning, we were fashioned and adorned with beauty. God said that it was good. We reflected the loveliness and grandeur of God. Yet in our own selfishness, in our own pride, we chose what was ugly. We possessed the very essence of beauty which was pure and undefiled. But we opted for that momentary, fleeting pleasure of self-glory. Marring what was called very good.

I don't know about you but I am tired of the way we are bombarded with the world's checklist, their standards. I'm weary of hearing that we are all beautiful. It is a hopeless cause to repair the damage done by Adam and Eve. The world is battling to control something that it never created, to obtain a high-standing that was never granted. We are horribly engrossed by the wants of our flesh that we mistakenly believe that we can maintain, foster beauty.

But how do we change the mentality that beauty is found in the newest powder or the boldest lipstick? Why are we satisfied with man's mere attempt to call beautiful what is ravaged by sin? We don't understand beauty's true foundation. It is fabricated, rooted in the heart of God. It is woven into his laws. It is carried out by his promises. It beams through His faithfulness. The ONLY measure of beauty we posses is found in the saving work of Jesus Christ. If we don't know Him, we will never minutely comprehend true beauty. To learn about a creation requires us to look to its creator. That is when we begin to fathom the mystery that beauty is.

The want to be well-received, to have an elevated status is NEVER guaranteed in this world.

Beauty is not found in the masquerades of fashion shows, the crafty commercials that beguile you to think true beauty is found in the swankiest new footwear, in the art, in the loads of makeup. They are distractions. They are fillers that never parch our thirst or our hunger.