Beauty: Something To Look Forward To?

When I saw this Elizabeth Arden ad, I wanted to scream.

That was after I did the long frustrated groan. Here we go again- or still. With all of the enlightenment, feminism, self-empowerment and emphasis on individuality, we still come right back to the beauty thing. Is it truly that important? Is it the only thing which is important? Beauty- it’s insidious. It’s subtle. And it pervades our lives from little girlhood on. It did mine, anyway. I can’t remember the exact point in which beauty was such an emphasis for me as a little girl. I was exposed to fairytale princesses, Barbie dolls and dress up, just like most little girls. There’s nothing new under the sun about that. But at some point, it became increasingly vital to my existence. And then there came the reality that I didn’t adequately meet its standard. This was mostly through the message that I was a fat, not a beautiful little girl. And yes, that message first emanated from my mother. Struggling with her own weight and body image issues, dieting and weight loss became commonplace. And it was accompanied with the “someday” promise of beauty. “Someday,” when this or that happens, when we’re both at our “right weight,” then, oh yes, then, we’ll be beautiful. That was something to look forward to. It wasn’t when I am smart, articulate, creative or a unique individual of God’s creation. Nope, it was beauty, end of story. That’s as far as it seemed to go. It seems like some cliché 1950’s mother/daughter dynamic of a mother giving her daughter some stifling advice about how to be pleasing for a man and catch that husband. We’d like to think those were the “good old days,” long gone, replaced by such equality and enlightenment, we’re advancing with incredible leaps and bounds in humanity. But the reality is still little girls everywhere want to be beautiful; we want to grow up to be the fairytale princess, who’s perfect in her “happily ever after” life. And how many of us have woken up to a reality check nightmare pursuing that dream? Yeah. Look, beauty isn’t evil. God created it; and He calls each one of us innately beautiful already. “Thou art beautiful, O my love...” Song of Solomon 6:4 But we cannot limit our value to JUST that; we are MORE! We can aspire toward incredible lives and purposes. I believe beauty is in there, but it shouldn’t be the only thing “to look forward to,” like this ad says. We should look forward to our unique, purpose-filled, God-given lives. And that thought begins in childhood; let’s help each little girl think this way! Copyright © 2013 by Sheryle Cruse