For this week’s Transformed Tuesday, Kate has brought us a look at beauty that we can share with the tweens in our lives. It is our prayer that her words will not only speak to the girls we love, but also remind us of transforming truths.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Ecc. 3:11a
Disney Princess or super model?
Do you feel like you are confused and unsure of where you fit in? All the magazines are saying what you should look like, how much you should weigh, the make-up you should wear, the clothes you must have. But deep in your heart you still love the movies of fairy tales and princesses. You still find yourself playing with dolls and sleeping with your favorite stuffed animal.
Who are you?
Your life is in an in-between period. You are still growing up and may feel like you have one foot in one world and one foot in another. You are forming your views–of life, of happiness, of relationships, and of beauty. It is the last one that I’d like us to focus on today.
I want to ENCOURAGE you today. To encourage you in the beauty you have as a young girl and the beauty you are growing into as a young woman.
The beauty magazines are there to DISCOURAGE you–to make you believe that your beauty is not enough, to tell you what you should try and remake yourself into – into THEIR idea of what beauty is.
You are a MASTERPIECE…in progress.
Have you ever seen a painter paint or a sculptor sculpt?
There is beauty at every different stage of the painting and sculpture. The beauty is unique in each version shown to us. And each part of the process is essential to the final result.
1 John 3:2 ESV
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared;
but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
You are in a process now. Sometimes you feel pretty…sometimes you feel awkward…sometimes you might even feel downright ugly. But please hear me on this: Our feelings of our beauty are not a TRUE indicator of what is really there. In the same way, the simple and rough sketch at the very beginning of the painting process is sweet and lovely, but it is just the beginning. There is growth and development that must happen first.
But it is beautiful.
The next stage of tracing the rough sketch with brown ink brings clarity and definition to the drawing. This might be where you are right now. Your body is changing, growing. Some parts of you might be changing faster than others. But The Master Artist is not finished with you yet! He is putting that medium tone wash all over the painting.
He is doing what is necessary to give color, texture and vibrancy to the painting of your life. You may look in the mirror and only see that brown stuff and think, “Man, oh man! I don’t look pretty!” But you are in a process, and this stage is essential to the final result.
Isaiah 61:3b NKJV
To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.
It is beautiful.
In your teen years, The Master Artist is putting on the colors that will make up the beauty of you: the depth, the skin tones, the lights and darks that bring structure and definition to who you will become. Without the base colors He uses now, your beauty later will be hollow and shallow–and He is creating your beauty to last and grow as you do.
And it is still beautiful.
Finally, The Master Artist gives His own specific darks and lights to bring all the fullness of beauty that is specific and unique to YOU. From the beginning of that humble and simple drawing, YOU are what He had in His mind, in His plan. Each step of the process has been planned from eternity until now. His design was planned to grow more lovely with the passage of time.
The world tells us there is only one kind of beauty. Beauty that is centered in unreality: in airbrushed models, in Photoshopped bodies, in removing everything that the world considers a flaw.
God, that Master Artist, tells us that beauty originates in the very mind of God! His beauty is as varied and unique as the eagle is from the kitten. YOU are His masterpiece. This stage in His painting of your life is beautiful.
Bask in that beauty as you bask in His love and unique design of you!
Eph 2:10a ESV
For we are his workmanship…
Link Up & Share …
There are three ways to link up and share in Transformed Tuesdays. Pick what works best for you…
{Option 1} Share Your Story: Link up to a post you’ve written about that reveals God transforming work in your life, but be sure to mention Transformed Tuesdays at More to Be in a link or use our button.
{Option 2} Focus on the Key Verse: Link up a post in which you share your thoughts on the key verse from above, and mention Transformed Tuesdays at More to Be in a link or use our button.
{Option 3} Spread It Around: Share the Scripture graphic from above!
Next week’s key verse:
Matthew 12:21 NLT
And his name will be the hope of all the world!
