The Perfect Girl

     I was cleaning in my bathroom yesterday because frankly, I was really bored, and it was really messy (I'm not the most organized person in the universe to be quite honest). But I was looking at my counter, and I had my makeup in one corner, and my "necessities" in another. My "necessities" are my contacts, contact solution, tooth brush, tooth paste, mouth wash, floss, mouth guard so I don't grind my teeth at night, (okay, so that thing saves me a lot of pain, and I do kinda need it.) special brush cleaner for my mouth guard, face wash, astringent, moisturizer, deodorant, a comb, and body spray. It made me wonder why these things are considered necessities. I thought for a minute and I realized that society tells us that we need to be flawless to be worth something. I mean, I'm not saying that because you use these things it means you think that way, but it still made me think.

     What is the perfect looking girl to the world? Skinny, perfect hair, perfect skin, (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!) soft skin, long, thin legs, tall but not too tall (isn't the dream like, 5'7" or something?) a large chest, clothes that complement their body perfectly, thin arms, athletic (but if your muscles get too big then that's the worst thing in the world) and perfect, straight teeth. Yes, you can exercise for the perfect body, starve yourself if you need to, use all the hair and skin products you possibly can, wear heals all the time, stuff your bras, and get braces (okay, so there's really nothing wrong with braces) all you want, but there will always be something else. The world is looking for a perfect woman, but there can be no perfect woman. If you are willing to do all of those things, then that means you are letting the world rule over you, and chances are there won't be a whole lot of self esteem going on there if that's the case. And when there's no self esteem, then chances are no one will even notice if you are the only girl in the universe with the "perfect" body. But have you noticed something here? The "perfect" girl is based all on looks. Now don't get my wrong, there's nothing wrong with trying to look pretty. Nothing wrong with that at all. But honestly, if that's the only thing were worried about, then our priorities are in the wrong places.

     What does God say the perfect girl is? Well, in James 3:2 it says, "For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle his whole body." This isn't saying that if you don't gossip then you're perfect. What it's saying is that the tongue is the hardest thing to control. If we can accomplish that, then we have the strength to accomplish anything else pretty much. And then in 1 Timothy 2:10 it talks about how a girl should have good works, and in Proverbs 31 it talks about a godly woman, which I would like to encourage you to read sometime. But what is a perfect woman to God? That would be a girl who doesn't talk bad about others, and who puts others before herself. It doesn't matter if you measure up to the world's standards. In fact, we're supposed to stand apart from the world. That doesn't mean it's wrong to dress fashionably, I mean, you don't want to set yourself as an outcast. Paul even accepted the customs of the Jews and the Greeks to better identify with them. But as long as we follow the Bible, the rest is up to us. Not the world. So this week I want to encourage you to not worry about what the world thinks about, and worry about what God thinks. After all, God's judgement is the only one that really matters.

The Message We're Sending

     Okay, so imagine you're at a super hero convention. Sounds awesome right? Everyone's in costume, there's movie posters everywhere, tons of booths selling AWESOME geeky merchandise, yeah, that's the dream. Anyway, say you're walking and you see someone dressed head to toe in a Batman costume. In fact, the costume is so similar to the one in "The Dark Knight" that you're pretty sure that it IS the one that Christian Bale wore when he was in that movie. How much would you be willing to bet that that guy likes Batman? I don't know about you, but I think that that would be a pretty safe bet. Why? Because that is the message that he is sending. He's probably seen every Batman movie, cartoon, old TV show episode, and read every comic in all existence (if that's at all possible). Why? Because he LOVES Batman. And I honestly can't blame him! But what is the message we're sending with out clothes?

     Is the message we're sending with the clothes we wear that we love God? I mean, if you see someone in tiny little shorts that don't even cover their rear end completely and a bikini top, would you say, "Wow! That is a person who belongs to God, and respects herself and her body." Probably not. I don't know about you, but I would think that she's probably trying to show off her body because she WANTS you to want it. I mean, why else would someone show off so much of themselves? This is why we need to be careful about how we dress, so we can send off the right messages.

     

Another Perspective

     We live in a world where it's all about me. It's all about my views, my dreams, my accomplishments, nothing else. Just me. Not you, just me. This is my life, my rules, I put me first. This is what the world wants us to think. The world wants everything to be about us, and not about others. But have you ever noticed that once people start worrying about themselves more than others, things just kinda fall apart in their lives? God tells us in several passages to treat others with kindness and love, and that we should always put others before ourselves. Even though this can be difficult at times, it still needs to be our priority in life.

     Why do we enjoy movies and books so much? Think about it! I mean, have you ever noticed that chick flicks are really popular, and they're just about random people having their random victories in life, and then we love the characters so much because of it. Why? Because we see and understand his/her actions throughout the movie and relate with them. We see someone cutting in line at Starbucks and we're like, "Hey! Back of the line! Wait your turn!" but in Ms. Congeniality we see the main character do it and we all find it funny. That's because when we watch a movie, we are viewing a single person's perspective on something, where as in real life, we're viewing things from our own perspective. We understand the person in the movie. We are open minded to the subject of the film because we're viewing things from their perspective. You become the character. This is exactly how we should view others. We may not be able to see all of their story, but if we took the time to view things from other people's perspective, then how much better would we treat them? 

     So today I want to challenge you to think before you do anything. Think about why the other person did what they did to you. Think about how you would react in that situation. Think about how you can treat each and every person because the world isn't a big group of people, but a lot of individual people.