Enter the giveaway here. 
Women strive to shape their lives after that which popular culture tells them is beautiful, and Christian women are no exception. When we are preoccupied with physical attractiveness, we assert that the world’s standards of beauty matter more than God’s and begin to reflect the values of a world that Jesus said we are not a part of even though we remain in it.
“I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They aer not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” (John 17:15-16)But what is in the world that we’re not to be part of? Scripture gives the answer: “For all that is in the world–the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life–is not of the Father but is of the world” (1John 2:16)
The lust of the flesh. Flip through most women’s magazines and you’ll see that our society focuses on the flesh–literally and figuratively. Women’s faces and bodies dominate marketing campaigns, promoting everything from cars to candy. The message> Beauty equals satisfaction (….)The lust of the eyes. The New Bible Commentary defines the lust of the eyes as a “strong desire for what is seen, for the outward form of things. It is the lust after the superficial.” (…) We live in a visual culture–images elicit responses. When we strive to meet the world’s standard of beauty, our bodies become images to evoke desired responses within ourselves and others. When we take what God has created to be a vessel of his glory and use it instead to glorify ourselves and satisfy our desire for admiration.
Efforts to have a beautiful face and body rarely come from the desire to reflect more accurately the body of Christ. Rather, they have roots in the desire to make ourselves “pleasant to the eyes” (Genesis 3:6)
Worldly beauty is a means to an end, a way of gaining a positive to ourselves from someone other than God. However, having been created in the image of God, we are to use our bodies as a witness of the kingdom of God.
The pride of life. (…) Women desire beauty because the world says it brings power and control. Like little girls who believe the illusions of beauty pageants, we believe that women who look perfect have achieved power over themselves and others, a power we want to possess. However, believing the my the that beauty will empower us is nothing more than desiring “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.”
Who Calls Me Beautiful, Regina Franklin, (Excerpts from pages 13-16)
