Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery

TRUE BEAUTY IS NOT OF THE FACE, BUT OF THE SOUL

By Mabel Hale, "Beautiful Girlhood" 1922

"Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain; but a woman who fears the LORD shall be praised!" Proverbs 31:30. Every girl is a lover of beauty. Beautiful homes, beautiful furnishings, beautiful flowers, beautiful clothes, beautiful faces--anything wherein beauty is found, there will be found girls to admire it. From the time her little hands can reach up, and her baby lips can lisp the words, she is admiring "pretty things." And when a little of that beauty is her own--her pleasure is unbounded.

Every girl longs to be beautiful. There is in woman a nature, as deep as humanity, which compels her to strive for good looks. There is no more forlorn sorrow for a young girl, than for her to be convinced that she is hopelessly ugly and undesirable. Oh, the bitter tears that have been shed over freckles, or a rough and pimply skin--and the energy that has been expended in painting and powdering and waving and curling herself into beauty!

A desire to be beautiful is not unwomanly. But, mark it: true beauty is not of the face--but of the soul! There is a beauty so deep and lasting, that it will shine out of the homeliest face and make it lovely! This is the beauty to be first sought and admired. It is a quality of the mind and heart--and is manifested in word and deed.

A happy heart, a smiling face, loving words and deeds, and a desire to be of service--will make any girl beautiful! A beautiful soul shining out of a homely face--is far more attractive than a beautiful face out of which looks a soul full of selfishness and pride!

Let your chief charm be of heart and mind--not of face and form. Seek the true beauty which lasts even into old age! Solomon, in one of his wise sayings, expressed plainly the evil that comes to a woman who is beautiful of face, but lacks the true beauty of soul: "Like a gold ring in a swine's snout--is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion!" Proverbs 11:22. As the swine would plunge the golden jewel into the filth and the mire as he dug in the dirt--so will a pretty woman who is not godly, drag her beauty down to the very lowest.

There are many peculiar temptations to those who are only lovely of face. Without true beauty of soul--a pretty face is a dangerous gift! "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight!" 1 Peter 3:3-4

Source : http://www.gracegems.org/

Do you really Love Jesus Christ? by John Macarthur

Christ the Lord is Born Today - Sovereign Grace

It Will Cost You Everything

These Are Written - An Animation

Looking through the Mirror

Looking through the Mirror By R C Sproul

When Paul declared the mysterious and breathtaking promise that "all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose" (Rom. 8: 28), he was musing in teleology. He was dealing with the realm of the remote rather than the proximate. This suggests that the proximate must be judged in light of the remote.

Our problem is this: We do not yet possess the full light of the remote. We are still looking in a dark mirror. We are not utterly devoid of light, though. We have enough light to know that God has a good purpose even when we are ignorant of that good purpose.

It is the good purpose of God that gives the final answer to the appearance of vanity and futility in this world. To trust in the good purpose of God is the very essence of godly faith. This is why no Christian can be an ultimate pessimist.

The world in which we live is not a world of chance. Its beginning was not an accident, its operation is not an accident, and its telos, or goal, is not an accident. This is my Father's world and He rules it without caprice. As long as God exists, vanity is a manifest impossibility.

Coram Deo: Living in the Presence of God

Spend some time reflecting on the goodness of God. In what specific ways is His goodness being manifested to you right now?

For Further Study

1 Corinthians 13:12: "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known."

Romans 8:28-29: "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."