Cosmetics... grr
I知 tickled pink. Janelle read this blog and said that I have an interesting mind. The fact of the matter is, minds aren稚 terribly attractive, coz you can稚 SEE 弾m. What everyone sees is the body!!!
At work, I致e been getting stuck with a lot of cosmetic product write-ups. They池e so boringly predictable. Every company claims the same thing. 摘radicates wrinkles, hydrates the skin, evens the skin tone, covers blemishes, has a whitening effect, prevents shine, doesn稚 clog pores�� I could go on and on!
So much emphasis placed on outer beauty. I went for the launch of The Body Shop痴 new make-up range, watched their professional makeup artist perform magic makeovers in minutes, tried out their products� Yes, I felt the subtle lure, heard the whisper, 添ou could be beautiful too. You could have a perfect face, alluring eyes, sensuous lips��
I might have succumbed if I were richer. *laughs*
But later, when I had escaped from the heady atmosphere of illusion, I asked myself: what is all this for? Why so desperate to look young, and gorgeous, and � dare I say it � tempting??! Do these things really matter that much? And of course, you and I both know the answer: they don稚.
If we池e not careful, though, they soon will. When everybody looks at you in a certain way, you eventually start to see yourself through their eyes, and agree with them. Hey, I never worried about my hearty laugh until 吐riends� started telling me it was unladylike. Not feminine. Too loud. And after a while, I began to worry: would it turn people (OK, I admit it, I mean GUYS) off? Is it really that terrible to go off into gales of laughter in the cinema, when something happens to tickle my funnybone? Well, I致e actually had 吐riends� poke me in the ribs and hiss, 泥on稚 laugh so loud!�, whilst sinking further and further down into their seats. Small wonder I prefer to catch movies alone. :(
In the same way, all I have to do is hang around these cosmetic companies long enough to develop qualms about my attractiveness as a woman. One of The Body Shop痴 people said to me, 添ou don稚 use face masks, do you?� When I confirmed it, she nodded knowingly: 添ou should. You致e got lots of blackheads on your nose.� Thank you very much. Now I致e got one more thing to be self-conscious about!
Seriously, in my moments of sanity I know that appearance isn稚 all that important. I mean, yeah, one ought to be clean and neat, and carry one痴 self well, but that痴 all. Beauty is not the be-all and end-all of life. Back when I was in school, everyone used to act like exam results were a do-or-die thing. And they weren稚. We were the ones who gave them a life bigger than themselves, elevated them to places of importance where they were never meant to be. And now we池e doing the same thing with the whole beauty issue. There is more to life than looking gorgeous. I知 sure any of the supermodels could second that.
I used to be able to say, 撤eople will just have to accept me the way I am, because this is me and I知 not going to change for anyone痴 sake.� I致e lost that youthful bravado and that strong sense of self. Now I知 trying to learn to see myself the way God sees me. 典he Lord your God is with you� He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing,� the Bible says (Zephaniah 3:17). He will rejoice over you with singing. Ever have days when you wonder, 展hat is there about me that God could possibly find to sing about?!?�
添ou created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother痴 womb,� a man called David wrote to God years ago (Psalm 139:13). Having taken such painstaking care over us, why wouldn稚 God feel like singing when He sees you and I?