My definition of beauty used to be very different. Through the eyes of a child, I thought that everyone was beautiful. When I looked into the mirror, I did not sigh in defeat. The reflection was beautiful…until someone came along to tell me otherwise.
For most of us, our definition of beauty originated in the words of someone else. Someone, at some point in time, told us what it means to be beautiful…and we listened to them. We listened to the definition, and then we took it a step further.
We lived it.
Instead of blowing off their opinion, we took their meaning of beautiful to heart and ran with it. We ran with it through elementary school. We sprinted with it through high school. We drive with it when our lives cross the interstate into “adulthood”. One person’s words changed the way we not only think; it changed the way we live.
Who taught you what beautiful means? Did you learn it in the halls of middle school as all the girls vied for attention? Did you learn it from your family in the safety of your home? Did you learn from the billboard situated on the road you drive by everyday? Where did you learn it? Who’s voice are you listening to? Why are you listening to it?
One more question: Does that voice speak truth?
In John 8:32 Jesus spells out truth in big, red letters: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Truth. In a world that says “truth is relative”, what is Truth?
This question has been asked since ancient times. Before Jesus’ death on the cross, Pilate put the question of our souls into words: “What is truth?” (John 18:38)
Pilate didn’t get it. He didn’t get that Truth stood right before his eyes. He didn’t get that he was literally putting truth to death. He understand that the words Jesus spoke before he even voiced his question were truth. No, Pilate didn’t get it.
Do you get it? Do I get it?
Sometimes.
Sometimes I do listen to Truth’s voice. Sometimes I believe that I am perfectly made. Sometimes I believe that the mirror does not hold my identity within the glass.
But sometimes I don’t . Sometimes I look at the cover of a magazine and listen to another’s voice. Sometimes I let someone else’s definition of truth negate mine.
Not today, though.
Today is a day to challenge the voice that has held prestige all these years. Today is the day you mute her voice in order to turn up the volume on Truth. Today is the day you search for a new definition of beauty and listen to a different voice.
Who’s voice are you listening to today? I’m listening to a different one…one who speaks Truth.
Verse: “…In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” (John 8:37)- Jesus’ response to our heart’s question
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