Beauty

There is a large span of definitions for the word beauty. Culturally it can mean curvy or stick thin. Makeup may be required, others shun the pigment.  Some require head coverings, others worship hair.  What about the heart? I'm not sure how most cultures view the heart, but to me, the heart is what is beautiful.  No, I'm not going all Cristina Yang here. I'm saying love, passion, what drives you... that's what's beautiful.  Christ drives me.  Christ drives most of my friends.  That commitment to me is beautiful.  It's difficult to shy away from old habits, to flee from enemies, but once that's done, beauty invelops the heart.  God is sanctifying us, sinners, into beautiful beings. That right there is inner beauty.  Christ is inner beauty.  A heart for people, a servants heart, a loving heart.  That is beautiful.
I think society has raised the expectation that beauty has to be visible, sas to be about the reflection you see looking back in the mirror.  As humans we fall to that demand.  We find it necessary to have the perfect hair, no smear in our makeup. We have to have the right outfit for that night out, have to look good in that outfit.  The expectation to be thin is a whole nother topic of discussion.  The way we are forced to be smaller, even if it kills us, because the ridicule hurts our hearts so much more than the way we starve ourselves.  Expectations for beauty are so high that women pay the price, with major consequences.  We question everything about ourselves because of what society expects.  Don't get me wrong, going out with makeup and a sexy dress is nothing to be ashamed of, nor is it not okay, but I think the extremes we go to, to look or be a certain way, takes away the true meaning of beauty.
Be Yourself. God always tells me.  Why? Because society tells me otherwise. My heart may be in the right place when it comes to loving others, but it isn't when it comes to loving myself.  Society has morphed my brain to expect so much out of myself; the bar has been raised to impossibly high that I cannot reach it.  So here I am, expecting so much of myself, an impossible standard, that not even God has required of me! Be Yourself.  Learn from Me. Not the world.  Him.
To Him, beauty is my heart to live for Him.  The drive to be like His Son.  Christ.  Christ drives me, Christ is beautiful. His love is beautiful. I am beautiful to Him. 
So no matter what society tells me.  Gossip magazines.  Models.  Television.  Media outlets.  There is only one written source who tells me who or how to be. My Bible. Nothing else.
I am beautiful.

Let the king be enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord.
Psalm 45:11