Beauty in our lives is often a
conundrum. We are barraged by all forms
of media to be beautiful people and/or have beautiful things. Often captured by most of us in seeing or
hearing those messages is the implied “or else”. Simply put, we are sublimely told that if we
aren’t beautiful, or don’t have beautiful things we are somehow second rate or
not as good as others. The power of
advertising!
Referring to people, there is an
old saying that says “beauty is only skin deep”. There is great truth in that. I would guess that we have all run across
people who were beautiful, and who had beautiful things. In some cases those folks were downright ugly
human beings. Their actions completely
destroyed the fact that there might be goodness within them.
I once heard someone say something
about a dog. “He has a face only a
mother can love”. It was an ugly
appearing dog, but that dog was so loyal, gentle, and faithful that the beauty
within it far outshone his lack of beauty on the outside.
That’s the kind of beauty we are to
seek if we are to be more Christ like in our efforts to be better men, husbands,
and fathers. We need to make a concerted
effort to look at the beauty in the hearts of other people and not their
status, looks, position, or circumstances.
We need to actively seek those diamonds in the rough. By seeking beauty, we will automatically
start to free ourselves of the biases and prejudices we may hold, even if we
are unaware of them. We will become more
open, and we will start to see at an even greater level just how similar we all
are, even with our myriad differences.
We are, after all, all humans, and we all have hearts, and it is that
beauty of the heart that we need to be seeking if we are going to be more
Christ like.
Seeking beauty in others will also
serve to taking ourselves out of ourselves.
Bottom Line Thought: Do
you struggle with self-centeredness? Are
you self absorbed in your own issues and circumstances that you often fail to
see the beauty in others?
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