CHARM IS DECEPTIVE

 

 As believers, we sometimes base our identity on our looks, we base our identity on our appearance or beauty. Social media definitely has played a role in this. As we scroll through our feeds, we are bombarded with countless photos of the seemingly perfect faces, appearances and looks.

Beauty is a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight. Appearance is the way that someone or something looks. “The degree to which a person's physical traits are considered pleasing or beautiful.

Examples of what beauty entails are a slim body, flawless skin, our height, our weight, our body shape, our skin color, our hair.

Dora found herself believing things about her appearance. Things that her classmates spoke to her. Words were thrown carelessly in her direction but they landed on the fertile soil of her soul? She had based her identity on her physical appearance. A boy in her class had told her she was so ugly that people would die when they looked at her. She sobbed because all herself was based on her looks. She was stuck in these lies.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” Genesis 3:7-10

Adam and Eve were deceived by the devil and were ashamed to meet God. They did not want to see God because they thought they were not good enough so they tried to cover up. Shame entered the world this way and for many of us, shame becomes the lens through which we view ourselves. Thoughts of I’m not enough, I’m not beautiful disguise our self-image and in turn affect our actions.