Article by T.D. Jakes

This is for me to read and anyone else who is insecure about their looks. It is by the Bishop T.D. Jakes.


True Beauty


The Bishop reminds us to look beyond the external to the divine source of our transcendent beauty.


"As a boy I remember hearing men describe women they found pretty. "She's light-skinned," they might have said, "Got long, good hair and light eyes." Times have changed-or have they? How many of us still ascribe to others' standard of beauty? When will we break this cycle of passing down to our children that their appearance is not pleasing enough? I've counseled more people than I care to number who have shared with me that they felt "unwanted" or "not worthy of love" because of some narrow-minded comment that they were not attractive.

We are bombarded with contradictory messages about what we should look like. Who among us doesn't recall it being said that someone was too skinny, too fat, too black, too light, too thick-lipped, too thin-nosed, too kinky-headed, too something or other? So many women of immense beauty never see that beauty reflected in the mirror because they are bent on being a size 6 instead of a size 18, even when that fuller size looks delectable on them.

The narrow conventions about what makes a person beautiful present a quandary at times. Singer Susan Boyle was a recent example. before she could fill the air with a single mellifluous note, she had already drawn snickers and stares if disbelief from the celebrity judges of Britain's Got Talent. They and member s of the audience were unimpressed by the plain looks of this jobless 47-year-old woman. But what a difference the sound of her singing made as she grabbed the spotlight and more than a few international headlines. "I dreamed a dream..." she sang in a voice that was melodic, passionate, moving, beautiful.

What do you dream of doing in your own life? Who would you be if you refused to be chained by other people's judgments, if you never for a moment doubted your own intrinsic worth and God-given appeal? We must extinguish our shallow prejudices about appearance. The eyes, lips, noses, chins, cheekbones, legs, arms and other body parts we possess are the fruit of our parents' genes. For a price, some of us might seek to have our natural-born selves carved, nipped and tucked under the surgeon's knife, buy hair that is not our own, or pop in contact lenses to change the color of our eyes. Yet we can never get away from who we are-and who we are is God's exquisite creation.

All that God created is good and beautiful. As the Scriptures tell us in 1 Peter 3:3-4:

"Let our beauty be not just the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on fine clothing; but in the hidden person of the heart, in the incorruptible adornment of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God very precious."

God wants us to understand that true beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which means that all we need to do to see our own light is to look upon ourselves with loving eyes. That's why I was grateful that Susan Boyle reminded us that what pours out from the inside is exceedingly more magnificent than any exterior packaging. So step onto the grand stage of our own life. See how beautiful you are."


(Me again.) This is all well and good. Now if I could just find a single guy that thinks this way cause it's the only way I'll ever find anybody : (