By Dannah Gresh, Founder of True Girl
She was beautiful.
Sixteen. Long, brown wispy hair. No makeup. Rugged jeans and a simple T.
I’ll never forget her inspiration in my life.
“Dannah,” she said, “what you’ve been talking about—the clothes, the makeup, the modesty—those are all big issues in my life. I really struggle with being overwhelmed with the surface, and I ignore my internal beauty.”
“Really?” I asked, surprised. She seemed so down-to-earth and natural.
“This isn’t what I usually look like,” she confessed. “God told me not long ago to go on a vanity fast. No makeup. No special stuff with my hair, and only jeans and T’s except for when I need to honor my parents with the way that I dress. I locked up my jewelry and makeup and trendy little outfits. For one month, it’s just me and God! And I’m loving it!”
She inspired me. She was using all the energy she used to spend on her external beauty and pouring it into worship! And she felt more beautiful. Less dependent on the illusion of beauty and more content with the real thing deep inside her. I wanted to experience that.
And soon, God showed me that this vanity fast is nothing new.
In Exodus 38:8 we find a vanity fast. It says, “They made the bronze basin and its bronze stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.”
They were building the temple—the place where they could draw near to the presence of the living God. And nothing could stand in the way. The mirrors the women offered took away all their opportunities to be vain. They were out in the desert . . . no running water . . . no blow-dryers . . . no mirrors. I mean, talk about roughing it! Their one luxury for beauty was the mirrors that they’d plundered from the Egyptians when they left. These were crude, polished pieces of metal that enabled the women to see their images. In offering them to God for worship in the temple, they were giving up their last relics of modern beauty.
Plunge with me a few feet further from the world and closer to God, dear friend.
These mirrors were broken into many pieces and molded together into a basin. A basin which Aaron, the priest, would wash in after he’d sacrificed an animal to God. He would actually be able to see himself in the outer court . . . the court of God. It was not only a sacrifice of vanity, but it brought them as a people closer to the God who’d rescued them. That’s what happens when we get the trappings of this world out of the way. We get closer to God.
Mirrors. Magazines. Television. Movies. Hours in front of the mirror. Spending sprees. These aren’t evil in and of themselves, but when we feast on them too much, they become barriers between us and God. When sacrificed in acts of worship, they become reflective places in which we can see ourselves in His presence.
I feel more beautiful when I worship consistently. When my heart's energy is spent on God and not the worship of my own image through today's fads and fashions. Do you experience that, too?
I think there is a deep, crazy connection between worship and real beauty. Want to help your daughter override the world's lies about beauty? Teach her to worship!
NURTURE YOUR MOTHER/DAUGHTER CONNECTION
Social science reveals that the greatest risk reducer to everything a mother’s heart fears for her daughter is “connectedness.” God’s Word instructs that moral development and emotional health is the task of the parents, not the church or a professional pastor. True Girl is your toolbox for mother/daughter connection experiences. This Bible study includes weekly “girl gab” time during the one-hour on-line study and weekly strategic mother/daughter conversation time fostered by a coloring experience. We keep you in the driver’s seat of your daughter’s heart, because you know her best. Register today at mytruegirl.com/onlinebiblestudies
