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Check out these old-school beauty tips!
Ancient Egypt: Lots of makeup and dyed hair are in.
Ancient Greece: Fair hair is considered exotic.
1300s: Big breasts and full legs are the rage.
1820s: Women go for the pale and fragile look.
Victorian Age: Shy is beautiful.
1920s: Small chests are in style (think bandaged
breasts!).
1950s: Marilyn Monroe, the “sexiest woman of
the century” was a size 12.
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Of the 3 billion women in the world, only eight are
supermodels.
The average American woman is five feet four and
weighs 144 pounds. The average model is five feet
eleven and weighs 117 pounds.
If Barbie were a real woman, she would be six feet
tall and weigh 101 pounds. She would have a 39-inch
bust, 19-inch waist, and 33-inch hips. Barbie wouldn’t
be able to walk because her lower body could not support
her upper body.
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How do we find true beauty?
Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty
of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful
clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with
the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty
of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious
to God.
1 Peter 3:3-4
The LORD doesn’t see things the way you see
them. People judge by outward appearance, but the
LORD looks at the heart.
1 Samuel 16:7
Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but
a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised.
Proverbs 31:30
I want women to be modest in their appearance. They
should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not
draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their
hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes.
1 Timothy 2:9
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank
you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship
is marvelous—how well I know it.
Psalm 139:13-14
A beautiful woman who lacks discretion is like a
gold ring in a pig’s snout.
Proverbs 11:22
God has made everything beautiful for its own time.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
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Do you feel a lot of pressure to be skinny since
you are always in the spotlight?
-- Meagen (14)
Rebecca Says: I have definitely
struggled with my self-image. Being involved in the
entertainment business, where image counts way too
much, has only made matters worse. I’ve never
been fine-featured or petite. My mom has always said
I have “heavy bones.” As I grew older,
I felt this more keenly whenever I’d perform.
I felt all the TV-induced insecurities that almost
every other girl feels. Compared to the glamorous
women I saw in the media, I was too shapely, too healthy
looking. I truly believe that if it wasn’t for
God’s protection and my family’s accountability,
I could have started down an extremely dangerous path
of trying to lose weight. I’ve got to be reminded
constantly of the importance of internal beauty—a
beauty that won’t fade as I get older. “People
judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at
the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). What matters is
that I spend time with God so that he can beautify
me—from the inside out.
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BEAUTY TIPS
Rebecca St. James: True Beauty
By Rebecca St. James
CBN.com –
Follow these secrets for health and beauty that won’t
wrinkle or go out of style!
Rebecca Says: Since you were a little girl,
the quest to be beautiful has bombarded you at every turn. From
children’s stories such as “Sleeping Beauty”
and “The Ugly Duckling” that you read to the Barbie
dolls that you played with to the comments such as “She’s
darling” or “What a pretty little girl you are”
that you heard—face it, beauty has become an all-consuming
priority! Now that you are a teen, you are under even more pressure
to be beautiful. TV, movies, and music tell you that if you want
to be beautiful you have to look a certain way, dress a certain
way, and have a certain type of body.
I have played the comparison game too. This is an embarrassing
confession, but once I recall tearing out a magazine ad that pictured
a girl standing beside a car. She looked like what I thought I
wanted to look like. She had toned arms, a slim figure,
and beautiful, full hair. I kept this picture with me to supposedly
help me achieve my goal. But I realized pretty quickly that this
was only negative, that it was making me feel even more discontented
with the unique way God created me. Basically, I was coveting
what someone else had—which amounts to breaking one of the
Ten Commandments. The other problem with comparing ourselves to
other people—especially people in magazines—is that
often these images aren’t even realistic. With today’s
technology, most pictures are doctored to erase flaws or even
shave off inches. And most models weigh less than what is considered
healthy for their height.
Beauty Jail
We’ve all looked in the mirror only to see a face
that didn’t measure up to the current standards of beauty,
and we’ve ended up feeling discouraged.
Can you think of anything or any THINGS to fill in this blank?
“I hate my _____________!”
Sometimes you need to take a closer look to see just how extreme
your discontent and dislike of your physical body has become.
Are you obsessing about your looks? Take our Beauty
Quiz and find out.
Beauty by the Book
The Bible was way ahead of us in exposing the beauty myth for
what it is. It points out the vanity, danger, and temporary quality
of mere personal attractions and instead calls attention to the
higher and more permanent beauties of mind, character, and personality.
It’s called outward versus inward beauty. The Book puts
it this way:
Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy
hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should
clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within.
1 Peter 3:3-4
Yeah, But . . .
• I won’t be accepted for who I am.
• I will still be compared to others and not measure up.
• People judge me by how I look before they get to know
me.
• Other: ________________________
We know you’ve heard this talk about the inside package
versus the outside package before. But our guess is that none
of it has yet to change your beauty response. And we know you’re
probably thinking, Inside beauty? Try telling that to the
guys. They avoid describing us on the outside by saying we’ve
“got a great personality” or we’re “really
nice.”
The Bible is not saying that the outer appearance doesn’t
matter. It’s saying:
Don’t be concerned about the outer beauty.
Don’t let it define you. Don’t let it cause you undue
stress. Don’t make it your most important priority. Don’t
let it replace the more important parts of your life.
Outer beauty is nothing more than packaging. And unless the inner
content is good, too, the outer display won’t make any lasting
difference.
Do be known for the inner beauty.
Outer beauty is the first impression someone gets of you; inner
beauty is the second and lasting impression. We call it holistic
beauty, and it’s real, honest, and lasting. It reveals the
contents on the inside of the package that enhance the outer.
You can’t fake holistic beauty—it’s the way
women look, feel, think, and act. It’s the whole beauty
shebang!
Get Personal
Yesterday, approximately how many minutes did you spend on your
appearance (outer beauty)?
Yesterday, approximately how many minutes did you spend on
your relationship with God and with other people (inner beauty)?
Rebecca Says: I once read this article in an
Australian devotional, which says a lot about real beauty:
A beauty product company once asked people in a large city
to send pictures, along with brief letters, describing the most
beautiful woman they knew. Within weeks, thousands of letters
came in.
One letter caught the attention of the employees and was soon
passed on to the company president. It was written by a boy
from a broken home, who lived in a run-down neighborhood. With
lots of spelling corrections, an excerpt from his letter read:
“A beautiful woman lives down the street from me. I visit
her every day. She makes me feel like the most important kid
in the world. We play checkers and she listens to my problems.
She understands me. When I leave she always yells out the door
that she’s proud of me.” The boy ended his letter
saying, “This picture shows you that she is the most beautiful
woman in the world, and one day I hope I have a wife as pretty
as her.”
Intrigued by the letter, the president asked to see the woman’s
picture. His secretary handed him the photograph of a smiling,
toothless woman, well advanced in years, sitting in a wheelchair.
Sparse gray hair was pulled back in a bun. The wrinkles that
formed deep furrows on her face were somehow diminished by the
twinkle in her eyes.
“We can’t use this woman,” exclaimed this
president, smiling. “She would show the world that our
products aren’t necessary to be beautiful.”
The Lie: If you’re not supermodel beautiful,
then you don’t measure up—you are not enough.
The Truth: You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
God’s Temple
The problem with trying to measure up to the images we see on
TV and in movies is that often girls do harmful things to their
body. Too many young women are starving themselves or making themselves
throw up to try to achieve the look they want. Others cut themselves
to get attention, express hurt, or just to feel something. If
you or someone you know is dealing with any of these issues, remember
that if you are a Christian, your body belongs to God—it
is not your own (see 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). When you hurt yourself,
you hurt him too. During those times when you’re feeling
particularly low about your self-image, remind myself that you
should be focusing on your God-worth, not your self-worth. You
are his treasure, his princes!
SHEism: A truly beautiful SHE is a girl who sees her value
as the whole package—through her inward as well as her outward
beauty.
Excerpted from: SHE Teen by Rebecca St. James and Lynda
Hunter Bjorklund. Copyright © 2005. Published by Tyndale. Used
by permission.
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