Independent Beauty Challenge Day #1

 I just want to thank everyone for all the encouragement that I've gotten about this challenge. It means a lot to me and I hope that with doing this, I'll be able to help other girls who have struggled with believing the same lies I have. But the last thing I want is for you all to think I'm some amazingly "spiritual person" because I'm doing this. I'm just tired of makeup making up who I am and how I see myself. Really, my purpose for posting is to keep myself accountable. When all my friends know it, I'm pushed to stick with it. When I first thought about giving up my makeup I was a little iffy about it. I mean, that consists of going to church, school, and potentially my upcoming audition, without any of it. Do I really want to sacrifice it?

I realized that if it's such a struggle to give it up, I NEED to give it up. I'm sick of depending on makeup to make me feel good about myself. I'm sick of feeling like I'm not presentable unless I've put my "face" on. It's exhausting. It's emotionally, mentally, and even physically tiring to constantly be trying to measure up to a standard that I don't want to live by anyway. I want to live by God's standard, and be who He wants me to be. And if getting rid of my face paint will give me a glimpse of who God wants me to be, then it is no sacrifice whatsoever.

So here's my first picture. I purposefully took this picture on the right side of my face (the webcam took a mirror image) because I always considered this my "bad side". My hair is always parted on the other side and my acne is worse here. Yes, I'm a teenager. I have acne. It's not fun. I don't enjoy it. But I'm going to be real and not try to retouch the photo.

I did have a pretty awesome Jesus time this morning. I've already established I'm a teenager, so I will go ahead and say I like to sleep too. So devotions are not the first thing I think about in the morning, so in consequence, I would wait until right before I go to bed to do them. That's probably not the best option for me because I'm already tired from a full day of "work" and I feel like I'm just giving God what's left of my day. Not saying that devotions at night are bad, it's certainly nice to end the day on a good note, but I am not at my most alert at 11pm. So doing my devos in place of my hair and makeup routine was really good.

I focused on what the Bible had to say about beauty and being beautiful. I know as girls, we're always compared to the Proverbs 31 woman and I'd just like to say, I love her. THAT is who I want to be. She is the perfect example of a virtuous woman. Something that struck me was Proverbs 31:30 "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." Something that I don't think about very often is that physical beauty is temporary. If God allows, I will live to be old and wrinkly. So why am I so worried about it? If I can't see myself as beautiful now, being young and healthy, I can't count on me feeling beautiful when I'm 80. Fearing God is what is beautiful. That is so precious to Him. If I say that I only care about what God thinks, why am I obsessing about how I look?

Matthew 6:19-21 says "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Things of this life won't matter when it comes to eternity. I need to spend my time focusing on what will last. Furthering the Kingdom of God, striving to be like Christ, that will be rewarded. Me freaking out over this zit on my face? Probably not.

Today wasn't so bad, but it's just day one. I know it'll get harder, but if seeing myself as beautiful means getting over myself and my insecurities and focusing on what really MATTERS, then that's fine with me.