TOTAL COW MAKEOVER?

1 Peter 3:1-6
1 Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, 2 when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. 3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. 4 Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. 5 For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, 6 like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.

This whole makeover thing is getting out of hand. As you may have seen, the TV show Extreme Makeover allows people to be physically transformed by liposuction, hair replacement, and other tricks of the trade.

Now some ranchers "down under" have decided that if it's good enough for people, it's good enough for cattle. In response, the folks running the Tasmania Agricultural Show in Australia have had to lay down some rules to stop bovines from being made artificially beautiful.

Yep, ol' Bessie the cow was given plastic surgery so she could take the grand prize. Under a code of ethics designed to reinforce the "natural attractiveness" of the animals, this is no longer allowed.

"We don't want cows' teats sealed or glued," said a spokesman for the Tasmania Show. "We don't want people pumping cows' stomachs up to expand the stomach. . . . We want to put them in the show ring as they have bred them."

It's obvious that our world is obsessed with beauty. And shows like Extreme Makeover can make us feel so inadequate. When we see an average person adorned with the best makeup, wardrobe, and snow-white teeth veneers money can buy--we want the image in our mirror to get a makeover too.

The apostle Peter had a different version of beauty. He saw it as something that shines from the inside, not something plastered on the outside. In his words to wives, he stated that their beauty "should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight" (1 Peter 3:4). He was talking about character.

It's the inner self that needs more of our attention, not the outside packaging. "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7).

Attractiveness isn't found in jewelry and the latest clothing. Extreme beauty is found in a quiet spirit that hopes in God and seeks His heart. --Tom Felten

DESTINATION POINTS

* In what ways have I been obsessed with beauty?
* How can I become more attractive on the inside?

LINKS:
Makeover Mania
http://www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2004/005/1.24.html
Self-Esteem
http://www.discoveryseries.org/q0503

bottom line: Beauty is more than skin deep--it's in the heart.

soul journey