Appearance

My fashion sense throughout the years has gone through some very interesting phases. When I was little, I was all into leggings with the socks on the outside along with the amazing "I don't brush my hair" hairstyle. In middle school my fashion evolved to baggy cotton pants, white socks, running shoes, and sweaters that were a size or two too big. Could I shout insecure with my body any louder?

High school is when I realized that how you dress could also be an art form. I went to skirts with scarves, experimented with different styles of make-up (including a very goth-like phase), and took much better care of myself with the end goal of expressing myself through my clothes.

College was my final evolution. There were defiantly some days that reverted to the "I just want to survive this day and really don't care how I look, you all see me every day anyways" style, but over all found the happy medium of "All I want you to be able to tell about me from how I look is that I'm a nice, put together young lady that you would like to get to know better."

I didn't want to look like a movie star or a nerd, I instead wanted to express the inner me that doesn't change with whatever phase of life I'm going through. I wanted the real me, the eternal me, to be represented. Oh, I still wear skirts and scarves, but I don't dress in all black in mourning of my "lost soul" (oh high school...).

What I'm now trying to do is to make how I look more like what the Lord commanded everyone to see in 1 Samuel 16:7:

7 But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

According to this scripture, who I am is not surface deep. There is a lot of talk about "it doesn't matter how you look, what matters is what is inside," and while that is true is some situations (like poverty, a stressed/hectic life, or me in middle school), I think that this scripture is also talking about bringing out what God sees inside you onto the surface.

However it is important to remember that all these goals and views for your appearance are just that, YOUR goals and views. There is another scripture in 2 Corinthians 10:7 which reads:

7 Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ’s, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ’s, even so are we Christ’s.

This is saying that every person is Christ's, and that as Christ's disciple we are to look at others how he looks at them - bypassing the outward and searching for the real person inside their hearts.

No matter what, we are all going to have opinions that jump into our minds whenever we look in the mirror or see a stranger on the street. What matters isn't so much that we have these thoughts, but what we choose to do with them. Whether we choose to honestly believe that we can gain 20 pounds over night (because it really does look that way in the mirror), or to believe that the best way to make ourselves and others beautiful starts with our own ability to smile.