We were made to be drawn to beauty as we are drawn to the sun on a cool morning. Almost instinctively, we look for it everywhere and don’t seem to be satisfied without it.
Beauty is a woman’s standard, and we work hard trying to make ourselves, our homes and the lives of those we love beautiful. There can, however, be a dark side to all of this.
Physical beauty lasts only for a moment.  External beauty is not all there is, and if it is the only beauty that we pursue we will not be the women that God desires us to be.
    
Brides carefully coordinate the details of weddings desiring them to be beautiful. Women can work to the point of exhaustion during the holidays to give their families wonderful
memories of these celebrations.  We struggle to find paint colors for our walls and rugs for our floors along with material for our window coverings. Yet, we know that physical
beauty doesn’t last. No matter what we do, we can’t hold onto it. The physical beauty of every young bride will fade as the years go by. The flowers that were planted and
enjoyed for a season will die. The excitement of putting up a fresh Christmas tree turns into a dreaded chore as we drag what’s left of it from our living rooms after the holidays.
We are constantly reminded by everything in this world that external physical beauty is almost gone before we can grasp it.

We are persuaded that God loves physical beauty because He made the world beautiful, but physical beauty is not the only beauty that God loves. He tells us in scripture that
beauty of the heart is precious to Him, in fact, we learn that this internal, imperishable beauty is better to Him than physical beauty.

                    ‘Do not let your adorning be external – the braiding
                    of the hair, the wearing of gold, or the putting on of
                    clothing - but let your adorning be the hidden person
                    of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a meek
                    and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.’
                                                           I Peter 3:3,4

A woman’s beauty doesn’t come from a store or a surgeon’s hands. It is an inward grace that transforms our hearts and forms our attitudes. John Angell
James in his book, Female Piety, states “that the prime virtue in the composition of womanly and Christian excellence (is) meekness. God values it above all gifts of
intellect... and honors it above all that men delight to honor. It is a woman’s ornament above all others.” Meekness is a woman’s beauty. There is certainly no call for us to be
offended by this because we are called to be like Him, as He is called meek and lowly of heart.

It is not either external or internal beauty. It is not either perishable or imperishable beauty. We can pursue all of it. The internal and imperishable are to be preferred before
all and pursued above all.  These are precious in His sight.  If it is precious to Him, it must become precious to us. We were made for beauty; beauty of the heart.