I am a person who appreciates beauty. I know I am not alone in this – I also know people who coast through life without appreciating the beauty around them.

Nature astonished me with the beauty that can be found there – from tiny insects, to fields of rippling hay, to birds of every color and size. Even as I write this I appreciate the beauty of birdcall just outside my window.

Every day a beautiful sun rises and sets, and at night the majestic beauty of the night sky can mesmerize for hours.

There are some people that are definitely beautiful, and I recognize the pleasing way that their features are assembled.

Not everyone is beautiful, and I wish, in my naive way, that the world would stop making that a measuring stick, mostly for females.

Raising a daughter is different than raising sons, though I had the same message for both – be a person of character, and look for a mate that is a person of character.

I stressed honesty – it’s a subject mentioned multiple times in the Bible, and the Ten Commandments. Every child struggled with this, but learned it was a character trait worth developing. Each lie is a trap you yourself will fall into later.

I have gone through life barely wearing makeup, but truth be told, once I got through puberty, I fell into the attractive human category. Luck of the draw, but I have not had to worry about meeting a societal expectation of how to look. Now I’m at an age where I just don’t care what people think, and I’m more concerned with my health, and taking care of myself.

There’s a huge beauty industry out there thriving on the hopes, dreams, and expectations of young girls, through women older than me. The expectation is, if you are female, you need to be beautiful. In order to be beautiful, you must look like this, dress like that.

Not everyone is beautiful in face or form.

Much better to have a kind heart, a servants love, and selflessness. This is the beauty that counts! It’s hard to be selfless when you are focused on how you look, and spend so much time conforming to societal norms.

Social media has fed the monster, and I’m just as guilty as the rest of the selfie taking females trying to focus on what really doesn’t matter.

Charm is deceitful, beauty is vain – but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Proverbs 31:30

Unfortunately, the fair of face get the attention. There will never be a magazine devoted to the good souls who get up every day, worship their God, and serve others.

God sees, though, and their reward will be in heaven.

Meanwhile social media and magazines with be filled with impossible standards, reached only by conforming or transforming oneself to meet the current ideal of beauty.

You’ll never get there. So concentrate on what matters, what you can change – a wicked heart. A selfish countenance. Lips that are deceitful. This is the path to inner beauty, and it’s the beauty that will sustain the ultimate test of time.