A friend of mine sent me a text message today commenting on the beautiful women he was encountering at his local Wendy's restaurant. I, in turn, replied that there are so many beautiful women in the world. Oddly enough, I was standing in line at a McDonald's during the text exchange admiring the beauty of the staff and patrons alike.
I started to think about beauty and what makes a person attractive? In our American culture there seems to be two primary factors in beauty. Physical appearance and finance. Typically women possess the physical appearance and men bring finance to the table (not that the two can't be switched but I'm speaking in generalities. Sadly, these are surface issues.
Take notice that these don't touch the heart, the soul, the character, the mind of a man or woman. I too am guilty of succumbing to the outward nature of our culture and letting that lead me as I survey the land of available women. Yet, beauty will not sustain a relationship (finance won't either, but it can destroy a relationship). The inner man, the traits of the soul and spirit, are what sustains a relationship. I think it is our lack of interest in these things that has a our divorce rate at %
50%.
We have an internal problem. When mother Theresa visited our nation she made the statement that, "Never in all the world have I seen such poverty as I see here." That's a stunning comment when you think about the fact that she served the poorest people in the world in Calcutta India. She would go on to clarify our poverty by stating that we suffer from poverty of the soul. I think this is reflected daily in our relationships, be it romantic or otherwise.
We spend so much time trying to develop the external person. We work out. We eat healthy. We buy the name brands. We put on make up. We get weekly haircuts (daily for the very wealthy or very foolish). We even want our mate to match our "swag." It's about the car we drive, the house we live in, the money we make, the friends we keep. Almost nothing is given to the inner man unless we have been told it will improve the outer appearance.
This type of unbalanced focus on externals has lead to an under-developed beauty, people that live a life outside of themselves. I have met many a "fine" woman that has transformed into something hideous before my very eyes because the darkness of her soul has found a crack, and seeped out for all to see. I've known men that have all the physical qualities of a Denzel Washington, yet they are among the most selfish, inconsiderate, men in all the world.
If this continues to be the way of our nation and of our people, we will continue to see a decline in meaningful, trusting, relationships of any kind. We will waste our outer beauty because we neglected the more important things of the soul. We will miss out on the true riches of our world, each other, if we chase raw materials that mold and fade away. I hope that we will see the follies of our ways and become fully developed people.
I started to think about beauty and what makes a person attractive? In our American culture there seems to be two primary factors in beauty. Physical appearance and finance. Typically women possess the physical appearance and men bring finance to the table (not that the two can't be switched but I'm speaking in generalities. Sadly, these are surface issues.
Take notice that these don't touch the heart, the soul, the character, the mind of a man or woman. I too am guilty of succumbing to the outward nature of our culture and letting that lead me as I survey the land of available women. Yet, beauty will not sustain a relationship (finance won't either, but it can destroy a relationship). The inner man, the traits of the soul and spirit, are what sustains a relationship. I think it is our lack of interest in these things that has a our divorce rate at %
50%.
We have an internal problem. When mother Theresa visited our nation she made the statement that, "Never in all the world have I seen such poverty as I see here." That's a stunning comment when you think about the fact that she served the poorest people in the world in Calcutta India. She would go on to clarify our poverty by stating that we suffer from poverty of the soul. I think this is reflected daily in our relationships, be it romantic or otherwise.
We spend so much time trying to develop the external person. We work out. We eat healthy. We buy the name brands. We put on make up. We get weekly haircuts (daily for the very wealthy or very foolish). We even want our mate to match our "swag." It's about the car we drive, the house we live in, the money we make, the friends we keep. Almost nothing is given to the inner man unless we have been told it will improve the outer appearance.
This type of unbalanced focus on externals has lead to an under-developed beauty, people that live a life outside of themselves. I have met many a "fine" woman that has transformed into something hideous before my very eyes because the darkness of her soul has found a crack, and seeped out for all to see. I've known men that have all the physical qualities of a Denzel Washington, yet they are among the most selfish, inconsiderate, men in all the world.
If this continues to be the way of our nation and of our people, we will continue to see a decline in meaningful, trusting, relationships of any kind. We will waste our outer beauty because we neglected the more important things of the soul. We will miss out on the true riches of our world, each other, if we chase raw materials that mold and fade away. I hope that we will see the follies of our ways and become fully developed people.
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