She Leads Daily reached out to readers to hear their thoughts about beauty. At times, when you doubt yourself, when you question your looks, your liveliness, your value, here are truths you can lean on.

Tami: I know a lot of people who have different styles and different personalities, but what makes them truly inspiring is the way they know who they are. It’s beautiful when someone is proud of who they are in God and, by extension, when they are confident in what they look like…I feel most beautiful when I’m truly content in who God is making me to be.

Carolyn: What makes a person beautiful? It is in the eyes which reflect the soul and also a smile for friends and strangers.

Meg: I think a person is beautiful if they possess a sense of calm and peace. You know when you see a wrinkled, grey-haired woman sitting quietly and she just exudes tranquillity? I find that sort of quiet calm is beautiful.

Patricia: I am beautiful because God made me…I think people’s so-called vanity may not be vanity at all. It may be self-doubt or a poor self-image and they think that they will be accepted and fit in if they are admired for their “beauty.” This is such a trap to fall into. God loves us just as we are, and because He loves us, we are secure with who we are, wrinkles and all.

Lynn: Probably the most beautiful ladies I’ve known were two older ladies who radiated God through the way they lived. Both women were very good listeners, who were able to share their experiences of God working in their lives, in a down to earth way. They both had a gentle, quiet authority which commanded my attention. They didn’t were make-up, were always reserved but well-dressed…I believe like my older friends it’s having God working in and through me that makes me beautiful. It’s as I spend time with Him, reading His word the Bible and praying to Him that I feel more confident and content.

Jenny: I think what makes anyone beautiful is an inner sense of peace and contentment. Everyone is transformed by a smile. I think beauty comes from a conviction that we are loved, valued and treasured and worthy of love.

Maude: It’s taken me a lot of time to understand the difference between vanity and healthy looking after yourself. When I was growing up, I was told that looking at yourself in the mirror was “vain,” that I should learn to be useful (because outward beauty was not to be celebrated at all). My mother had a large inferiority complex, never believing she was beautiful. Yet, I always found her and her mannerisms beautiful. I saw my sisters as beautiful and many others, but not myself…I do not think that it is sinful to take joy and gain confidence from enhancement of outward beauty. We admire a beautiful work of art or a brilliant piece of music and find joy in their sheer beauty. Why should finding joy in physical appearance be any different – we are all God’s handiwork.

Christine: The point of my life, how I see myself, is to point to Jesus. Everything else is secondary. The God who sits on a throne looking as beautiful as radiant, precious jewels, being worshipped at every moment by millions of angles, is also the King of Kings, and who describes me as His daughter. My identity, that’s simple: I’m a princess. Eat your heart out Disney! The most beautiful people I know are not the runway models of this world. Beauty is integrity, faithfulness, an inner joy, a smile on a dark day, a meal from a Christian friend when I am sick, a triumphant life from years of domestic abuse.

Louise: There’s a physical and spiritual beauty to everyone. We might initially be attracted to a person’s physical beauty only to realize they lack spiritual beauty (and by this I mean the fruits of the Spirit – Galatians 5:22–23). Similarly, we might not look at someone as being physically beautiful, but we are drawn to them by the spiritual beauty they possess.

Sarah: I think that honesty and vulnerability (which are two of the most difficult and uncomfortable things ever) make a person beautiful. I still struggle with seeing myself as beautiful. Any time anyone pays me a compliment like this, I struggle to accept and believe it. Instead, I go back to years of people telling me the contrary. Little by little, I’m beginning to see myself as God sees me and less of how I’ve been taught to see myself. One giant leap forward was, about a year ago, I looked in the mirror and thought to myself, “I like the way I look,” which was probably the first time I had ever thought that. Without my growing deeper with the Lord, I probably could’ve gone my whole life without ever thinking that.

Lacey: What makes a person beautiful? Science would say symmetry. Society would say skinny, nice complexion, hair and teeth. But beauty doesn’t pertain to just outward appearance. God created and then said, “It is good,” so I have to think He still does that. Yes, we should be good stewards of the bodies He gives us, but it’s not our call to say who or what is truly beautiful. Knowing that God created each person in the world makes it easier to see the beauty in others.

Elizabeth: Beauty is the joy of being your true, authentic self.

Angelise: I tell my four-year-old often it is not what people see on the outside but how one acts on the inside. Kindness to her brother is beauty. Sharing with someone is beauty.

*This is Part 2 of a series: Good Morning, Beautiful

Words of Truth