Who You Are Inside

“The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 

(l Samuel 16:7 NIV)

Does your heart reflect who you are? How does the person you are on the outside express the reality of the person you are on the inside? I ask myself these questions often when I am absorbed in spending hours each week maintaining my outward appearance, or when I am concerned with other people’s perception of my work performance or behavior. And even though I know that grooming and taking care of ourselves, and making a good impression is important, what’s more important is our genuine attitude and inner spirit. Getting older is a challenge! And I certainly don’t like the inevitable signs of aging and the continuous effort at keeping up with the ever changing generation and advanced technology. However, our inner beauty never ages or wrinkles and it never grows old! True beauty doesn’t come from the outside; it comes from deep down inside our hearts. The person we appear to be on the outside is only an image; it’s who we are inside that really matters.

First Samuel 16:17 says that God looks at our hearts; He knows what is really going on inside us! And we are all unique, with our own special beauty and values to give to life; if we don't look in our hearts and understand how we really are, then we can't love ourselves the way God distinctively created us. God made a world full of many different colors so that we don’t only see things in black and white. No one will ever be exactly like you! Men often will judge us by our outward appearances or by their perceptions of our lives. But true beauty is all around us, and we can learn so much from the diversity of the world around us. In our hearts, we must find the beauty and the good in everyone, no matter how different they might at first appear.

"Be beautiful inside, in your hearts, with the lasting charm of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God." (I Peter 3:4 NIV)

 

When you look at a patch of dandelions, do you see a bunch of weeds? Or when you see a homeless person on the streets who offers you a smile, do you see a dirty person who probably just wants money? I love how children see beauty in such simplistic ways; a patch of dandelions are for blowing the white fluff you can wish on, and they see the homeless person on the streets as someone who is smiling at them and they smile back. There is true beauty in everything, and someone’s appearance doesn’t always reveal what they are really like or what their true value is. Who we are on the inside should reflect love, kindness, being merciful, and being gentle. Because God doesn't look on the outside; He looks at the heart, and He knows when we are being truthful or dishonest. He knows the intents and motivations of our hearts and sees beneath the surface of our outward appearance.

“You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.” (Song Of Solomon 4:7 ESV)