"Beauty is health made visible"...?

So I was walking down a street in West Auckland the other day and came across this sign outside of a health/beauty parlour:
"Beauty is health made visible".
This made me think.
My first thought was, "Yea that sounds about right." But then I realised what I was actually saying.
This parlour was sending out a message. That message was that you can only be beautiful if you're healthy. Of course, this is just one of their marketing ploys to get people like you or I to use their services. They probably think nothing of it.
But I'm reading an awesome book right now that has made me think about how easy it is to get into the minds of young people around the world and manipulate them into something other than who they truly are, and this kind of thing makes me quite angry! So I've been looking out for these things when I've been out and about.
When I came across this sign, I couldn't believe that these people were actually saying that you can only be beautiful if you're healthy. They're not saying that health can make your more beautiful, they're saying that beauty IS health. There is no alternative. It IS.
I thought about how this would come across to the people who are walking past this sign every day. I'm sure a lot of them truly believe this, and may be going to great measures to be "healthy" so they can be "beautiful".
I'm not sure if you've noticed, but people of our generation seem to be more sensitive and venerable while putting on a "tough outer layer look" to hide their problems, and as someone who works with young people at camps and at church this kind of thing worries me.
I know what you're thinking. "This is just a sign. People don't even read them these days. How do you even know people are affected by this?"
But the truth is, there is so much out there far worse than this health/beauty parlour sign, and this stuff isn't good. It's just opened my eyes more to what is around me.
If this is the kind of message that is getting out to our generation, then I want to change it.
In a song by a band called Anberlin there is a line which goes "We are the loudest ones, we could change it now, we could change the world". And WE are. WE have a choice how to live our lives. WE are the next generation. WE can change the message getting out there, but WE have to work together.
God made us to work together. The human species was not created to be alone. We need each other. And that is true, whether you're looking at it from The Bible's perspective or not.
So I challenge you this week, month, year, life, to help me change that view.
God created us in HIS image. Isn't that amazing?? We are created in the image of God. In His eyes we are PERFECT. YOU are PERFECT. And it hurts Him to see us trying to change our image, and having these false thoughts in our minds. He created you and I to be us. Not who we see on TV, in the magazines or on posters.
And what's more, He has NO DOUBT that you can set an example, no matter what race, age, gender, sexual orientation, background, religion you are or have. He loves EVERYONE. And I mean EVERYONE in the whole world.
My favourite verse in The Bible is one of great encouragement to me. It comes from I Timothy 4:12:

"Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for other [people] in your speech, behaviour, love and purity."

That's a verse worth thinking about.
God bless :o)
Charli

Unknown "~Charli~" Cheeky - 16 years, 8 months, 4 days ago