What makes you beautiful?

I researched long and hard about this.  I wanted to know to an exact science; what exactly composed a perfect face.  Could it be perfect facial symmetry?  Was it the correct distance of eyes from one’s forehead?  Was beauty something that could be calculated and more importantly, is beauty something that can be bought?

I could never have been so wrong.

In the midst of all of this I found written on the inside of my friend’s bible the following verse,

“1 Peter 3:3-4

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes.  Instead it should be of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is of great worth in God’s eyes.”
I think you demean beauty by limiting it to the structure of your face.  Because anyone can be born with a pretty face, but being beautiful means something much more.

I believe that when someone is truly beautiful, every feature of their face is illuminated by their smile.  That when someone is a happy person, there’s this glow inside of them that makes them look 100% better than they could ever look like with a frown.

Your face can never be perfect.  I doubt that even the beautiful face in the picture above is really and truly perfect.  I see makeup and tweezed eyebrows.  But imperfections are what make us unique.  Imperfections make us who we really are.
I remember telling these two twins I thought they were so beautiful and having them say to me that their nose was ugly, that it literally looked like a witches nose.  What they failed to realize is that the distinct appearance of their nose is what made me find their face so beautiful in the first place.  Their faces weren’t perfect, but they were beautiful.

Proverbs 31: 30 reads ” Charm is deceptive, beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the lord is to be praised.”

Beauty is fleeting.  Isn’t that crazy?  And isn’t it so very true?  Looking back on how greatly we weigh beauty, isn’t it all a bit foolish?

There is no formula for beauty.  There is no equation one must follow to be seen as beautiful.  But maybe there are so many more beautiful things we fail to notice while aspiring towards perfection.

Like those distressed pictures of people so happy you can’t help but feel the joy oozing from them and smirk.

Like when you find someone who just understands you so well and you can’t imagine how you ever lived life without them before.  Be it a friend, a family member or a significant other.

Or a love so magnificent that even death could not hold him down.

Now that is what I call beautiful.