Photo by longhairbroad on Flickr
“Let me get fixed up and I’ll meet you in 30 minutes.” said a woman at the grocery store to a friend. Another woman at the hair salon admired her new ‘do in the mirror and said “It’ll be easy for my to fix myself up before I leave the house. I just wasn’t fit to be in public before!”
May I just say – using the term “fix up” for applying makeup or styling hair is a term I passionately loathe. Despise even. Why?
Because the implication is we are broken by default. Our baseline beauty isn’t enough and must be FIXED or remedied before we are fit for public consumption.
In a lot of ways, this goes back the empowered woman’s dilemma, but it’s insidiously deeper still. A woman of perfection has to be a natural beauty – while at the same time accepting that what nature has given her isn’t good enough. Or even enough.
Boobs? Make them bigger. Or firmer. Or perkier.
Lips? Redder. Or plumper. Or softer.
Hair? Shinier. Or curlier. Or straighter. (Depending on what your baseline, is of course)
Skin? Teeth? Smile? Waist? Size? Feet?
And that’s not even touching the issue of clothing and jewelry.
What I want to challenge you is to accept that you are GOOD ENOUGH as is. What God created me to be is enough. MORE than enough! Yes, I like to look nice. Yes, I always a lip gloss or three tucked away in pockets and hidey-holes hither and yon.
But if my purpose in the mirror in the morning is to “fix myself up,” then I am living with a soul-sucking implication — that what God created me to be needs repair. And that’s not a healthy point of view.
What if instead of thinking of ourselves as broken dolls to be reassembled into a Barbie-world ideal of an unattainable image we truly believed what God calls us – like a valuable gem? Pearl of great price. Worth far above rubies.
Gemstones are naturally beautiful – all they need is a little polishing and rough-edge-smoothing to bring out their ALREADY EXISTENT beauty. I like the sound of that better, don’t you?
So I firmly reject the notion that we need fixing up. That we need anything more than a little bit of polishing to highlight the natural sparkle that we already possess.
When you get ready in the morning are you polishing your natural inner ruby or trying to “fix” something that isn’t broken?
I really needed this today. Thank you.
I thank God that I have a husband who loathes make-up. Excepting for photos (where there will be harsh lighting), none of us wears it. I wish I could have back all the $$ I spent in my 20s trying to be “better”.
~Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord shall be praised.
Amein! To me, getting ‘fixed up’ should be nothing mire than making sure I’m cleaned and mended. A friend (a professional model by trade) once told me that a woman should look her best, from head to toe, every day. I had to really pray about that. I couldn’t relate to a lot of what she said in that regard most times, but as a God-fearing woman who is as equally endowed with brains as she is physically (law degree), and with her growing knowledge of scripture, I had to pray about this. And she’s right. Though I don’t think she’d quite agree with my definition of that statement. Yah says we’re to dress sensibly, modestly, and be an asset to our husbands. How we look shows our integrity as a child of Yahweh. Does that mean collect more shoes and spraypaint on the make-up? No! But we can keep ourselves healthy and clean. And take the default: there’s only two people we need to impress. The Father, and a husband if we have one. Walking with Yahushua (Christ) will show in that. And people will see that in our bearing. What better way to beautify than in our Elohim?
I love this! I always try to let any polishing I do accentuate the natural beauty I’ve been given. I think it’s important to know what your favorite features are, so that you have something to appreciate. For me, that’s my eyes. I love that they seem to change color depending on what I’m wearing. I wasn’t given much in the way of eye lashes, but I can accentuate my eyes with a little shadow or eye liner and really make them pop. They aren’t broken or lacking, but I feel like some days my favorite part of my face is hiding behind my glasses and I want to show them off!
Oh that’s a great point. I think my favorite feature is my smile – maybe why I always like a little lip gloss (or red lipstick). 🙂 But yes…polish not fix! 🙂
Yes, yes yes! I am not a fashionista and I do not buy into the materialistic side of life but I am guilty of having a low opinion of myself. It’s something I constantly struggle with but I am great at telling others how beautiful they are, inside and out.
Yes yes yes! I love seeing more people building their self-esteem and not buying into some idea that we need “fixing.”
Yes! This is so what I am hearing right now from many different places. We ARE enough and if we could just finally believe that maybe we could rest and enjoy our lives.
I love your article. 99% of the time I comb and go — with out looking in the mirror. The only day I look in the mirror is before church… Thanks for letting me know I am enough.
I don’t “fix.” I enhance. God created eyeliner so I wouldn’t feel my eyes were so pale. The older I get, the more comfortable I am in my own skin. And I truly will go anywhere with my greasy hair and un made up face (except for lip gloss) but I feel much better when I enhance what God gave me.
Lately I’ve been forgoing earrings because my jewelry box is put away, and it seemed more bother than it was worth. It surprised me how panicked I felt when I didn’t was out and realized I didn’t have them in. I don’t even wear big ones.
Anyhow – I like the points you made – very much!