Yesterday, after I spoke to a ladies’ group about true beauty, someone brought up the time and money we spend on improving our appearance. How much is too much? Should we worry about it at all?
I remember saying that there’s nothing wrong with wearing makeup or finding clothes that fit well and look nice. But I sensed that something was lacking in my response…

Then, today, I remembered out first house. It was a little cape cod on a corner lot. It had lots of quirks, but we chose to think of them as character. As soon as we moved in, we went to work. We painted and wallpapered and carpeted, and changed the counter tops. Ken painted the peaks on the outside, trimmed the overgrown bushes, and even painted the cement floor in the basement’s laundry and storage rooms. Every square inch of that property was transformed by our enthusiastic home-owner ambition.

Next door was a different story. There was a large, two story house with a rather disheveled yard. Just after we moved in, the owner began putting a thin layer of primer over the house’s peeling brown paint. But after a few days, he stopped. When we moved out, two years later, the house was in the same state: Peeling brown paint, with a layer of primer over one section. We didn’t miss our view when we moved away.

Our bodies are the ‘house’ that God has given us. When we let the paint peel and leave things in a disheveled state, we show how little we value that property that God designed and built as a dwelling place for himself. Sure, we may have quirks or things that need updating. But God thinks of those things as character.

As we ambitiously enhance what we are given, we subtly send a message to our neighbors that says, “Hey, I’m worth something. The Person who lives here says so.”