Prayers for her safe and successful mission.
I often take a moment as I wait at our grocery store checkout stand to scan the covers of the magazines displayed there. It seems that if they arent about sex and money, theyre about diet, fitness, health, and outward beauty. Theres nothing there for the soul.
The problem is that people read the wrong magazinesthose that are full of lies that fixate on beauty of face and form as though thats all there is. This can lead to comparison and terrible despair.
Some years ago, a friend of mine told of a conversation he had with a lovely, self-assured teenager. Youre very self-confident, he observed. Can you tell me why? Yes, the young woman answered. Its because Im so pretty. Oh, Im sorry, he said with extraordinary wisdom. Why? she asked in surprise. Because, he replied, you may not always be pretty.
Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing is the wisdom we read in Proverbs 31. Physical beauty all too quickly fades away; all ones efforts to keep it are doomed to fail. But there is an inner beautyauthentic beauty that will endure foreverin the one who fears the Lord (v.30).