John 7:24

So after coming home from Bibleschool I realized that I would soon be needing a vehicle.  My first method was searching kijiji to see if anything came up that struck my fancy. Then on Saturday my dad took me to look at two of the cars I had found.

The first was a gold sunfire, it came with two sets of tires, was clean inside and everything seemed to work properly. However on the outside the paint was peeling and upon inspection my dad figured out that two of the doors had been replaced, therefore red paint was peeking out from underneath ( spare parts from a red sunfire). I wasn't too inpressed with it due to the outside and the fact that it had been hit and therefore repaired.

Next Car was purple and I was pleased with the outer appearance, I wanted this purple car so I hoped that everything would be in order when i drove it. I peered inside and saw that some of the interior was ripped and worn and the seats were stained as well as the floor. When we test drove it, we found even more problems. I was disappointed, however God used this experience as a learning one.

It struck me as we were driving home.

1 Samuel 16:6-8, "The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Here I was doing exactly what I wasn't supposed to, I was more concerned with the outside and not the inside( heart of the car) . Have you ever done that with a person? Met someone and immediately judged them by the way they looked. I have. And God has reminded me time and time again that the inside is more important. However, we live in a world where value seems to be placed upon outer beauty. But God doesn't. He made a world where everyone has the potential to be beautiful, and I'm not talking about plastic surgery. Our hearts can be beautiful!!! <3  When you think of Jesus, what do you picture?

Read Isaiah 53. It says that "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him."

What does that say to us, that we should desire to be outwardly lovely? 
I don't think so, he didn't want people to be drawn to him because of his appearance. He desired to be known for his inner beauty and to affect people from the inside out. When we start working on our inward appearance, it starts to come through outside. Perhaps when a person saw Jesus they didn't think, "Wow, what a handsome fellow", but I believe that after a conversation with him, hearing him speak, or even seeing some of his actions they may have thought, "That Jesus is such a beauty!". Our inner beauty can and will shine through, if we focus on Jesus and becoming more like him.
Ecclesiastes 8:1,
Who is like the wise?
Who knows the explanation of things?
A person’s wisdom brightens their face
 and changes its hard appearance.

1 Peter 3:3-4, Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

Outer beauty fades, but inner beauty lasts on and grows, so instead of waking up in the morning and picking out the features that you dislike about your appearance( gold or purple). Consider how God sees you and maybe take time to examine your heart, <3

John 7:24, Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”