Beauty from the inside out

So two weekends ago I went to an Authentic Beauty conference with the girls in my youth group. It was amazing. It was an awakening for me. Eric and Leslie Ludy were the speakers and if you don't know them I highly suggest you meet them. They are authors of over 17 books that inspire, and call us to something more. Life as we were design to live it. Full of joy, poured out, and free.

From eating disorders, self obsession, extreme dieting, to plastic surgery today's girls are desperately searching for beauty- but they are looking in all the wrong places. Here is what Leslie has to say about true beauty:



I desire this life! I have been reminded of what is truly important! Eric also gave an illustration of our life as a city. A city needs walls to protect it. If you have holes in the walls the enemy is going to get in. He wants to destroy. I was reminded of this truth. Sometimes its easy to think "ahhh its not that big of a deal to watch this or listen to that" and little by little we compromise and convince ourselves its not that bad. So much of life really is black and white. Either you are doing something that glorifies God and brings you closer to him or the opposite. Kind of like health. Each decision you make is either bringing you closer to health or away from it. Every decision matters. Every thought matters in the life of a Christ follower. I was able to realize what areas of my life I need to surrender and re-evaluate. I offered them and he gave me "JOY OVERFLOWING" I am reading Amy Carmichael's biography and it is so inspiring and she describes something similar in her life:

"I longed yes longed to be glad to be filled with such a wealth of unselfish love. And while I was asking for it , it came. I felt a rush of real joy, His Joy, a thing one can not pump up or imitate or force in any way. So often one so soon clings to the gifts in our lives instead of only to the Giver...."

It is said of Amy: " The preoccupations of girls : their looks, their clothes, their social life. Do not change very much from generation to generation. But in every generation there seem to be a few who make other choices. Amy was one of the few."


I long to be one of the few. I desire to cling only to the Giver. That is where true beauty comes from. Joy springing up inside of us and flows out on a radiant face that looks only to her King......