Beautiful or Average, You Choose
Beauty
Self-image
Women's Concerns
Source:
“Watch what happens when women are forced to choose between walking through doors marked 'average' or 'beautiful'... as it is revealed that 96 PER CENT of women rate themselves as average looking” By ANDREA MAGRATH FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA, PUBLISHED: 8 Ap
Link to Source:
Click here to view source
Contributed By:
Barnett Gushin | Date Posted: 2015-04-13
Scripture:
1 Peter 3:3
Beautiful or average? As a woman, how would you categorize yourself?
The makers of Dove soap asked that question in a worldwide survey. To demonstrate the results, they set up signs at the entrances of buildings around the globe. At each location, one door was marked “Average” and the other was marked “Beautiful.” (Click the link to source above to view the video that has gone viral. )
Across the board, women overwhelmingly chose to walk through the door marked “Average.” In fact, a staggering 96% chose that door. A mere 4% chose to walk through the door marked “Beautiful.” Sure, some stopped and pondered the possibility of choosing “Beautiful,” but all too often they abandoned the choice. The reasons were varied. Many felt that it seemed like vanity to admit that they considered themselves beautiful, while others genuinely believed themselves unworthy of walking through the “Beautiful” door.
One woman from Shanghai picked the average door, saying: “Beautiful, to me, is too far out of reach.”
The DAILY MAIL reports:
Dove says that feeling beautiful is a personal choice that women should feel empowered to make for themselves every day.
However, many found that when they had to behave in a way that revealed their image of themselves to the world - they balked.
Many said afterwards that they regretted their decision, and that it had affected how they felt about themselves. …
The company's marketing director Jennifer Bremner said: 'Dove Choose Beautiful urges women to embrace this personal choice, because when we do, it unlocks happiness and confidence that impacts women's self-esteem.
Women watching the campaign took to social media to express sadness that so many people felt the need to put themselves down.
One woman nailed it, saying, “I choose beautiful because if I don’t think it myself, no one else will.”
Dove is onto something here. All women are intrinsically beautiful. Sadly, most are hesitant to embrace their true inner worth, either because they don't believe it, or for the fear of appearing vain.
As children of God, we are indeed ALL intrinsically beautiful. Feeling valued is a choice the cross of Christ empowers us to make everyday. God wants us to embrace our beauty—own it. Not the outward beauty of personal appearance, but the inner beauty of a heart and soul redeemed and perfected by the perfect love of a perfect God.
It’s not vanity to acknowledge the value that God attributes to each of us. It’s the truth and it is liberating. Don't balk at the opportunity to behave in a way that reveals your self-image in Christ. For how are we to convey to others their worth and beauty in the eyes of God, if we cannot acknowledge it and embrace it within ourselves?
Unlock the joy and happiness that comes to those who choose beautiful in the eyes of God.
"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" (1 Peter 3:3-4).
The Significance of the Women at the Tomb
Easter
Apologetics
Women's Concerns
Source:
"WHY IT MATTERS THEOLOGICALLY AND HISTORICALLY THAT WOMEN WERE THE FIRST TO DISCOVER THE EMPTY TOMB" by Justin Taylor, published TheGospelCoalition.org, April 17, 2015
Link to Source:
Click here to view source
Contributed By:
Fred Gates | Date Posted: 2015-03-31
Scripture:
2 Peter 1:16
; Galatians 3:28
Justin Taylor writes:
As you preach this Easter, do not bypass the testimony of the women as an incidental detail.
In the first century, women were not even eligible to testify in a Jewish court of law.
Josephus said that even the witness of multiple women was not acceptable “because of the levity and boldness of their sex.”
Celsus, the second-century critic of Christianity, mocked the idea of Mary Magdalene as an alleged resurrection witness, referring to her as a “hysterical female . . . deluded by . . . sorcery.”
Justin Taylor is senior vice president and publisher for books at Crossway and blogs at
Between Two Worlds.
Taylor concludes:
This background matters because it points to two crucial truths.
First, it is a theological reminder that the kingdom of the Messiah turns the system of the world on its head. Into this culture, Jesus radically affirmed the full dignity of women and the vital value of their witness.
Second, it is a powerful apologetic reminder of the historical accuracy of the resurrection accounts. If these were “cleverly devised myths” (2 Pet. 1:16), women would never have been presented as the first eyewitnesses of the risen Christ.
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28).
A Woman Without Her Man
Women's Concerns
Honor
Equality
Source:
Unknown
Contributed By:
Barnett Gushin | Date Posted: 2014-12-09
Scripture:
Proverbs 31:31
I was challenged in a recent Facebook post to punctuate the following string of words:
a woman without her man is nothing
One option is immediately apparent:
A woman, without her man, is nothing.
Another option, equally grammatically and syntactically correct, was not nearly so obvious:
A woman: without her, man is nothing.
Emphasis is everything!
"Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate" (Proverbs 31:31).