True Beauty

Last night, Rebecca and I saw the above ad for Dove's Self-Esteem Project. Now I don't watch a ton of TV so I may be coming in late on the game here. The ad almost knocked me out of my seat. With the beautiful song True Colors playing softly in the background, it called out the distortions and exaggerations of femininity in the media, throwing the spotlight on their obsession with certain physical traits as ideals for "real" beauty. So many fall into the trap of thinking that this model is the model for what is beautiful! Statistics say that only 2% of women consider themselves beautiful. Tragic! So to help girls recognize their intrinsic worth before the media gives them a distorted lens to look through, Dove is proclaiming that true beauty lies deeper than the skin-deep deceptions of air-brushed super-models and surgically altered body parts. Thank God for these ads. St. Peter once wrote that a woman's beauty was not so much an "external one: braiding the hair, wearing gold jewelry, or dressing in fine clothes".... but went much deeper, into "the hidden character of the heart, expressed in the imperishable beauty of a gentle and calm disposition, which is precious in the sight of God." (1 Peter 3:3-4) Isn't this what the young should be led to, developing the interior? The character of the heart, should always precede thoughts of outward appearance. The heart of a person is what illumines the body and gives it real glory. That's what made Mother Teresa so gorgeous, wrinkles and all!