Man Sees the Outside

When I was a little girl I had the terrible misfortune of being involved in a car accident – actually I was involved in auto accidents twice! The first one seemed to be so minor that I didn’t think I had any injury at all – until as an adult I had back problems and was questioned by doctors if I had ever been involved in an accident. The accident I am recalling today happened when I was 6 years old. My mother was driving – a man ran a light and side-swiped our vehicle. My face hit against the dash board, and I had to get stitches on my face – on the left side just below my lower lip. A few years later, when I was 9 years old I started having problems in the area where I had been stitched; apparently there was scar tissue growing that not only made my face look different, it was rubbing against my teeth and it became a problem to eat. As a result of the problem I had to have surgery to remove the scar tissue, and they did a kind of plastic surgery so that the scar would not be visible. I remember being frightened when I went to the hospital. At that time they did not allow parents to stay with their children as they do now – so when I was admitted to the hospital, my parents had to leave me there!

I recall that I was especially frightened when I met a little girl that seemed to be the sweetheart of the all the nurses – her face was terribly disfigured because she was a burn victim! I am sorry to say that when I first saw her, there was no doubt that she knew I was afraid of her – and what is even sadder is that she seemed to be accustomed to people reacting to her in that way. During my 3-day stay in the hospital I was able to get to know this little girl and realized that she was not what she appeared – she was a normal little girl, and a sweet one at that. It was no wonder that she was the hospital sweetheart – she was kind and was genuinely friendly to all the children in the hospital. I had misjudged her by her looks – because as the Bible states, “…for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” I Samuel 16:7

I Peter 3:3, 4 teaches us about true beauty, “Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart…” This passage of Scripture is teaching us that true beauty is not achieved by our outward appearance, but by who we are on the inside. Now, I don’t believe that means that we should not care about how we look on the outside, we should do what we can to look our best because what we do on the outside is a reflection of who we are on the inside. Psalm 45:13 proves that, “The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.”

Now, I believe there is a lesson that we can all learn from this experience.

1. People are not what they seem, we can only see what is on the outside – so don’t judge them.

2. Realizing that even though we know we shouldn’t judge people by what they look like on the outside, people still do – so they will judge you by how you look.

3. Remember that we are here to bring glory to God – just as the King’s daughter – she was all glorious within…it showed all the way to what she wore.

4. God knows your heart – you can’t lie to Him; so keep your heart right. We may not all possess what some would consider natural beauty - we can all be beautiful by who we are in our hearts.

It is my prayer that I will of help and a blessing to you today. I love you ladies - have a wonderful day.

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