Renewed: From the Inside Out

Renewed: From the Inside Out

Okay….so I’m in that mature season where it seems I'm noticing a lot of those advertisements and labels that shout out “Renew your youth! Reduce those lines and wrinkles! Guaranteed success or your money back! Become a new you!” And, I’ll admit, I’ve yielded to their promises and purchased some of those products. I’d like to tell you that, as they promised, I look ten years younger…..NOT!

A few years ago, my curiosity about halting the inevitable, got the best of me and I went to a plastic surgeon for a consultation. Okay. I’m being real. LOL! Staci went with me and when the doctor started stretching my skin and it looked “baby smooth”, she hollered “OH MY GOODNESS!” Quickly I said, “Don’t act so excited. When you’re looking for a new car to buy, you don’t act so SOLD. You need to work the salesman to get the best deal.” But, too late, she already gave away that I’d look 10 years younger if I’d let him do his wonders on me. His $25K estimate helped me to conclude “I’m okay with this vintage look!”

Really, the truth is I AM okay with my age, and I’m okay with these lines that seemed to have come from nowhere...quickly. I’ve earned every line and crease with every story I’ve lived. Those stories make up who I am. And I wouldn’t trade my stories, and my years, for anything. I’ve lived long enough now to see, even the tough years — the ones I didn’t think I’d survive — how God used every one and every experience to bring me to a place of deep assurance and sweet peace today. Through it all, God showed Himself stronger. And my trust in Him grew. The journey from youth to maturity has come quickly. But this journey with God has taught me that renewal really is possible, but it’s not the kind of renewal that’s promised in a store-bought product on a shelf or a surgeon's knife. Restoration and renewal begins with yielding to our Creator…..and letting Him renew us from the inside out.

Yesterday, my post was about cleaning up, cleaning out, AND cleaning in…..purging from the inside so that our outside reflects His beauty. My Mom always said “Beauty is skin deep….it’s what's in your heart that makes you beautiful.” I think about Mother Teresa. She had more wrinkles than anyone, but at 85 she was younger and more vibrant than a 20-year old, as she loved and cared for hurting humanity. From the inside out....she was extraordinarily beautiful.

When we realize WE ARE BEAUTIFUL, because the marvelous, exquisitely beautiful ONE lives in us, and when we embrace THAT BEAUTY and let it shine through our eyes, speak through our mouths, hug with our arms, love with the love of Christ, then we will be renewed and the fountain of youth will be flowing out of us to a hurting world.

Proverbs 31:30 "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."