Plastic

By Amy Freudiger

We live in a plastic society. Plastic surgery, fake eyelashes, spray tans, acrylic fingernails, and many other beauty tricks have set a very high standard for what we call attractive. Not to mention, most of the pictures we see have been airbrushed. Take a look at the photos on this website, http://www.hemmy.net/2007/12/01/celebrity-photoshop/#more-1434

It clearly shows the striking differences before and after an artist retouched the images. Just Google “airbrushed images” and you’ll see countless examples of stars getting the treatment. The point is, we see thousands of images everyday, and we compare ourselves to them. We’re pretty harsh, too. But guess what? They’re plastic, too!

Ever since we were little girls, many of us have allowed our body image and self-worth to be based on whether or not we looked like (you guessed it) a PLASTIC doll called Barbie. Now, entire industries are built around it. The beauty and magazine industries airbrush the life out of people expecting the rest of us to buy the lies so that we’ll BUY THEIR PRODUCTS. The beauty industry makes billions of dollars selling facelifts, fake breasts, liposuction, and more.

They know that we women want to fit in. We want to be worthy of admiration, and we’ll pay to look the part of Barbie. We even have plastic cards that give us a false sense of wealth, buying beauty with money we don’t have, so we can look like people who have been airbrushed.

No, there’s nothing wrong with looking great. There’s nothing wrong with makeup or fashion. In fact, God is the Author of all things beautiful. But those things are just icing on the cake. They’re nothing to obsess over, or lose sleep over. God certainly thinks more highly of you and I than we do of ourselves, and He probably laughs at, or is saddened by, our attempts to be “beautiful” when He knows the truth.

Real beauty comes from the inside. It’s love. It’s confidence. It’s your personality. It’s your natural-born beauty that God is crazy about. After all, He’s the master artist, and He created the amazing wonder that is YOU. The truth is, you are lovable and worthy of admiration just the way you are. And the other reality is that if we value ourselves, we will be healthier and happier. And that is something even an airbrush artist can’t create.

By the way, Barbie called, and she wants her life back. She doesn’t like being packaged and sold in plastic boxes any more than God likes his daughters to be.

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?  You are not your own; you were bought at a price.  Therefore honor God with your body,” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).