tHe reAl beAuTy oF chRisTLikenEsS iS thE rEaL meAsUre of a wOmeN

There is no more beautiful women than one who is clothed in the Lord Jesus Christ. She is marked by tender kindness, humility, patience, forgiveness, love, peace, joy and thankfulness. ( Col 3:12-17). None can be bought at any price. Yet all are free to any women who chooses to live in Christ, even as He Himself lives in her.

A women's strength of character os found in an ancient fomula. The apostle Peter said " For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their husbands". A women who wants to be strong and beautiful will not put her confidence in expensive jewelry, fine clothes, and cosmestics.. That doesn't mean she wont use them. It means she wont count on them.

The godly women puts her real confidence in the graciousness, strength, and integrity that comes from her relationship to Christ. Her beauty will come naturally. Quite unconciously she will become a model of what God can do in a women. She will prove that the best-dressed women wear dignity, strength, honour and quiet confidence in God as unfading sources of beauty. And according to Peter, if she married, her beauty comes in being submissive to her husband.

A women's strength of character is made perfect in weakness. In that sense, a women's strength of character is like a man's. Referring to the inner strength that comes from the spirit of God, paul wrote in the bible," But we have this treausure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us." And he wrote again, of his struggleto cope with the physical weakness. He found that the Lord wouldn't remove it but would only say " My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness."therefore most gladly i will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me". ( 2 Cor 12:9)

Living in a weaker vessel (1 pet 3:7) can be anadvantage. Relative pyhsical weakness can be anoccasion for a women to become strong in the Lord. An awareness of any weakness gives her a reason to depend on the strength of the Lord.

A women's strength of character must be channeled through her circumstances. If she is single, she should prayerfully consider all of her options. She should ask whether or not the Lord has given her a deep and abiding desire to devote all of her attention to Him and the service of His people. It's the kind of radical potential Paul had in mind when he wrote: The unmarried women cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she is who is married cares about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. And this i say for your own profit, not that i may put leash on you, but for what is proper, and that you may serve the Lord without distraction (1 cor 7: 34-35). Paul, himself single, was close to the Lord when he wrote this. he saw the value of being free to devote oneself entirely to the Lord and to the eternal, spiritual needs of His people.