True Beauty: A lesson for my daughter in 3 easy steps
By Audrey Muhammad
A few years ago, my daughter and I attended a Hip-Hop summit at North Carolina A & T University in Greensboro, North Carolina. My daughter was so excited to meet Rocsi from BET’s 106th and Park. She thought Rocsi was so pretty and she later described her as a “beautiful person” because Rocsi was so kind to her. She even asked my daughter to autograph the page of Virtue Today Magazine where my daughter was modeling. My daughter was elated! Now this would have been a much different experience had Rocsi not been so warm and kind to me and my daughter.
When I asked my 9 year-old daughter recently what makes a person beautiful, she said, “The inside of a person[their qualities] and their appearance.” And I asked her which is more important and she said the inner qualities of a person. I was so proud of her because she not only values being a good person, she looks for the good in others and loves to put a smile on a person’s face by giving them compliments.
Beauty is often defined in the dictionary as “the combination of all the qualities of a person or thing that delight the senses and please the mind.” However, a person can be beautiful in their outer appearance, but not in their inner attitude. We must honor ourselves and know that we are beautiful and not give energy to anything that is other than truth. For instance, I was inspired to write this blog after reading a commentary about a recent article on “Psychology Today” magazine’s website. The article described a study that claimed that Black women aren’t as attractive as other women of different races. I will simply state what I told my daughter a few years ago when a classmate told her she wasn’t pretty. I asked my daughter, “Is it true, that you are not pretty?” She said, “No, it is not true.” I said, “So, if it is not true, it[the comment] is a what? She said, “A lie.” “Do we listen to lies?” I asked her? “No,” she said, “We don’t. I’m Beautiful!” “Exactly,” I said. Period.
In a lecture entitled, “Make God Sufficient in Your Life,” Minister Louis Farrakhan stated to a group of women, “All of you that believe are beautiful to Allah(God). He[God] has the Power to take your belief and turn it into absolutely indescribable beauty. You can come here ugly, pimply-faced and hair so short you can’t twist it with tweezers. I don’t care how people think you look, or how you think you look. The moment you say you believe in God and start trying to be what God has asked you to be, He turns the beauty of your faith into an indescribable charisma that makes you draw all people unto yourself…You can have the prettiest face, but if your faith is not there, you drive people away from you.”
In essence, there are 3 ways to enhance our beauty:
- Develop our relationship with God and try to be “pleasing” to him. Be obedient to him. Don’t you want to be viewed by God as a “beautiful person.” Have “godly” thoughts and develop a spirit of gratitude. Isn’t it beautiful to hear a person say, “Thank you.” It is hard to have a bad attitude if you are thinking of how grateful you are for your life. Remember, “As a man thinketh, so is he.” Thinking “good thoughts” gives you a beautiful disposition.
- Take care of the temple that God dwells in. Keep it clean and in good condition by fasting, exercising and eating healthy. Eating poorly robs us of our beauty appearance. In the book, How to Eat to Live, Book Two, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad writes, “Take, for example, a new born baby. Many times its beauty lasts for just a short while and then passes away with its growth. Even in our late twenties and early thirties—because of the life that we live and the frequent eating of poison food—our beautiful appearance begins to pass from us so rapidly, until by our forties and fifties it is nearly completely gone.” To keep our cars and homes beautiful, we provide them with the best; we should treat our bodies in the same, if not a better fashion.
- Lastly, honor yourself and treat others how you want to be treated. Better yet, treat others with the love, kindness and forgiveness that God gives you. THAT is beautiful. Always treat YOURSELF with respect and honor. As women, we have to learn to “distance” ourselves from men and anyone else who may not “honor and respect” us. I am blessed to have wonderful family members and friends that show me and my daughter such respect. Honor and love yourself and always do things in the spirit of the “highest good.”
Beauty is in eye of the Beholder. The main “beholder” we should be concerned about is our Creator. If we are beautiful to Him, nothing else matters because He is the one that bestows blessings. Honoring him gives us “true beauty.”
(To read more about “true beauty” and being a virtuous woman, visit www.virtuemag.com. You may order Virtue Today Magazine online or send a money order for $6.99 to Virtue Today Magazine, P.O. Box 61402, Raleigh, NC 27661.)
