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Girlzone: Mirror, mirror on the wall...

5th May 2011 by Claire Hill

There's a wacky new reality TV show airing in Australia called Bridalplasty. Twelve women who are engaged to be married share a house and compete in a series of challenges. Each week the winner receives a plastic surgery procedure and the loser is eliminated. The overall champion receives her dream wedding and... wait for it... unlimited plastic surgery!

I was laughing with a friend about this recently when she asked: Do you reckon it's okay for a Christian girl to get plastic surgery?

Is it okay for a Christian girl who would like a slightly smaller nose, flatter tummy or firmer bum to invest the time and money required to get their body altered by a surgeon? Surely not?! It seems really shallow and doesn't accomplish anything of eternal value.

But hang on – I wear makeup sometimes. And my ears and navel are pierced. And what about hair dye? I've spent quite a few years as a blonde even though God made me a brunette. All of this costs time and money and doesn't serve any Kingdom purpose.

Where's the line?

I don't think it's wrong for us as Christian girls to spend time thinking about or even having some fun with how we dress/present ourselves. But how do we know when it's getting unhealthy?

While the Bible has plenty of Scriptures that can speak into this discussion (Check out: 1 Samuel 16:7, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 1 Timothy 2:9-10, Romans 12:2) it doesn't tell us the specific dollar amount we can spend on clothes each year or anything like that.

So how do we know when we're getting inappropriately focused on how we look? I'm no expert but for what it's worth, I reckon the warning bells should start going off if:

Your quest for attractiveness results in you putting your health at risk.
You're giving more of your money to the fashion/beauty industry than you are to God.
You're "beautifying" yourself in the hope that boys will find you sexy.
You find yourself excitedly imagining how envious other girls will be of your improved appearance.
Developing your physical appearance is more important to you than developing your spiritual health.
You feel a strong sense from God that He doesn't want you to buy/do something in particular to change your appearance – but you do it anyway.
You find yourself thinking about your appearance all day long.

Where are you at right now?

For years growing up, despite being a Christian, I could have ticked a number of these. I was letting the world dictate about how I viewed and felt about myself and it was restricting my ability to experience the freedom, truth, peace and fullness of life that Jesus offers.

If you can tick lots of these off as true for you I want to encourage you – there's a wholeness and fulfilment that has nothing to do with finding the perfect pair of jeans or the ultimate mascara and it's available to you right now!

I highly recommend chasing after that. If you're keen to start with you could...

Talk to your youth leader
Ask some people to pray for you
Get into the Word and meditate on what it says about your identity and worth
Pray/read/watch less stuff that promotes an unhealthy emphasis on image
Discipline yourself to spend less time checking other girls out (comparing yourself) or staring at yourself in the mirror
You might even find it helpful to make an appointment with a Christian counsellor

The freedom, peace and fulfilment Jesus offers is absolutely amazing and worth pursuing today!