Beauty

“They” (the world) want what “we” (all those who are righteous – not necessarily nor exclusively members of the church) have.  Beauty has always been, and is becoming even more so about flawlessness.  Models have perfect hair, no ache, beautiful eyes, a tiny body, brilliantly white teeth, lovely hands and nails, and smooth skin.  In short, they are fantastically gorgeous.  And more and more it’s all become increasingly . . . radiant – even glorious.  Models in advertisements almost have a glow to them. 

And doesn’t that description resemble the description of a resurrected being?  Flawless perfect beautiful brilliant lovely gorgeous radiant glorious glowing.  But ironically, those who obsessively seek beauty are likely to lose it.  Yes, if you spend hours on end in the bathroom perfecting your attire, you will be pretty pretty.  But the hard work one puts into their image in this life will bring forth no beauty in the life to come.  One of my favorite scriptures – and one of the ones that puts the most fear into me – is 2 Nephi 13:16-26: “Moreover, the Lord siath: Because the daughters of Zion”(notice this is addressed specifically to “the daughters of Zion,” not the daughters of mammon) “are haughty, and walk with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet – Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion . . . In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments, and cauls, and round tires like the moon; The chains and the bracelets, and the mufflers; The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the ear-rings; The rings, and nose jewels; The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping-pins; The glasses, and the fine linen, and hoods, and the veils. And it shall come to pass, instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle, a rent; and instead of well set hair, baldness; and instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth; burning instead of beauty . . . And her  gates shall lament and mourn; and she shall be desolate, and shall sit upon the ground.” 

But it is not the fact that “she” cared about what “she” looked like that causes “her” to receive this awful reward.  Looking nice is not at all a bad thing (it’s actually quite important to care about your appearance), but the vanity that often accompanies beauty is dangerous.  Vanity leads to all sorts of problems: pride, hate, envy, ect. – such qualities destroy righteousness and thereby destroy eternal beauty.  Everyone will be resurrected.  Everyone will receive a degree of glory.  And thus, everyone will become beautiful.  But only those who worked hard to have faith, integrity, virtue, charity, joy, love, optimism, will-power, humility, and kindness will have those qualities when they are resurrected.  And again, ironic, those who strove to be nice people in this life will receive a higher degree of glory, and thus be more beautiful than those who did not work at being nice.

When I was little, my mom told me that the nicer you were, the prettier you became.  I believed her so entirely that once at recess when a girl asked me “why is so-and-so so pretty?” I told her it was because so-and-so was nice, and the nicer you were the prettier you were (the girl who had asked me then declared that from that day on she was going to be the nicest person ever). 

As I grew older, I remember deciding that while my mom’s lesson was a good way to get me to be nice, it was only partially true.  I understood that the nicer you were, the more people would like you, and in that sense you would be pretty, but I rejected that your physical form would change if you were kind.  But now I know that while what my mom said might seem silly, it is true, for . . .

Beauty in the fair fades with familiarity.

Beauty in the not-so-fair in the same grows.

Thus when time and acquaintance away the image,

We must prove more than a mere mask

For love and liking are the results of

a pretty habit,

a pretty mind,

a pretty humor,

a pretty heart

Not a perfectly polished pretty mask.

The more you get to know someone, the less their appearance matters – the less you see their physical shell and the more you see who they really are.  And if “who you really are” is good, then people will see this and you will be beautiful in their eyes.  But if “who you really are” is bad, then people will see this and you will be ugly in their eyes. 

In all things, we must learn from the example of our Savior.  Jesus Christ was lowly.  He “hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him” (Mosiah 14:2; emphasis added).  Vain people, puffed up by pride, look at the poor, the ugly, the humble, and they belittle them.  They despise them.  “But wo unto the rich, who are rich as to the things of the world.  For because they are rich they despise the poor, and they persecute the meek” (2 Nephi 9:30).  Christ is “the meek”!  And the world, blinded by beauty, could not see the Savior as the glorious being He was/is.  And thus, “He is despised and rejected of men” (Mosiah 14:3).  The meek, humble, lowly people who lived when Christ did were able to see Him as He was.  Satan does not want us to be able to recognize Christ, so he makes beauty enticing.  He draws us from Christ-like qualities through vanity.  Let’s do just the opposite—let’s turn from vanity, turn from worldly beauty, and strive for Heavenly beauty—beauty that is eternal.

Life and Rock Climbing

As you can tell from the title, I have come to the conclusion that we are all rock climbers.

Our goal in rock climbing is to become strong and fit.  As we start climbing, some people are wonderful at it.  They begin climbing and just keep on going and going and going – reaching incredible heights.  And others are not so wonderful at it.  They start climbing, and fall.  And they start again, and fall.  And they start again, and fall.  And it seems like they are making no progress at all.  But the goal was never to climb the highest – the goal was to become strong and fit.  So even the people who fall and slip and mess-up can reach the ultimate goal – as long as they try again.  The only way they will be unsuccessful is if they become discouraged by their falls and decide to give up. 

The plan of salvation isn’t a grand total tally up where we get positive points for doing good things and negative points for doing bad things and there is a certain point threshold you that you have to meet to be granted access to Heaven.  This life is about becoming better.  Heavenly Father wants us to succeed.  He wants us to go rock climbing so that we can become stronger and better and happier than we were before.  And at any point along the way we can say “Heavenly Father, I’m sorry I haven’t been doing so good.  I am going to be better starting now.”  And Heavenly Father says, “Okay, this is your new starting point.”

Of course, there is a bit more to it than that. 

We do have to repent before we can get to the new starting point.  But that makes sense.  If a rock climber was to fall, they’d need time to recuperate.  They need to tend the wounds—clean gashes, set broken bones, and let the hurt heal.  And all this is painful!  But it would be far worse to try and go on without treating the injuries.  If we do not take care of the sores, then we are more likely to fail when we try and start our climb again.  The cuts and gashes get in our way, impeding our progress and causing us pain. 

Growing up, whenever I told my mom I was sick, she would ask “where does it hurt?  What feels sick?  Is it your head?  Are you nauseous?  Do you have a stomach ache?  Do you feel like you’re going to puke?”  And most of the time my reply was “I don’t know.  I just feel sick.  I don’t know where it hurts.  I don’t know if it’s my head or my stomach.  I feel gross and I want it to go away and that’s all I know.”  When we fall in our rock climbing adventure, sometimes we don’t know where the pain comes from.  We just know it’s there.  And no one else—even someone with a scrape in the same place—truly knows what the pain is like.  No one else, that is, except our Savior, Jesus Christ.  When we fall from our climb, he is the one waiting there for us.  He is the one to clean our scrapes and set our broken bones and prescribe the needed rest.  And he is the only one who can do this job because he is the only one who knows what we are going through.  He has felt the exact wound that we are experiencing and he know exactly how to make it better.  Have you ever gone to the doctor and had them say “Well.  Something is definitely wrong, but we don’t really know what it is.  You can try this and see if it works and if not we’ll try something else.”  Because Jesus performed the atonement, he knows exactly what is hurting or making us sick.  He never has to play the healing guessing game.  He is the only person who can truly empathize with us. 

I love my Heavenly Father for sending me on the rock climbing adventure of life so that I can become better than I was before.

I love my Savior for tending to all my hurts when I've fallen in life.