Section III — Finding Strength in Hard Times
Michelangelo is a famous artist who painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. He also carved beautiful lifelike statues, including angels and a famous statue of David. Someone once asked him how he was able to sculpt real-looking people from blocks of hard marble. “Every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it,” he said. “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”
Inside every believer is a beautiful person waiting to be set free too. That beautiful life is sometimes hidden beneath our hard outer shell, the outside part that the world sees. But spending time in God’s Word does for us what Michelangelo did for the blocks of marble. Today we may feel like a gray chunk of stone, but if we are followers of Jesus, there is a beautiful believer inside. As you study God’s Word and believe the truth you read there, your beauty will begin to shine forth.
There truly is beauty in believing. It happens when you stop looking at life’s circumstances, and you focus on God instead.
The Faithgirlz verse is all about this idea: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).
Where does the “gray stone” that encloses us (and hides our beauty) come from? Mostly it comes from lies you believe about yourself. You might believe a lie that says, “Nobody loves me.” Or maybe you believe the lie that says you’re never going to have a good life. But when you study God’s Word, you discover the truth: “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3 NKJV) and “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11 NLT).
As you believe these truths, bit by bit the gray stone chips away. Each chip is a wrong idea you’ve believed about yourself or God or the world. As the lies fall away, and as you hold close to the truths you are learning, the real you — a truly beautiful spirit — will be revealed.
We have to choose whom to believe. If we believe people’s opinions that say we need to be rich and famous and look like a supermodel to be beautiful, we’ll be filled with despair. Just remember: “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7 NASB). God knows that true beauty resides in the heart, and believing him will let that beauty shine out where it can be seen — and where it will touch the lives of others.
Your part is to believe. “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7 NKJV). As you trust more and more in God’s promises in the Bible, your true beautiful self will emerge more and more. It’s true that sometimes the chipping away of past beliefs and behaviors is painful. But you won’t miss a single thing that God carved away and took out of your life. And when the Holy Spirit’s work is finished, you’ll be standing there, radiant and joyful.
Beauty isn’t outside. It’s inside, just waiting to come out. It’s for every girl who trusts in God’s Word.
— Kristi Holl