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When was the last time you looked in the mirror only to see tired, puffy, droopy eyes in the reflection? If the eye is the window of the soul, sometimes the windows need to be polished. Instead of sparkling with life, your eyes communicate survival. And there’s good reason for it. You are just plain worn-out with heavy demands on your time and energy.
In their book Captivating, John and Stasi Eldredge diagnose part of the problem as too many responsibilities:
[The church’s] message to women has been primarily “you are here to serve. That’s why God created you: to serve. In the nursery, in the kitchen, on the various committees, in your home, in your community.” Seriously now—picture the women we hold up as models of femininity in the church. They are sweet, they are helpful, their hair is coiffed; they are busy, they are disciplined, they are composed, and they are tired.38
Can you relate? Of course, meaningful service is an important component of living for God and looking younger, but too much service can lead to exhaustion. Many of us aren’t very good at setting boundaries (that would be you if you’ve thought recently, Why did I say yes to that?). When you’re tired, it’s impossible to have young eyes that sparkle with beauty, wonder, and kindness. No amount of makeup can transform sleepy, tired eyes—although the right eye makeup certainly doesn’t hurt.
To brighten your eyes, keep the eyeliner on your upper lids a little more intense than the liner on your lower lids. When your lower lids have a thick line of eyeliner, it can weigh your eyes down and make you look even more tired. Don’t use a heavy hand when putting on eyeliner.
When you apply eye shadow, use a light shade from the top of your upper lid to underneath your eyebrow. Use a medium shade on your eyelid, extending just above the crease. Then apply the darkest shade of eye shadow from the center of your eyelid to the outer corners. The most important step is to blend, blend, blend. Nothing will date you like harsh eye shadow that’s not blended in.
To diminish dark circles and puffiness around your eyes, try:
Two Cucumber Slices: Lie down for ten minutes with a slice of cucumber over each of your closed eyes. The coolness of the cucumber soothes tired eyes and provides moisture. It’s a great way to relax and refresh your eyes after a day looking at the computer or before a party. If you don’t have cucumbers on hand, you can do the same thing with a washcloth soaked in cold water. Wring out the cold washcloth and put that over your eyes for the same cooling effect, which reduces puffiness.
Ice ’Em: To instantly wake up your eyes (and the rest of you too), put an ice cube on your eyelids and under your eyes.
Eye Cream: The skin around your eyes absorbs the water in regular moisturizer, causing more puffiness. Eye creams hydrate without swelling.
Get Your Zs: The best thing you can do to cure dark circles and puffiness is to sleep eight hours a night.
There’s something infinitely more essential to beautiful eyes than applying makeup and reducing puffiness. It’s found in the words of Jesus in Luke 11:34-35: “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness.”
What does it mean that your eye is the lamp of your body? Your eyes enable you to make use of light, allowing you to see where you are and where you want to go. But when something is wrong with your eyes, your body can’t make use of even the most radiant light. I remember when a teenager at my church got poked accidentally in the eye with a coat hanger; he had to stay home to rest that eye. He couldn’t see to do his homework, practice the piano or drums, or get something to eat.
Similar limitations happen when your spiritual eyes are injured. You cannot see where to put your feet to walk or how to perform your work. Maybe you have a critical spirit about everything and everyone. Perhaps you can relate to the person who sees the speck in his brother’s eye without noticing the plank in his own eye (Matthew 7:2-4). When your inward attitude is wrong toward others, God, and yourself, you shut out the light of Christ in your life.
On the flip side, when your desires, intellect, and actions are controlled by the Holy Spirit, you will experience spiritual illumination. You’ll be like the person with perfect eyesight who can see clearly where to go and what to do. When your eyes are spiritually healthy, you will:
• Be blessed and bountiful (Proverbs 22:9)
• Fix your eyes on the eternal, not the temporary (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)
• Know the hope, riches, and great power for those who believe (Ephesians 1:18-19)
• Look forward to when God will wipe every tear away (Revelation 21:4)
When you walk closely with Christ, your eyes will be bright and youthful, sending out a warm invitation to everyone who crosses your path. Glamour icon Sophia Loren said, “Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. It is not something physical.”39 I would add, “It’s something spiritual.”
My music pastor Joel Marple was one of five children raised by a single mom, and he was part of a school lunch program. Every day, the kids who could pay for their lunches got a white ticket, and the kids who were being subsidized by the school got a brown ticket. He was so ashamed of that brown ticket and always hid it in his pocket until the last minute. He didn’t want to be known as the welfare kid.
One day, a woman on staff walked up to him and handed him a roll of shiny white tickets. “Here, I bought these for you. Go stand in the other line and enjoy your lunch.” To this day, he remembers the kindness of that woman and the day he got to use the white tickets.
Do you have eyes to see the needs of the people around you as that woman did?
In his book, Windows of the Soul, Ken Gire describes how Jesus was able to see beyond what others saw.
Beyond the widow’s tears for her dead son, Jesus saw how much she needed that son to fill the hole left by her deceased husband. Beyond the Samaritan woman’s veil, He saw the five marriages that had failed, and beyond that, the emptiness in her life that grew bigger with each divorce. Beyond the power and wealth of Zacchaeus, He saw a small man with a big hole in his heart that all the power and wealth in the world couldn’t fill.40
When you see others with the love and care of Christ, your eyes will sparkle at any age.
BEAUTY TIP: UPDATE YOUR EYEWEAR
Drop the dated frames, frames that droop downward, and the eyeglass necklace. Glasses can make or break your look because of their prominence on your face. Shop for a new pair of hip, attractive frames every few years (it’s not only fashionable, but you need to check your prescription anyway). My friend Kay likes to get ideas in magazines for frames that look good, and then she chooses the most stylish, young person at the optometrist’s office to assist her in selecting frames.
Thought for Rejuvenation
To add youth and vitality to your eyes, do you need more of a quick fix or an eternal fix? Why?