Topic : Beauty

Joyce Brothers, well-known and popular psychologist, points out in Better than Ever that “beautiful people have beautiful personalities …We consistently judge them to be more sensitive, kind, intelligent, interesting, sociable, and exciting than less attractive people.” Dr. Brothers goes on to speak of a study made in a school among kindergartners and teachers regarding the people to whom they were most often attracted: “They (the children) picked the most attractive children as their favorites. Their teachers did likewise, and considered the less attractive children more likely to be troublemakers.” She continues, “When we grow up, for both men and women, higher salary levels and greater advancement have a high correlation with pleasant looks, at all ages and in all fields.”

Men in Midlife Crisis, Jim Conway, p. 84

My wife was grading a science test at home that she had given to her elementary-school class and was reading some of the results to me. The subject was “The Human Body,” and the first question was: “Name one of the major functions of the skin.”

One child wrote: “To keep people who look at you from throwing up.”

Contributed by Sam Jarrett, Reader’s Digest

The renowned Quaker scholar Rufus Jones was speaking of the importance of having a radiant countenance. After his address, a woman “with an almost unbelievably plain face” came up and asked him what he would do if he had a face like hers.

He replied, “While I have troubles of my own of that kind, I’ve discovered that if you light it up from within, any old face you have is good enough.”

Our Daily Bread, December 7, 1992

Charles William Eliot (1834-1926), former president of Harvard University, had a birthmark on his face that bothered him greatly. As a young man, he was told that surgeons could do nothing to remove it. Someone described that moment as “the dark hour of his soul.”

Eliot’s mother gave him this helpful advice: “My son, it is not possible for you to get rid of that hardship…But it is possible for you, with God’s help, to grow a mind and soul so big that people will forget to look at your face.”

Our Daily Bread, June 15, 1992

An ad appeared in a newspaper that read: “Farmer wants to marry woman, 35, with tractor. Send picture of tractor.”

Source unknown

The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is the reason he made so many of them. - A. Lincoln

Source unknown

It was absolutely amazing. I was in West Africa—Timbuktu to be exact—and the missionaries were telling me that in that culture the larger the women were the more beautiful they were thought to be. In fact, a young missionary who had a small, trim wife said that the nationals had told him she was a bad reflection on him—he obviously was not providing well enough for her. A proverb in that part of Africa says that if your wife is on a camel and the camel cannot stand up, your wife is truly beautiful.

Fan The Flame, J. Stowell, Moody, 1986, p. 119

It was 1898 and Ben had left the East 8 years ago to head out West in hopes of making his fortune.  Well he wasn't rich, but he had accumulated over 300 acres of good land and built a comfortable farm house on it.  He raised wheat, corn, and all of his vegetables.  He had managed to build his herd of cattle to over 200 head.  Having accomplished all of this in only 8 years, he decided that it was now time. 

The ad that he placed in the New York newspaper said, "Wanted:  A good woman willing to be a pen pal.  Marriage is a possibility for the right woman."  Before long, he began receiving letters from Molly.  Their correspondence soon turned into love for each other.  Now, here he stood in the Kansas City train station waiting to finally meet her.

When the train arrived, there were a lot of women getting off.  Suddenly, he yelled, "Molly -- over here!"

She looked his way, walked over to him, smiled and held out her hand.  He took it for a moment, then let it go. She said, "How did you know who I was?"

He then reached into the back pocket of his overalls and said, "From these here letters."

"But there are no pictures in them."

He dropped his head a bit and said, "Oh yes there are!  There are lots of pictures in your words."  You see, he had spent hours reading every word -- looking for every little clue that would tell him who Molly really was.  He had fallen in love with her words -- words that had painted her portrait. 

God's precious word paints a vivid portrait of who he is.  We as his bride should fall in love with his word so that we can then fall in love with its author.

From: Many A Tear Has To Fall by Wayne Hudson, Padon Press