True Beauty

A few thoughts from the past few days...

Our Sunday school lesson this week was from 1 Samuel. I love the story of how David was chosen to be the king. He had not even been considered by his family or friends to be a candidate...being the youngest in the family, and just a shepherd boy, and apparently quite scrawny and was "without a beautiful countenance and goodly to look to."

But the Lord told Samuel to look not on his countenance, or the height of his stature, because the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, (now one of my all time favorite scriptures...) But the Lord looketh on the heart.

We used this scripture with our theme of girls camp last year. The group of girls that were going were pretty pretty unique. Several had some serious self esteem problems. Some were coming from some pretty difficult situations at home...I mean seriously hard things...my heart just ached for them as I watched them struggling with feelings of little self worth.

Anyway, our camp theme was "Be your own kind of beautiful" and we talked about each girls inner beauty and reminded them that that was what really mattered after all, because when our lives are over and we are standing before the Savior, he is not going to care about what our outer appearance looked like...only what our hearts look like. Were we kind, loving, compassionate, and giving to our fellow men? That is what our test here on earth is all about.

Last night I was watching tv and came across a new reality show called "True Beauty" I don't usually like or watch these reality shows ...they are usually just really bad!!!, but I was intrigued by the whole concept of this one.

They have told all these people that they are choosing someone to be the next big star and put them in different situations to see how they will handle it. The people don't know that the judges are really watching them from behind the scenes and are looking at how they treat each other and how they act when they think no one is watching. Then at the end they have to pick one person to go home. The people think they are being judged by how good they looked and how well they were able to present their selves in front of people. So the judges review the behind the scenes shots and find several cheating, lying, snotty, rude, drunk, disgusting...then they pick the worst one to send home. This was the part that hit home for me. They call this one girl in and tell her that she has been caught cheating...(using her cell phone...a absolute no no because then they can find out what the show is really about) and is being sent home.
Then they show up on this big screen all of the other naughty things she had done and talk about each one of them. The girl was literally brought to tears with shame.
It made me think of my own judgement day and what that will be like. God knows everything I think, say and do. He knows all my feelings and fears, joys, and heart aches. There is not anything I can hide from him. I will have to stand before him while he looks back over the scenes of my life.
That's a pretty scary thought! I have made so many mistakes! That's why I am so grateful for the plan of redemption and the blessing of repentance in my life! How hopeless everything would seem without this knowledge! I have faith that even though I have so very many faults and weaknesses and have messed up so many times, I will not have to hang my head and turn away from Him in shame; that through this wonderful, loving plan and the atonement, I will be able to stand before the Savior and have Him lovingly judge my life and my heart and hopefully be able to welcome me into his arms.