Ashes to Beauty

This song really sums up what I have been thinking about lately. When I was younger, and even at times now, I struggled with a poor self image. I always wanted to know how I could make myself beautiful. I always did things to fit in and make myself "likeable" to other people. I found everyone of my efforts to be fruitless; outward vanities couldn't make up for the pain I felt on the inside. As it says in:

~Proverbs 31:30~
"Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised. "

I realized that beauty on the outside could not fulfill what I was lacking on the inside- true beauty. True beauty comes as we completely give ourselves to the Lord and die to our flesh and live for Him. This beauty can never fade, never be taken away, and never be measured in a beauty pageant. This beauty is lasting and fulfilling and real. As you listen to this song may you see that at the foot of the cross is where we can really trade our ashes of mourning for beauty- Real Beauty!

~Isaiah 61:3~

"To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. "