Don’t you just love those hooks on internet articles: “What This Former Beauty Queen Looks Like Now Is Incredible,” or “You Won’t Believe How This Star Looks Now!”?

(Scroll to the bottom of the page to see what this star looks like today!)

If you click on the picture of the young star you’ll find it’s more of a commercial than a news story. And when you see the picture, you get a jolt when you realize they’re not 25 anymore. (And it reminds us that most of us aren’t either).

Let’s face it. If you’re better looking now than you were forty years ago, you were probably really homely forty years ago. (“Homely” = “ugly” for my British readers).

Are You Going Forward Or Backward?

And still … still. I hope I’m better looking inside than I was when I started out with the Lord. The inside beauty I’m talking about can’t be located by an x-ray or a cat scan. I’m talking about my character, my heart, the core of who I am.

It’s possible to get better looking as we go forward.

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Cor. 4:16-18, NASB

How Can I Do This?

Now if I were to lift weights, run marathons, color my hair, get a facelift and put on (man) make-up, I might look a little better on the outside. But, if I stopped doing that one moment, everything would start to sag again.

Gravity is rough on aging bodies.

Let’s do the best we can but trying to look young again is like trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon.

Can we make some permanent improvements on the inside, though? Yes!

Practically How?

–We can change our way of looking at things. Constantly remember that these battles

—when we fight them in faith—produce an eternal glory. We’ll have heavenly rewards. Yes, it’s true. We send over deposits in the bank of Heaven. Our inside man is getting better looking each day and all the while we’re storing up eternal benefits.

–We keep our eyes on what we can’t see with our physical eyes. Our time on this world world passes like the shadow of a cloud that hurries between us and the sun. Then it’s gone. When you’re twenty and full of dreams, that’s hard to realize. But, you need to start working on the inside while the outside is still good-looking. Continue reading →