six steps to a beautiful face

Are you happy with your face? Or do you stand in front of a mirror, along with thousands of other women sighing, ‘If only...’ If only my forehead weren’t so high or so low, my lips were fuller, thinner or shaped differently, I didn’t need glasses, I could get rid of these, birthmarks and warts, I could afford braces...

Throughout recorded history people have admired facial beauty and wanted it. We are no exception. However, what is this beauty that we’re after, and how do we get it?

The answer to that has changed many times in the last 600 years. During the Renaissance, for example, upper-class north European women valued a high forehead and went through painful plucking of their hairlines to get it.

During the time of Elizabeth I, the English lady who wanted to be beautiful copied her queen by powdering her face white (with lead-based powder no less!) and wearing a red wig.

In the 18th century, women influenced by the likes of Marie-Antoinette went to their hairdressers for several-hour construction sessions of extravagant coiffures built over horsehair pads or wire cages (some as high as three feet with springs built in to adjust the height).

Modern trends in facial attractiveness, though not quite as extreme, have continued to change from the bobbed hair, pale makeup and scarlet cupid-bow mouth of the 1920s, to the teased beehives (for women) and greased pompadours (for men) of the 50s, to the long-haired, no-makeup look of the 60s, to the wind-blown, bronze-skinned, glossy-lipped Farrah Fawcett look of the 70s, to today’s unkempt and multicolored hair with accompanying facial piercings and body tattoos.

But before you dash from your mirror to pursue – at the store, surgery clinic or beauty salon – the face beautiful, consider looking to another source for advice on facial loveliness. The following six-step Bible facial can be applied to any face, at any age:

1. Start with a deep cleansing. (Ezekiel 36:25-27)

2. As a foundation, cover the entire face with the wholesome attitude of your inner life. (I Peter 3:3)

3. Apply wisdom to soften facial lines. (Ecclesiastes 8:1)

4. Contour with sorrow to emphasize your compassionate features. (Ecclesiastes 7:3)

5. Highlight with happiness. (Proverbs 15:13)

6. Maintain with a diet high in obedience and yieldedness to the Holy Spirit for continued God-shine. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Stick with the above routine and beauty is guaranteed despite how far you lag behind changing fashion trends. In fact your loveliness will last long past the time when gray hair, wrinkles, and jowls have come to stay.