Psalm 96-100

Psalm 96:6 "...Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary."

I was raised in a very practical family.  We were very careful with what we spent money on and thought through most everything with great care.  Our house was decorated (or not decorated) simply.  My parents always planned on moving and so my Dad preferred not to do a lot to the house.  Now, in my own house, the decorations are minimal and most of the walls are bare.  I have added a few things more recently as it seems that God is teaching me about beauty.  Beauty has always seemed so unnecessary... so worldly to me.  I have even fought over whether I should even maintain an updated wardrobe because it seemed wasteful to buy new clothes when the ones I have are perfectly useful.  This verse states otherwise (not specifically about the clothes, but about beauty in general).  Lately, God has been revealing to me that he created beauty and it is not a bad thing.  It is okay for me to spend time fixing my hair or other beautification (as long as it does not become a thing of idolatry).  It is actually good for me to provide beauty for my family.

Providing beauty for my family and bringing beauty into our own sanctuary\home really struck me after a conversation with my sister-in-law last night.  We were talking about what to teach the kids about Santa.  She argued that there was so much excitement for her as a child surrounding the story of Santa.  She was absolutely right and made me think about what made Christmas so exciting for me and my brother.  For us, it was also traditions.  We loved setting up the tree with our mom and decorating the house.  We loved getting up early on Christmas morning to dig through our socks.  We delighted in opening presents and eating with family and staying up as late as we wanted to play with our new toys by the light of the Christmas tree.  This is just one example, but it struck me at what a poor job I do of revealing beauty to my kids.  Our traditions are very few and far between.  For Christmas, our tradition is traveling to MI and spending the time with my family.  We don't do much if anything on our own as a family.  There are no seasonal decorations in our house and we rarely (if ever) do anything just for the beauty of it.  How will my boys ever appreciate beauty if we are not teaching them the value of it? 

I like to think that we are doing a slightly better job of showing the inward beauty that comes from the heart. (I Peter 3:3-4)  I have seen the practical sense of not pursuing fancy hair, jewelry and fancy dresses from my youth.  It made sense to me to develop my inner character (though now God is revealing more and more to me that that is really His job!) and to develop a gentle and quiet spirit.  While these final weeks of pregnancy have challenged me in this (the things I say while driving lately...), Inward beauty is something I long to share with my family.

I guess it just amazes me that God would lump strength (an attribute I put a lot of value on) along with beauty (something I put very little value on).  He values them both and they are key elements in His character and the worship of Him.