In preparation for my freshman year at Auburn University I was quizzing a godly woman who had gone to the plains of Auburn before me. It was only perhaps a five or ten minute conversation after church one Sunday night, but the words of wisdom shared have reverberated over the last 13 years. After recommending a few sororities at Auburn as I was preparing for rush, the woman looked at me and said, in essence, “Most importantly use this time to seek God. ‘Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.'” (Proverbs 31:30)

Those words took root in my heart.

I joined the same sorority that she had , and I am so thankful for that experience. Many of my friendships that I formed there spurred me on towards love and good deeds in Christ Jesus. However, it was the words of Proverbs graced on me that truly made my college experience. God used that 10 minute conversation and a lifetime of teaching from parents and church volunteers before her to impress upon me the need to study and learn God’s word.

While at Auburn, God placed many woman in my life who continued to pour out godly wisdom and sound teaching to lead me in the way that I should go. Women who were busy with families and small children of their own who made the time to mentor me.

If  I could give women of all ages the secret to true beauty, I would most assuredly utter the wisdom of Proverbs 31:30 and Matthew 6:33:

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised…Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

As well I would tell each woman to believe the words of Psalm 139 and their truth in her individual life:

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Then in light of this knowledge, it is important that women of today heed the call of 1 Corinthians 3:16-17:

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

As Paul wrote in Colossians 3:1-17 we are to put on our new self. That is we are to “put to death what is earthly” in us and put on our “new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of our creator.” (Colossians 3:5, 10)

My challenge to you today is to look around you. What women or young ladies has God placed in your life? Are you studying God’s word so that you too can reach out to them and share the truth? It may be in a mentor relationship or a word aptly spoken at a given moment of opportunity that God will use you to impact eternity.

Is there someone that God has placed on your heart to minister to? If so, perhaps today is the day that you should take the first step in that direction. If not, then this is a season of preparation for ministry opportunities to come.

In a world with many inaccurate air brushed messages of skinny beauty, true beauty stands out among the crowd. Let us be women of true beauty found in the fear of the Lord.