When I was a girl, yes, I can still recall those days, my mom used a couple of phrases rather freely, as did most mothers of that day. When their daughters became a bit obsessive about personal appearance, they would typically remind us that “beauty is only skin deep” or “pretty is as pretty does.” These two simple statements, spoken with love, brought us back down to earth and reminded us not to take our physical beauty too seriously.

I doubt many young girls hear those phrases today. Personal beauty has become big business in America and throughout the world. According to several online sites, Americans spent nearly one hundred and ten billion dollars on beauty products and services in 2025, with skin care and hair care topping the list. And, believe it or not, men figure heavily into the personal appearance equation. One study cited that when they decide to splurge, they spend significantly more than women on their chosen products.

A whopping 75% of Americans claim that beauty products, cosmetics, and services are important enough to them that they are willing to spend big in order to have them. Add to this that we also spend tens of billions on cosmetic surgery and boast the lion’s share of the global market at 30.7%. During COVID, all non-essential surgeries were postponed, but there has been a strong rebound in the years since. 3 million plastic surgeries are performed annually in the US…more than any other country.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. Psalm 139:14 NLT

Understand, I am not criticizing our desire to look nice. We all want to present a pleasing appearance. I just think we may go a little overboard at times and, perhaps, tend to forget that beauty is about much more than our outward appearance. When I look in a mirror, I often wonder who is looking back at me. My once clear and nearly perfect skin is wrinkled with age, and my arms are covered in brown spots where once there were none. Sure, I’d like to smooth out those wrinkles and remove those unsightly spots. But I’ve earned every one of them in my eighty-plus years, and I know that God cares more about what is in my heart than He does about a few wrinkles and sunspots.

You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. I Peter 3:4

God made each of us in his own image, and He doesn’t make mistakes. Each of us was created as He wanted us to look. In His eyes, we are perfect. What more could we ask?

The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. I Samuel 16:7.