What a lovely day it is, friends! The sun is shining and I have my family to love on. As a bonus, I get to share some things with you today.
I have been contemplating make up, and it’s proper use, for awhile now. Several years ago, I decided to stop wearing makeup altogether. I wrote a post about it at the time, and I have since taken it down. While I believe I was on the right track when I wrote it, I also had recently moved and was feeling so uncomfortable about pretty much everything. I was seeking ways to be more in line with the will of God, so hopefully He would make me more comfortable.
This was silly of me, since the Lord was using the “trial” of moving to a new area to sanctify my life. I shouldn’t have tried to wish it away. While removing make up from my life was likely a good thing, doing so was not going to help my comfort level with our move.
After a couple of years, I started to wear very light make up again from time to time. I’m talking about brown mascara and lip gloss. The reason I did so was “me.” I was tired of not feeling pretty among a world of women who wore makeup. Needless to say, this was not a good reason. My husband doesn’t care for makeup, and calls it face paint, which is what it is. Why are we as women content to paint our faces to “beautify” them?
The following are some of the reasons why I avoided makeup for such a long time.
In the 1800’s, makeup was scandalous, and was worn by prostitutes. But with the invention of Hollywood and televisions in homes, it became normal, and accepted.
Should we follow Hollywood’s lead on anything, really? I don’t think so.
If we look further back in history, we can see that makeup was worn by heathen people groups, like the Egyptians. God’s people were told to leave Egypt, and to avoid their ways.
In the Apocrypha, the book of Enoch talks about how a demon taught how to beautify eyelids with makeup. This was enough for me to avoid it for a long while!
Scripture never talks about makeup in a positive light. Here are a few verses to consider.
And you, O desolate one, what do you mean that you dress in scarlet, that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold, that you enlarge your eyes with paint? In vain you beautify yourself. Your lovers despise you; they seek your life.
Jeremiah 4:30
When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. And she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out of the window.
2 Kings 9:30
I think it is important to consider that these verses do not mention painted eyes, or makeup, in a positive light at all. I do not want to follow Jezebel’s example!
But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
Revelation 2:20
On a slightly different note, we can also see in the above verses that the desolate woman and Jezebel adorned themselves with gold and scarlet. Does this mean that we should not wear jewelry or fancy clothing? This is a whole other study in itself, but I do think that we need to consider that godly women in Scripture never adorned themselves with such things. Others, such as a husband or God in a metaphor, might have. We shouldn’t seek our own fancy adornments, and instead leave it up to our husbands to adorn us if they feel led to. We shouldn’t be worried about external adornments as godly women. Instead, let’s spend our time focusing on cultivating a gentle and quiet spirit.
Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.
1 Peter 3:3-4
I find it interesting that Peter does not mention makeup in the above verses as something to not worry about. He only included hairstyles, jewelry, and clothing. Is this because godly women at the time wouldn’t even consider wearing makeup? This is something to consider.
On the other hand, Scripture never says, “Thou shall not wear makeup.” We also might have a husband who prefers that we wear makeup. These are things that must be considered, too.
We must take all things to God, and ask Him to show us His will. I do believe that He made us very well, and we do not need to worry about covering up His creation with makeup. This might be offensive to Him.
He loves us, and made us just how He wanted us to look. I think we should be thankful for the appearance He has given us.
He has made you lovely just the way you are!
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today. I hope the Lord blesses you!
Good points.
I think we also have to consider how our actions affect other women. Like you said you felt insecure with all women wearing makeup around you. I feel the same sometimes. I compare my natural look to how others look with a full face of makeup and I feel insecure. Than I realize I should not compare myself. And if I would also wear makeup I would just be part of these irrealistic beauty standards and I would also make other women feel insecure and basically my actions would tell them they need makeup. But if I don’t wear it, maybe it helps others feel better about themselves and it helps that they see natural looks, not the fake ones.
And maybe we should consider that makeup companies are really unethical and immoral and what are we supporting with our money if we buy from them?
I don’t think a husband has a right to tell his wife to wear makeup. Because if you consider how it became so common, what companies she would support and the harm it can cause to other women, and also for herself because it is really not healthy to put all those stuff on your face… It is harmful and bad and no husband can expect his wife to sin just to please him. And if a woman has a strong conviction that makeup is wrong, she would be sinning if she would wear it for her husband.
Very good points. Thank you so much for sharing!