From early childhood, I grew up with a very, very low self-image – I saw myself as being too little in worth and that no one would want to be my friend. My life in Australia began at the age of four. My Lebanese-birth origin and looks did not advantage me in any way with my peers at school, and with the general ‘white Australian’ community. In fact, I was greatly disadvantaged, bullied and rejected!

Why was my friend, Michael, such a stand-out attraction to the girls at school? Why did he have such a large following of admirers? While Michael looked and smelt like a freshly-minted $100 bank note, I looked and smelt like a discarded bent penny. Good looks + an outstanding athletic ability was, and still is today, a powerful combination resulting in mega attraction of follower-admirers.

For many years I grew up believing that no self-respecting woman would ever find me attractive enough to permit me to hold her hand, let alone be in my company. I wasn’t a miserable case as I accepted the fact that I wasn’t attractive. However, from the time I first encountered the living God I began to see myself from His perspective and not from my perspective or the perspective of others.

God helped me to see myself as He saw me… created uniquely and purposefully in His image… a one-of-kind! God helped me to see that ‘real’ attraction is generated from within… the increasing beauty of one’s heart and character and not from the glamour of outer appearance that results from one’s own doing.

Our generation has a fixation with the condition of the ‘outer’ person while the ‘inner’ is in serious neglect. Much money and time at the disposal of most people is being directed at the transformation of their outer bodies, into glamorous human specimens for those in their circle of life (and the whole world, if possible). Lean, fat-free bodies, Botox treatments, nip and tucks, false nails and eyebrows, tailor-made boobs, body-markings, designer clothing… and much more! It’s so sad that such people don’t (can’t or won’t) ‘see’ they are preparing glamorous bodies that will ultimately be buried somewhere, at some time…  bodies that will perish and rot away, into the dust from which they were made.

With God’s help, I am being saved from such a lost and futile cause. With the help of God’s Spirit, my life’s focus is inner-beauty, the development of my heart and character, not outer-glamour that only depreciates with time. I now boast of God, a wife, family, and friends who love me for who I am, not for what I look like! (Concluding part 2, next week.)

Best wishes, 

Bill Joukhadar