DAILY ENCOUNTER ~ Friday, September 01/00

by Dick Innes ~ ACTS International http://www.actsweb.org Partnering with NCF Ministries: http://www.ncfliving.org

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[1] GIVE ME A BEAUTIFUL HEART

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised” (Proverbs 31:30, NIV). The same principle would also apply to men.

The late Cecil Osborne wrote, “A biographer of Clark Gable pointed out that the actor had had five wives in his lifetime, four of whom had had a total of sixteen husbands in their life times. Gable had been divorced three times, a widower once, and a ‘lover too often either to calculate or evaluate.’”

“There have been countless women whose hearts beat faster and their fantasies run wilder at the sight of Clark Gable, the so called great lover, on the silver screen.

“Unfortunately,” according to Osborne, “excessively handsome men and fabulously beautiful women do not, on the whole, have stable marriages.”

Good marriages are built on love, companionship, goodwill, commitment, maturity, compromise, faithfulness and integrity — not on exquisite physical prowess or beauty.

Sadly, in the Western World we put great emphasis on physical beauty and attractiveness — as well as on material possessions — and very little emphasis on the development of the inner person — the part of us that has to do with loving and wholesome relationships.

And while man looks on the outward appearance, God looks on the heart — and is a lot more interested in a beautiful heart than a beautiful body! This not an excuse not to take care of ourselves. Not at all. We need to take care of our physical health, but not be a slave to outward beauty.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to keep my priorities in order and develop a beautiful heart — especially in your sight. Gratefully in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

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