Gevurah of Tiferet - Discipline of Beauty

Like last night I truly believe this week's Counting is going to be the difficult one to deal with.  Today is Gevurah of Tiferet or Discipline of Beauty.  As I talked about yesterday, beauty is a god in the United States.  For that reason I have chosen to use beauty instead of compassion for the definition of Tiferet for the Counting this year. 

I am going to make this brief, for it is probably going to be a stormy night for many of you.  How much stock do you put in your own beauty?  Do you seek it or seek to stay away from it?  This is where the discipline comes into play.  HASHEM created you and you are beautiful!!!!  All of HASHEM's creation is beautiful.  Does His word not say, 

"And why be anxious about clothing?  Think about the fields of wild irises, and how they grow.  they neither work nor spin thread, yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed as beautifully as one of these."  Matthew 6:28-29  JNT

You see you can down play your personal beauty to the point of making yourself unattractive for fear of beauty or you can seek to draw attention to yourself in a way that is not pleasing to HASHEM.  Perhaps it is something you do not consciously think about.  Women, if many of you are like me, you have no idea that men think the way they actually do.  I am going to recommend a book to you and you NEED to read it.  

For Women Only  by Shaunti Feldhahn

It is a short book but it is an eye opener and please read it especially if you have daughters.  We do not realize how much our clothing makes a difference.  Please do not misunderstand me here, I am not saying that we are responsible for men raping women, WE ARE NOT!!!  Men who do that are sick individuals and they need help!!!!  I am talking about every day ordinary thoughts that we are creating within men that we can help.  

Here is where I want to really go with this discipline of beauty thought....WE as women have bought into the lie for far toooooooo long!!!!  We have said, "well, this is what men want, so we should give it to them, right?"  WRONG!!!  We need to be saying, "What does HASHEM want?"  It does not matter what the men want, it only matters what our God wants!   Let's talk women's liberation for a moment, if you want to jump on that band wagon, ladies we should be in an uproar over the hamburger commercials where they are using pornography to try and sell a jalapeno bacon burger!!!  For crying out loud, the latest one shows a woman in a scantily clad dress practically having an orgasm while eating the burger in front of her daughter's date!  It is time WE stood in unison to protest the degradation of women in this manner and especially the degradation of beauty in this manner!  DISCIPLINE!!!!  

Beauty is something to be treasured, not exploited!!!  How do you feel about beauty in your life?  Do you draw attention to yourself or do you try to hide it?  Seek to allow both your inner and outer beauty to shine the way HASHEM designed it.

Shalom!