beauty surgery

[KaraParticipant]

i’m thinking about getting a nose job. what is the christian science perspective on that? (because i feel really, really ugly, and i need a change, even though i don’t know yet how to pay for it)

[Norwall012215Participant]

Around the time I became a teenager, my nose completely changed and grew in size. I was shocked at how big it had gotten, and it embarrassed me. People made comments on it, and it always surprised me, because I kept forgetting that it had changed so much. It really bothered me that something like this had happened, and there was no way for me to control it. I wanted to say to people who brought it up – “Hey! This isn’t my fault – I didn’t grow my nose by choice! This thing acted on its own – it definitely didn’t check with me first!”

But over time it came out in conversation that some people actually liked it. They identified it with me – and I guess the reasoning was that they liked me, so they liked my nose too. This was hard for me to understand until something happened with a friend of mine. He told me about how he was on some special medication for his acne. I was shocked. I thought, Why on earth would he need that?! Then I took another look at his face. It turns out he really did have terrible acne. I knew he had some acne, but I never noticed how bad it was and never thought of him as unattractive because of it. Even after this realization, my view of him never changed. In later years, I made the connection of this experience with the passage in Science and Health, “One marvels that a friend can ever seem less than beautiful.”

The paragraph preceding that sentence goes like this: “The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and more Soul, to retreat from the belief of pain or pleasure in the body into the unchanging calm and glorious freedom of spiritual harmony.”

I didn’t realize at the time, but I think that I was much more concerned with my friend’s spiritual qualities than I was with his appearance. In fact, I think these qualities shaped how I saw him. I think that the same thing was happening with how my friends saw me. They loved me for who I was and that love shaped how they saw the details of my face, not the other way around.

People are ultimately interested in spiritual qualities, something the physical body can’t give you no matter what you do to it. But the more we let our spiritual qualities shine (and they really shine like crazy when we do our best to follow Jesus) the more those qualities outshine the illusion of our worth being determined by a physical body. People really notice this, and it helps to liberate them too.

You’ve got God with you to tell you what’s best for you to do. Trust Him, and He’ll lead you in the right direction on this.

[ElizabethParticipant]

I read an article once about how most people who have had cosmetic surgery don’t feel more beautiful after they had it. It’s a generalization but it makes me wonder what will make you feel better? If getting what you think you want doesn’t do it, what hope is there?

Whther you get surgery or not, there are bigger questions to have answered. Norwall has some great ideas on that.

[GordonParticipant]

There is a fantastic post right on this website titled Why am I so ugly? that is definitely worth checking out! The author struggled with her own beauty/confidence concerns, and found complete healing through the power of God.

[AmyKeymaster]

I’m so glad you shared that blog, Gordon. It’s a good one. It’s also our most popular blog on the site and by a good margin. That tells me that you’re not alone Kara. That lots of people struggle with feelings of inadequacy because of their looks. But as Gordon pointed out, complete healing of those feelings is possible. And in this blog, the author shares how the acne that made her feel miserable and ugly was completely healed, too.

[KelseyParticipant]

I don’t really want to tell you what to do either way when it comes to deciding to do surgery or not, because you need to be at peace with your decision, but I do want to say one thing. Matter is not real so whatever you are experiencing as your mortal body is thought externalized, so by simply adjusting the matter, you are only adjusting the illusion and not the thought that creates the illusion. By addressing the issue from a spiritual perspective you will achieve a full healing and not merely gain a temporary adjustment. Mrs. Eddy has this to say in S&H: “God is more to a man than his belief, and the less we acknowledge matter or its laws, the more immortality we possess. Consciousness constructs a better body when faith in matter has been conquered.” (S&H: pg.425)

[IanParticipant]

Hi Kara, Maybe it’s not your nose that needs fixing…but the mirror! Looking at ourselves in a twisted mirror isn’t pretty! Even a slight bend, can make something normal, natural, and beautiful look too big, too small, too fat, too skinny. Before you do anything…check the mirror 0);o) !!!

I can’t imagine you being anything but a true expression of love, joy, humor, grace, and beauty.

P.S. I looked up mirror in the dictionary and found an interesting definition. Hope you enjoy.

“something which gives a true representation or in which a true image may be visualized”

[Author]

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