BEAUTY | Some have it, some won’t !

I recently watched a movie starring Catherine DeNeuve.  Remember Catherine? The Chanel Beauty whose gorgeous face and figure ignited the fashion and beauty industry in the 7os?  Men adored her, women wanted to be her.  I couldn’t appreciate my own brunette tresses because blonds were “in”.  My plain accent up against her french voice, no contest.  In short, back then I thought that she was everything I was not.

How foolish, shortsighted and naive most of us are when we are young.  Catherine was a true, natural beauty.  As I watched her in that movie I was curious how she might look today.  So I went to google images and entered her name.  The video from YouTube (below) is one that I found.  I remember that commercial like it was yesterday.  It left such an impression on me that I began raving about the fragrance.  For Christmas that year my boyfriend gave me some Chanel No.5.    The Madison Avenue type advertising worked on my young mind and suddenly I felt like I “could have” some of what Catherine Deneuve had.  That musky fragrance certainly would add to my own wanna be beauty and charm.  Makes me laugh (and a bit sad) now to think how easily led and foolish I was.

Catherine Fabienne Dorléac (renamed Deneuve) was born October 22, 1943.  At this writing she is just months away from her 70th birthday, and I might add she looks fabulous but far different than she did in her prime. As I looked at her in the movie I wondered what type of woman she REALLY is.  Of course, it’s difficult to know because I don’t know her personally,  but it’s not difficult to understand what a person stands for or lives for with the help of google.  So I spent some time reading about this woman who seemed to have it all.

After reading about Catherine’s life, I started thinking about the young beauties of today. Naturally when we are young, we rarely spend any time at all thinking, let alone preparing, for when we are older.  We don’t think of losing our outer beauty, but the reality is that we all age, and it WILL happen to all of us.  I think it’s important at some point to spend some time pondering that reality.  It doesn’t have to be a sad reality, it just is what it is; a reality.  The most important thing is what do we do with the time we are given.  And for those who possess true beauty, how are they handling that gift? Catherine and others exploited her outer beauty.  Top model, TV actress, her own perfume line.  Livin Large!

But really what I want to focus on is how quickly time flies, and how it seems so many young women of today think, somehow, it will be different for them.  Like it or not, TIME takes its toll on our outer beauty.  Honestly, if I didn’t know this was Catherine I would not have recognized her at all.  Yes, based on our DNA time may be kinder to us, or, if we posess wealth we can buy ourselves a few more beautiful years, but eventually we will all look in the mirror one day and realize we have lost our youthful beauty.  Like the saying goes “the Rose has lost it’s bloom”.

I wish I could sit down and have long chat with Catherine.  I wish I could ask her if she is happy how her life turned out. Mostly I wish that the young women of today could know that every generation has its beauties, and that no one is getting out of here wrinkle free.

God instructs us that the only beauty that lasts will be that of a meek and gentle spirit which is precious in the eyes of God.  Are we taking time to enhance our inner beauty?  Do most young women even know about how to go about that?  Do they even care?  Do they know how important it is to care?  Do they think about eternity? Ephesians 5:27 address true and lasting beauty.  It address the “bride of Christ” …. Here is that passage in context:  25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing^b her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Most of the “beauties” I see around me now seem anything but holy and blameless.  They could be the nicest, and sweetest women, but unfortunately, when I see younger women today, I’m reminded more of street walkers or loose women who have absolutely no sense of propriety or fear of The Lord.  Like generations of women before them, they are mimicking the culture around them.  But it is much more dangerous to succumb to the seductive influence of  The Housewives of New Jersey than Donna Reed.  It’s very sad really because years from now when their beauty is gone, what will they have left? This post isn’t really about Catherine D.  She could be a wonderful woman and have absolutely no regrets about her life.  She could be rich toward God.  Only she knows that.  That’s not for me to judge.  It’s just that seeing her got me thinking of so many of today’s “designing women” and about what is most young people’s reality now.  Their reality seems to be more like the make believe world of Hollywood. I just wish young women today could  learn how to cultivate true and lasting beauty before it’s too late.  I wish I had known in my own young life what true inner beauty was and how to cultivate it.  I wish I realized back then how very very fast time would fly, as the saying goes, “time waits for no man” (nor woman).  

BELOW ARE A FEW EXAMPLES OF FLEETING OUTWARD BEAUTY.

  
 AUDREY HEPBURN – Died 1.20.93 (63/died in her sleep/appendiceal cancer)

 
KATHERINE HEPBURN – Died 6.29.03 (96) 

  
GRACE KELLY (Princess consort of Monaco) – Died 9.14.82 (52/stroke leading to car accident)

 
ELIZABETH ROSEMOND TAYLOR –
Died 3.23.11 (79/congestive heart failure) 

 
  
Vivien Leigh – 7.8.67 (53) (Tuberculosis)

   

 LANA TURNER – Died June 29, 1995 (aged 74/throat cancer)

   
RITA HAYWORTH – Died May 14, 1987 (aged 68/Alzheimers) STILL LIVING

    

CHER – May 20, 1946 (age 67)- BUT AGING

   

RACQUEL WELCH – September 5, 1940 (age 72)

TRUE and LASTING Beauty – some of us have it, some won’t, but all of us can!
It’s as close as the mention of his name, and His Name is Jesus.