Psalm 45:11, NIV

“Let the king be enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord.”

“You’re beautiful.” That is one phrase that I believe every woman, whether they would want to admit it or not, wants and desires to hear about themselves. No matter how young or how old, when a woman is told that they are beautiful, you can see the joy in their face. Something deep down inside of them is touched. While they can’t explain it, their life just feels happier. It is no coincidence that women would feel this way. God made each of us in His image, and one of the qualities of the Lord is that He is beautiful. The Psalmist writes, “One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD and to meditate in His temple.” (Psalms 27:4, NIV)

The beauty of the Lord surpasses anything that we can imagine! For a husband, one of the greatest examples of this beauty is seen in our wife. As husbands, we should always ensure that our wives understand how beautiful they are. I recall a story I once read of an elderly couple who were about to go shopping. The wife came out of the bedroom and, getting ready to go, she noticed her husband staring at her. He smiled at her and said, “After all these years, it still takes my breath away.” The wife, not understanding what he was referring to, asked him what he meant. The husband responded and said, “When I look at you, I see the most beautiful thing God ever created.” The women then felt a warmth in her heart, and something deep down inside was stirred. She smiled and had a twinkle in her eyes. This is the same twinkle we see in the eyes of a little girl after her daddy tells her how beautiful she is. Age is not a factor, nor is race, height, weight, style, personality, or anything else. Every woman wants to feel beautiful.

I believe that we as husbands should seek to ensure our wives know this deeply: He is the one who created them, and He created them beautifully. Our wife is not beautiful because their dad told them that when they were young, or because we tell them that they are beautiful now. And, if they didn’t have a dad who said those things when they were young, or maybe we have not told them that are beautiful enough, it doesn’t change the reality that God made them beautifully. It is not a man who determines the beauty of their wife, rather we can either choose to see the beauty that God made in our wife—or ignore it. Either way it doesn’t change who they are and how they were created.

One final thing that I believe the Lord wants to tell us today is this: There is nothing we can do to diminish the beauty that He created in our wife, and there is nothing that they need to do in order to enhance it. You may have made many bad decisions and believe you are not worthy. You may believe you have made such a mess of your life that there is no turning back. You may have gone through some terrible situations which make you feel dirty and ashamed—and you may feel like you’ll never be clean. But nothing can change the beauty that we have been created with.

Husbands, I want to leave you with this: Remember to tell your wife how beautiful they are. Get to know them more deeply and as you do, you will appreciate their beauty even more.  Wives, you are beautiful because you have been created that way by the Lord and nothing and no one can change that.