This past May I decided to go bare on our beach vacation.

Wait, say what?! I went bare?

Don’t worry, I didn’t bare it all 😉. Especially on a family vacation. Though I did feel naked leaving behind my face paint.

It was my attempt to throw caution to vanity. I was curious how I would like my face without enhancements for a whole seven days 😉.

Turns out I didn’t care much for bare beauty. I had grown so accustomed to seeing a made up me that it was hard to like my bare face with it’s natural lines and spots from the years God has allowed me to live.

But make-up hasn’t always been a big deal for me as a young girl.

In my tween and teen years I was a tomboy. While my older sister spent hours in front of the mirror, I was outside playing and exploring. My first try at makeup came in the later high school years. When girls my age were maturing into women, I was still waiting for growth hormones to kick in. I thought wearing makeup would at least help me look older and hide my unwanted Asian features.

Since then, I’ve grown to like having a made-up face. But why? How come I no longer like my face bare, the way God made it? Why do I draw in eyebrows, shadow my eyelids, thicken and curl my lashes, brush on cheekbones, and paint my lips pouty in order to feel beautiful?

The answer is, I don’t. It’s why I chose to go bare on vacay. I wanted to reprogram my mind so I can get back to liking my raw, bare face. I want to love the me God made. The me that has been hidden behind fears of looking different and not fitting in. The me buried underneath longings to be called beautiful.

I’m learning that it doesn’t take years to understand who you are, to know your worth, and to believe you have beauty. Rather, it takes knowing God, the Creator who made you. It requires being in a relationship with him via his person of Jesus Christ, so he can continually remind you of your unique beauty. And you’ll believe it because you trust him. You know what he says supercedes all others because he gave you your beauty.

Now, I purposely go bare face most of the time. It has taken all summer, but I am liking the natural me God made with it’s unique imperfections. I accept my slanted eyes and straight, short lashes. I’ve even come to love all the features God designed for me as a Vietnamese woman.

Moral of the story? If you want to know and appreciate your true beauty, get to know God. Have a relationship with him like you do with your family and friends. Because the more you know him, the better you’ll be at liking your special-designed bare beauty.