God looks at the heart.

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

This was the passage that jumped off the page to me in my devotional time yesterday, so I thought that I'd share my initial thoughts with you.

Sometimes I am guilty of spending WAY too much time on my outward appearance. Especially if we are getting the opportunity to go somewhere without the boys. There's no way that I want someone to look at me and think "oh my goodness, she really needs to get it together."

At the same time, this passage is saying that you could spend all kinds of time primping and if your heart is full of selfishness or anger or sin, it doesn't matter what the outside looks like.

A sermon illustration that my Dad gave once has stuck with me all these years. Imagine the greatest steak dinner there ever was; fillet mignon, baked potato with butter AND sour cream, crisp green salad with your favorite dressing and hot, fresh dinner rolls. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

But imagine if the waitstaff attempted to serve this glorious dinner to you on a dirty, smelly garbage can lid. Not so appetizing now, is it?

That's the same as if we spend money and hours on our outward appearance and neglect the condition of our hearts. Not to say that He doesn't think that we should look our best, just that it should be secondary to our relationship with Him.

I don't want to stand before my Lord and have Him say, "Ya know what? Your hair and makeup were always neat and your clothes were always the latest fashion, but what I really wanted was your heart."