Seven Deadly Sins - Vanity

I am so guilty of this sin, and I guess at some point, we are all guilty of this sin. How can we not when most people are visual. They would look at you from head to foot, and assess you not for who you are but on how you look like. In regards to this, people tend to put their best foot forward by really trying to make themselves presentable before going out of their homes.
From the best clothes, beauty products, beauty salons, to cosmetic surgeries like liposuctions, tummy tucks, nose lifts, bust lifts, skin smoothening, name it and they can fix it.
Then there’s the SPAs popping up like mushrooms at every corner and offering all kinds of massages and indulgences one can get.
But my self-indulgence is limited to clothes and body cleansing. I love buying clothes, I feel great when I wear nice clothes and people tell me how great I look wearing them, boosts one’s self confidence, I can say. I don’t care about the brand, it can be bought on a signature store or just around the corner, at a market or a small clothes shop, as long as I feel great, it doesn’t matter. My passion is UNDERWEAR, though. I feel my sexiest when I am wearing great underwears. Square type, briefs, except thongs, of all colors and designs. I go crazy whenever I am in an underwear store.
I love a few perfumes too, I go for Jean Gautier, Issey Miyake, D&G , CK and Kenzo. Lately I’ve discovered ZARA Men, a classic.
But how do you really describe vanity? When it is a sin? When doing it too much? How about movie stars? Are they as guilty? How about public speakers?
In the movie”Devils Advocate” Al Pacino who played the Devil, after a court scene with Keanu Reeves, said, “Vanity, definitely my favorite sin!” as he tried to give Keanu, a small time lawyer, the time of his life by making him great, famous and rich, but with a cost of course, his wife became crazy and he almost became a father to the new Anti Christ!
As people also easily lead by compliments, a good or bad compliment when taken seriously can lead to vanity and made a person too conscious about the way people look at them.
I also read somewhere that the Devil’s sin as to why he was casted out of heaven was vanity. He was created one of the beautiful amongst the angels and his name alone Lucifer means the Shining One, or the Light. This then led to vanity, to jealousy and hate.
Not so nice story isn’t it, and vanity a not so nice trait too.
Like the saying goes, true beauty comes from within and it radiates outside our physical being. People can like you whether you’re Quasimodo or Frankenstein because of your good heart, and people can hate you even though you’re as beautiful as Nicole Kidman or handsome as Brad Pitt.
That is why, I became a fan of Ruffa Gutierrez when she answered her famous Miss World question that led her to win as 2nd Runner Up, Vanessa Williams asked her what can she say to a woman with a low self esteem, in which she replied smartly and quoted from the book The Little Prince, “What is essential is invisible to the naked eye.”
We are beautiful the way we are, minus the makeup, the clothes, the perfumes, the Spas and the compliments. We are created in God’s image if I remember my Bible right.
So vanity, easy to commit, but definitely needs forgiveness as the Lord also, when He mingled among us, became a lowly carpenter, wore not so clean clothes, hands calloused, and lead a very simple life to set an example that vanity is not a ticket in order to enter the kingdom of heaven.