Why beauty matters is not a question most people take seriously. We’ve been trained to think beauty is superficial, frivolous, maybe even a little vain. Caring about how things look feels like it shouldn’t be a priority when there are real problems to solve in the world.
But what if that entire framework is wrong? What if beauty matters because it’s one of only two forces powerful enough to actually move the human heart?
Jamie Winship spent decades working in some of the world’s most dangerous conflict zones, including the Middle East, helping people discover their true identity in God. His work focuses on helping people move from fear-based false identities to living from their God-given true identity. He’s the author of Living Fearless (affiliate link) and teaches extensively on identity, fear, and transformation.
One of his less common teachings is that only suffering and beauty can move the human heart. These two extremes are catalysts for transformation and spiritual movement in a person’s life.
Suffering is the force of breaking and stripping away. It moves the heart by forcing a person to confront their reality, surrender their self-reliance, and seek a deeper truth or source of comfort. It creates the space for change through difficulty.
Beauty is the force of invitation and creation. It moves the heart by drawing a person toward hope, joy, and the recognition of something transcendent. It inspires the desire to step into something more beautiful than their current existence, often connected to discovering their true identity.
These aren’t theoretical concepts. They’re the only two forces that actually create movement in the human heart. Everything else is just noise.
WHY BEAUTY MATTERS: THE BELIEF SHIFT
Most people think beauty is superficial. We’ve absorbed cultural messages that caring about beauty is shallow, vain, self-indulgent. Especially for women who are trying to make meaningful contributions in the world, focusing on appearance can feel like a distraction from what really matters.
But here’s what Jamie Winship’s teaching reveals: beauty matters because it’s one of only two forces that can actually move your heart toward transformation.
Beauty isn’t frivolous. It’s profound. It’s spiritual. It has the power to draw you toward your true identity in ways that rules and obligations never can.
When you dismiss beauty as unimportant, you’re actually dismissing one of the most powerful tools for transformation that exists. You’re cutting yourself off from a force that could move your heart toward who you’re meant to be.
HOW GOD SPOKE TO MY IDENTITY
The first time I experienced small group listening prayer, I had already read Jamie Winship’s “Living Fearless” and started looking to God for specific identity messaging. One of my prayer partners saw goats when she was praying for me. When she asked God if there was something else, she saw goat yoga, then the garbage eating goat in downtown Spokane. Her impression was playful goats.
Neither of us had any idea what it was about.
A few weeks later, I received the World Vision catalog and it had felt goat ornaments on the cover. They were adorable. When I turned to the inside, I found the names of the goats: “Beloved” and “Playful.”
I knew immediately it was an identity statement about me.
Almost everyone who receives specific identities from God gets “Beloved” as one of the first. It’s the universal starting point, the foundational truth that God loves you. But “Playful” is specifically for me.
Here’s what matters about this story: I knew in my inner being when I saw the names of the goats that the message was one of identity for me. That is the same place where my vision of beauty exists. A place that only God and I have access to.
WHY MOST STYLE ADVICE DOESN’T WORK
Now think about most style advice you’ve encountered. It operates on neither suffering nor beauty. It’s just rules.
Wear this silhouette because of your body type. Choose these colors because of your season. Follow these guidelines because they’re flattering. Avoid those styles because they’re not appropriate for your age or shape or lifestyle.
Rules create obligation. Follow this because you should. Do this because it’s correct. Wear that because it’s flattering.
But obligation doesn’t move the heart. It might create temporary compliance, but it doesn’t create transformation. It doesn’t draw you toward your true identity. It just makes you feel like you’re constantly trying to follow directions you don’t fully understand.
This is why people can learn their color season, understand their body type, know all the rules, and still feel lost when they open their closet. The rules didn’t move their heart.
INVITATION THROUGH BEAUTY
The approach I take works differently. It starts with understanding your personality, your cognitive functions, how you’re actually wired. Then it connects that understanding to visual expression through beauty.
Beauty draws you. Beauty invites you. Beauty moves your heart toward your true identity in a way that rules and obligations never can.
The Myers-Briggs Key to Signature Style video masterclass explains exactly how understanding your type at the cognitive function level is different from the traditional corporate and university understanding of Myers-Briggs. It shows you why those four letters are actually a code, and what that code unlocks about how you’re uniquely designed.
WHY BEAUTY MATTERS FOR CONTRIBUTION
Here’s why this matters beyond just looking good. If you’re a woman who has contributions to make in the world, you need to be seen for who you actually are. Your contributions aren’t happening because people don’t see the real you.
Beauty isn’t a distraction from your contribution. Beauty is one of the forces that can move your heart toward showing up authentically so your contributions can actually happen.
When you dismiss beauty as superficial, you’re dismissing a spiritual force that could transform how you show up in the world. When you accept that beauty matters, you give yourself permission to be drawn toward your true visual identity, which helps people see and receive who you actually are.
Most people think beauty is superficial, but actually beauty is one of only two forces that can move the human heart—and that’s why invitation through beauty works where rule-based style systems fail.
This is exactly what The Congruence Code offers. It’s not a set of rules to follow. It’s an invitation to discover how you’re uniquely designed. You get that personality profiling conversation where we discover your type through your actual patterns. You receive your Personality Style Blueprint that gives you the building blocks for your signature style. And you get your Seasonal Energy Digital Palette chosen collaboratively based on how you experience yourself.
You walk away with tools that invite you through beauty toward your authentic visual identity, not rules that obligate you toward someone else’s idea of what you should look like.
Here’s something simple you can do this week to integrate these principles into your wardrobe:
Set aside 15 minutes this week to journal about beauty. Think back to a time when something beautiful moved your heart—not something you thought you should appreciate, but something that genuinely drew you. What was it? How did it make you feel? What did it invite you toward? Then consider: where have you dismissed beauty as superficial in your own life? What might shift if you recognized beauty as a profound spiritual force rather than a frivolous distraction?
If you’re ready to experience style development as invitation through beauty rather than obligation through rules, The Congruence Code is designed for exactly that. You’ll discover your personality type through a two-hour profiling conversation, receive your Personality Style Blueprint that shows you the building blocks for your signature style, and get a Seasonal Energy Digital Palette chosen collaboratively based on how you experience yourself. This isn’t about following rules. It’s about being invited through beauty toward your authentic visual identity. Use the contact form below to schedule your personality profiling conversation and begin the journey of discovering why beauty matters for showing up as who you actually are.