Beauty.
Such a simple word. Yet it holds such a high standard in society.
We hold ourselves up to what television and movies and magazines and celebrities say is beautiful. And then when we don't measure up, we get hard on ourselves.
And that breaks my heart.
Not just because I see the effects that the media and society has on a girl's (and guys) self-image (trust me..I wrote a 15 page paper on the subject last semester).
It breaks my heart because I've been there.
I guess I should start from the beginning.
I used to be called the fat girl in my class. From elementary school through middle school and the first few years of high school...I was chubby and not as healthy as I should have been. I always hated being that girl...but I never did anything to stop it. I would go home and have an after-school snack of cookies. Then dessert after supper of ice cream. Maybe a brownie before bed. But that all changed one day.
I was visiting my aunt & uncle in Washington the summer before my sophomore year of high school and she was showing us around her house...and when we were in the bathroom I saw the scale and decided to jump on it for kicks. It was one of the biggest reality checks of my life. And so..I decided to make a change. I cut back on sweets. I cut back on portions. And I eventually started exercising. By the end of my sophomore year, I had dropped 50 pounds.
It felt good at first. Being this skinny version of myself. But it wasn't long before the doubts and the self-image issues came into play. It especially happened when I got to college. Now...I want to clarify something. I never had an eating disorder. I lost weight the healthy way. But weight and eating was constantly on my mind. I would consistently be conscious of what I was eating. And if I ate something that I thought wasn't good...I would get super upset with myself. And I worked out constantly. And if I missed a day, I would get even more upset with myself. I would walk through campus and see girls and think "whoa. she is super skinny. why can't i be more skinny?" or "gosh...that guy is cute. i wonder if he thinks i'm pretty.."
The stress of weight and beauty and looking good was taking over my life. Until one day God caught a hold of me and showed me HIS meaning of beauty. The ONLY meaning of beauty that really matters. And He released me from those chains. Don't get me wrong...I still think about those things from time to time. But I am a girl and we tend to do that. But I don't carry around those burdens anymore.
So you can see why this subject is so close to my heart. It's because I've been there.
I look around me and I see these beautiful girls. Beautiful girls who think that they are ugly and unworthy. Beautiful girls who think they need to lose 10 pounds in order to get a boyfriend. Beautiful girls who think society's view of beauty is the only one that matters.
Who are we to define beauty?
There is a reason why this blog is called Unfading Beauty.
1 Peter 3:4~Instead, it should be that of the inner self, the UNFADING beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit that is of great worth in God's sight.
Don't you see? God doesn't care if you are 115 pounds or 250 pounds. He doesn't care if you could make the cover of Vogue or if you are a "normal" looking girl with freckles.
Do you want to know why God doesn't care about those things? It's beacause we are FEARFULLY and WONDERFULLY made by the ALMIGHTY GOD! He created YOU to be who YOU are for a purpose. You are the way you look for a REASON. Every element of your body was created by God....how can we be ashamed of that?
We shouldn't let the world tell us what the perfect image is. The world isn't our guide to life. GOD IS.
We should never focus on how much someone weighs. We should focus on whether they're healthy and if they are honoring God by taking care of their bodies. Here's something that is really awesome: God doesn't measure our faith by what size clothing we wear or by the numbers on a scale.
1 Samuel 16:7 ~ The Lord does not look at the things man
looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance
but the Lord looks at the heart.
Being healthy is a GOOD thing. It is honoring to God and it is taking care of our bodies, our temples, that the Lord has created. The problem is when our focus shifts from being healthy to being "thin." When we start letting people and magazines and tv and movies tell us what is beautiful, we start to follow unrealistic standards of what our bodies should look like. And when we can't achieve that look, we get disgusted with ourselves. But the reason we get disgusted with ourselves is because we fail to believe that God has made us.
You are a work of art, wonderfully created in the image of the greatest Artist. If we start to spend our time and energy worrying about our looks and self-image, then we won't have any time and energy left to spend on God's image. We are created in the image of God, and THAT is what our self-image should be wrapped up in.
Matthew 6:25;27 ~ therefore I tell you, do not worry about
your life, what you will eat or drink or
about your body, what you will wear. Is
not life more important than food and the
body more important than clothes?
Who of you by worrying can add a single
hour to his life?
Let's stop reading the advertiser's words about beauty and start reading GOD's words about truth & love & life & beauty.
There is NOTHING wrong with wanting to look nice...I. like to look nice..but don't lose sight of the greater priorty: your relationship with God. When you spend time with God and grow in Him, you will gain the kind of beauty that never fades.
<3
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