These questions are all tied together and all posed towards girls, obviously. We all know that girls are always going to be more critical and self-conscious than boys and probably BECAUSE of boys! I'm sure it never ends even as age takes hold of our fragile painted faces and carefully sculpted bodies. One of my best friends sent me a message on Facebook of an article her RA gave her to read. This particular friend has always been beautiful to me, but still felt the need to cover it all with makeup and cute clothes (she still refuses to admit she has a shopping problem!). But why does she insist on wearing makeup every day and spending money in excess on clothes that will be out of style as soon as they came in? Boys, media, other girls and the list of things that cause insecurities goes on. But what this article pointed out is that as a child of God we are made in his image! And to say that we are not beautiful and that we are not thin enough is saying to our Creator that He didn't do an adequate job!
Let me clarify that I'm in no way blaming boys for our insecurities, I'm simply pointing out that every girl feels the need to be wanted by boys that could really care less whether or not we wear makeup, style our hair for 30 minutes, or try on 10 different outfits. As my wonderful boyfriend and best friend of three years reminded me just the other day "Every girl is going to think she's fat." At first I tended to disagree because I thought that it was just me because I have always struggled with my weight and even after losing 20 pounds I still feel the need to lose more weight.
But this is not the case! We are all beautiful because we are in the image of God! One of my favorite songs by David Crowder remind us that "[He] made everything glorious and I am Yours! What does that make me?!" IT MAKES US GLORIOUS IN HIM! How freeing is it to know and take hold of the fact that we are made whole in Him? It doesn't matter if we find our soul mated in high school or in our thirties, the point is that God has a divine plan for our lives (Proverbs 19:21). We are anointed by him; we have a divine part in his redemptive plan and it is not our job to know what it is until he reveals it to us!
The world is so careful to impose thoughts of insecurities upon girls to feel like they need to have the perfect size nothing body, the perfectly proportioned face, and a haircut that says "red carpet." One of my all time least favorite commercials are the Covergirl commercials with Ellen Degeneres. With comments like "inner beauty is important...but not as important as outer beauty" and "hello wrinkly" how can we expect girls to have positive self image??
Good self image is not easy to come by. Only now, at 18 and 20 pounds lighter, am I starting to realize that I am beautiful because I am made in the image of God. Others will think that we are beautiful when we radiate a confidence in our Creator and they way that He has made us.
It also doesn't help that my boyfriend also pointed out that every girl does a mental "look and judge" of every girl that passes us. And it is so true! So this post's challenge is not to have a radical change of heart and walk out of your door feeling as if you could conquer the world. Baby steps, baby steps. But it has helped me to take on a new resolution to pay mental compliments to every girl that passes me instead of judging her for her size, her hair, her face or her clothes.
Try it, you may be surprised by how you feel about yourself at the end of the day.
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