You Are Beautiful!

Most days I am okay with how I look – I mean I am realistic I am almost *ahem* years old. I haven’t always been okay with it. I have struggled to varying degrees with not being pretty enough, thin enough, athletic enough. But the realities of life and focusing on God’s truth have helped me learn to be content with how God made me.

Most Days.

On the days I’m not okay are the days the voices inside my head win. I can’t control the voices outside my head, but I can take every thought captive in Christ. Some days I don’t.

You’re not pretty.

You’ve gained weight.

Your skin is looking older.

It doesn’t matter who you are or how you were created, we all have these same struggles. We think about that other person, “how can they struggle with self-image, they are beautiful or thin, or talented.” But we all struggle to varying degrees.

Contentment is a state Paul says we can achieve through Christ’s strength. This means in ALL parts of life…our circumstances and our appearance. Ouch – that aging process hurts though because what is happening to my body, I can’t control.

Hum. Control?

That’s not much unlike circumstances. I can’t control those. But I can control my response to them. That means I can control my response to those voices inside my head.

Combine those voices with the drive to achieve, and that’s where I can let discontent breed if I’m not careful. What’s that healthy balance of contentment and achievement for me?

I take care of what God has given me to steward. I do what I can do, honor God with my choices (eating & exercising). I pursue Him and His truth. I trust that He has fearfully and wonderfully made me.

You can find that contentment too – that place of balance. Because you are also fearfully and wonderfully made.

Let my voice tonight be louder than any voice telling you otherwise because YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL! God says so, believe it and in His strength, find contentment.