Ugh, my hair just never looks right.
Why don't any of my shirts look good on me?
Why is my skin so pale when my friends are tan?
Why do I have no curves?
Why can't I just look like _____ or ______?
Why am I focusing on the physical things and not the eternal things?
Sometimes God gives women a heart check concerning our high emphasis on the physical things and not the eternal things.
To preface this blog, I am by no means saying a woman shouldn't wear make up or fix their hair in the morning or heaven forbid not wear deodorant: I am saying that often as women, we focus all of our attention on how we appear to the world physically versus spiritually.
I am the guiltiest of all concerning this, which is why I felt the need to blog about it. God heart checked me recently on how much I pick His creation a part. It's been drilled into my brain over and over again that "God doesn't make trash," and apparently that's supposed to cure the Christian woman's struggle with self image.
It doesn't.
Every woman has to have an encounter with Christ on this issue to truly realize the magnitude of what a problem focusing too much on physical appearance really is.
It may be when a woman is 15 or 50.
It may be over how she hates her curly stringy hair or how she thinks her breasts are small deflated balloons.
But by golly, every Christian woman will get heart checked by God at some point in their walk and realize, "Wow...have I really been focused on the wrong things this long? Am I really so concerned with the way my thighs look in jeans that I've become consumed with body image and jealousy? What eternal things could I have been spending all this thought and energy on that I've wasted on self pity over my looks?"
Many people do not and may not ever view this as an issue.
I do.
It's very near and dear to my heart when I see a woman, not just a young woman, pick themselves a part piece by piece because they are unsatisfied with their looks.
You may have a thousand people call you beautiful in a day, but if you don't see yourself the way your Creator made you, you will never ever be satisfied or pleased with your reflection.
I'm no genius. I'm no therapist. But I am a young woman who has battled with her physical appearance since adolescence.
God says, "ENOUGH!"
God says, "PEACE!"
My spirit has been checked.
Where have I been making investments mentally?
Have I been focusing on all the things I need to change about myself to be physically appealing and for my flesh to be satisfied with itself too much and not enough on changing what's ugly on the INSIDE?
A bad hair day won't rob you of Jesus, ladies.
A heart that is lost and chasing after physical beauty instead of inner beauty...that mindset will rob you.
It will rob you of your joy, your confidence, your relationships and your true beauty.
Should we take care of the body our Lord gave us ?
ABSOLUTELY.
I love being fit and healthy.
I believe God desires us to be the best we can be in all areas including our health.
Just like we can focus too much on our appearance we can become out of balance and not focus enough.
We should cherish what God gave us and treat it with love and respect.
Will women struggle with confidence?
Yes.
Will Christian women still have days where they just wish they could change this or that about their body?
Yes.
Do we have to live inside the prisons we have made for ourselves concerning broken body images?
NO.
Must we continue to feel like failures because we don't measure up to our idea of perfection physically?
NO.
Make eternal investments.
Focus on being kingdom-minded.
Change the ugly on the inside not what you view as ugly on the outside.
A truly beautiful woman is a meek, modest, confident, humble, gracious, prayed up woman.
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