If you know me, you know there are a few subjects I can get, um, let’s go with “passionate” about. One of them is a woman’s beauty. Maybe because while growing up I would look around at all the girls my age and wish I was as beautiful as them (I couldn’t be beautiful because of my curvy body that refused to fit into social norms, no matter how little or how healthfully I ate – or how much I worked out). I could see the beauty in each and every woman and girl around me, and I longed to be as beautiful as they.
Now, eventually, I have been able to gain a more healthful attitude on this issue, and thanks to God and some persistent, kind, honest friends, I can see my own beauty. But I still see the beauty in every other woman, and it breaks my heart when they can’t see their own. Or when they downplay it because they don’t fit into a certain jean size, or their skin has developed wrinkles, or they have freckles, or their hair color isn’t blonde (or brunette or glorious red). I hate that!
I told one of the girls in my youth group a couple years ago that if I could give my life for the women of the world to see their own beauty and value, I would. And that’s still true, but I’ve learned something since then.
You aren’t going to truly be able to see your own beauty, if you don’t know how Christ sees you. It’s confusing and makes no sense, I know, and I’m not completely sure why this is the case, but it is. And, unfortunately, it’s one of those “constantly work on” things. It CAN go away if you don’t guard it. You have to know how much God loves you, treasures you, and how you look through the lens of Jesus in order for you to see your own beauty. Otherwise there will always be a flaw or someone prettier (thus rendering you not pretty) or aging that will bring your beauty into question in your mind. That’s just how it is in this cut-throat, beauty-defiling world we live in.
And, as I have been discovering, once you know how God sees you, what He thinks about you, you can learn to love all the bits and pieces of you – the insecure bits, the scared pieces, those things you see as flaws (freckles or snorts or a temper). And, the amazing thing is, generally, once you learn to love a specific bit of yourself, than that flaw no longer has power over you, and no longer can be used to whisper lies into your ear.
So, want to feel comfortable in your skin? Want to feel beautiful? There is absolutely nothing YOU can personally do about it. So start praying that God, in His timing and His way, will start to show you how He sees you. And then, that will be all that matters.
And that, Ladies (and Gentlemen) is beautiful.
In His Chrysalis 