I have legitimately started and erased this blog three times now, so obviously it is sort of a hard one to write…
You are beautiful.
Whenever someone tells me this I come up with a joke or make an excuse for why they are saying these three words to me. I can’t think of a time in my life where I truly received these words and believed them about myself, even when Jesus is telling them to me.
The other night someone gave me a word from the Lord that was basically Him telling me how beautiful I was in a very eloquent and extravagant way. I, being the stubborn and hardheaded girl I am, graciously “accepted” the word and then moved on. Usually I am a pretty avid journaler. If someone gives me a word I immediately write it down and begin to process it with Jesus. Not this time (sorry Alys…). A second later I went back to whatever song we were singing and forgot about what Jesus had just told me. In fact, I completely forgot about it for the next few days, until yesterday.
Beauty, body image, and stuff of the sorts come up often when you live in community with 17 other girls. We all deal with it. Yesterday a few of us were talking about why it is so hard to receive and believe compliments that people give you. The root of it is different in all of us, but for me a lot of it stems from the fear of rejection. Did I just write that I am afraid of rejection on a public blog forum? Yeah I did…still processing that one….
Our society has completely twisted what beauty means. In society, beauty is the level of how attractive you are to other people. If you are beautiful, people will accept you, because they are attracted to you.
Wow, what a lie that is.
Girls in the bars here in Chiang Mai find their worth in how attracted men are to them. They get dressed up and made up night after night in hopes that a man will buy them and maybe even call them beautiful, but they are still empty inside. The same thing is going on in America. Think about it, more often than not, we find our worth in how people view us.
I want to find my worth in Jesus alone. And he sees me as flawless.
The truth is you are beautiful because He made you to look like His son, the most beautiful person to ever walk the Earth.
So when yesterday when I started to process the word that the Lord gave me the other night this is what He said…
"To think that you are anything less than beautiful is to deny that Jesus is beautiful, and that is ridiculous." Thanks God, enough said.
This blog could turn into me telling you how beautiful you are inside and out and blah blah blah, but it’s not going to because the simple answer is that we are beautiful because He made us beautiful. I still am not completely able to receive these truths, but I am trying. Even in trying, I have been able to receive more love and affection from my Father than I could just a few days ago.
You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you. Song of Solomon 4:7
Side note: The other day my friend Kylee and I went to get a pedicure and the lady massaged us with whitening cream. Yes, that is cream to make your skin lighter and “more beautiful.” As soon as she smothered in on my legs, my vain self got very upset that she was ruining my tan that I almost made her stop the massage….Oh beauty standards…
