I have never, ever felt beautiful.
I am a rare breed. I have red hair, freckles and pale skin. I have dark under-eye circles, crooked teeth and I walk like a duck.
Don’t worry, my peers never let me forget about all of my flaws.
Most of my childhood was spent questioning why I was made to look the way I did. There were exactly 3.2 Redheads in my school at any given time. All of my friends could tan and most of them had the “privilege” of getting braces during those awkward Middle School years.
In High School I lost a bunch of weight and started gaining more attention so I attributed beauty with being skinny. Though thin, I still didn’t get the same attention from boys as my blonde and brunette friends. Surprisingly, I never died my hair. I thought about it NUMEROUS times but was afraid it would look terrible and I wouldn’t be able to dye it back to my original color if I didn’t like it.
It probably has only been in the past couple of years that I actually have begun to appreciate the uniqueness of the way I look and the way God made me. I like that I have red hair. I like my freckles. My crooked teeth are not as noticeable as I once thought. They make amazing make-up for those dark-circles and I still try to fix my feet when I notice them getting lazy.
>Rabbit Trail…
This is the thing. I get SUPER pissed when people judge others for the way they look. I 100% hate the way people talk about being fat and skinny and if they think other people are fat and skinny.
I wanted to write this because I want everyone to know that YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL! You are! You were made perfectly you. You are perfectly unique. There is no one else like you and that is a good thing!
Now, I am not saying that it is not important to take care of yourself and your body. There are ways you can hurt your body and your health but you do not have to have a cookie cutter body type to be beautiful.
I know that this can be a hard thing not only for children growing up but for women who have just had babies. I am reading a book called “Loving the Little Years” by Rachel Jancovic. She wrote something that I thought was very helpful;
“…Motherhood is what your stomach was made for- and any wear and tear that it shows is simply the sign of well-used tools. We are not to treat our bodies like museum pieces. They were given to us to use. So use it cheerfully, and maintain it cheerfully. When you are working hard to lose baby weight, think of it as tool maintenance. You want to fix your body up in order to use it some more. Maybe to have more children or to take care of the children you have… Scars and stretch marks and muffin tops are all part of your kingdom work. ”
Take this as you will but I found this encouraging as a mother with both stretch marks and scars. How do you hide this? You don’t- you wear them proudly.
One more point I would like to make is that God does NOT make any mistakes.
For a long time, even until recently, I may have been content with the way I looked, but really I thought that God just forgot a few things.
- My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be. Proverbs 139:15-16 - “God in His love always wills what is best for us. In His wisdom He always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty He has the power to bring it about.”
― Jerry Bridges, Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts
SO, basically God made us the way he thought best for us. He made us and knew us before the beginning of the earth. He didn’t forget anything. We were made perfectly by His design (He as in the one who created the Universe).
I am not perfect. I still compare myself. It is still a struggle. BUT, I want to believe it. I want you to believe it.
Be kind to one another. Stop being hard on yourself. It’s okay to be different. BE DIFFERENT! Embrace your flaws.
YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL.
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