Ugly. Fat. Flawed. Flat. Plain.
Every girl hears these words. Every girl has been stabbed by these lies. The problem is, not every girl knows these are lies. Culture has nailed in these "ever present" (haha Robin) lies so much, covered them up with pounds of foundation, and smeared them with layers of mascara that they seem to be true. They're the lies on the surface.
Many people wonder today how Hitler came to power, how he was able to bring so much hatred. There's a quote that goes like this: "If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth."
For decades, society has been telling girls (and boys) that they're not good enough, they're not pretty or skinny enough. One. Giant. Big. FAT. Lie. Images of make-up plastered, 6 foot tall, size negative two girls in paper thin bikins fill the pages of magazines. The ideal "hot girls." These girls may be attractive, they mean be sexy, they may be beautiful, but are they the only pretty ones?
Do girls have to be skinny to be beautiful? Do they have to have "flawless" skin in order for someone to call them pretty? (Who's flawless when we've all sinned, anyway?) Do they need exotic facial features or full chests? We all KNOW the answer is no, but do we BELIEVE so?
There are hundreds of quotes about inner beauty and confidence. Then how come there are anorexics, bulimics, sucidials, and obsessive plastic surgery patients? BECAUSE NOBODY'S PERFECT. But that's okay. 100% okay. (110% to those who think that makes sense.) The only human to ever be perfect was Jesus, and I guarantee you He did not have flawless skin. But He had a perfect heart and perfect obedience and perfect faith. And because Jesus IS perfect, we don't have to be. We never will be. Jesus took our flaws, our scars, and our wrinkles, and He bonded them around His inwardly perfect body and He shed. Isn't that beautiful? Doesn't that sound like the greatest, most wonderful four letter word? Doesn't that sound like LOVE? (If you were thinking of "food" you're wrong, although that's a great word, but we'll discuss that later.)
Strangely, a lot of people cringe at the word love. They assume love always means a relationship between two people. They think love is out to harm them.
"Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It keeps no record of wrong."
It keeps no record of wrong. It keeps NO record of wrong!
You're thinking: Hold on, how did we get from lies to love? I'll tell you. If we love ourselves, then we love who we are. If we love who we are, then we love our bodies. Now notice that in the verse that it says "Love does not boast." When I say we should love ourselves and our bodies I do not mean that we should become prideful beings. To love oneself is to know no one is perfect (except Jesus) and to be confident in oneself, inside and outside. If we cannot be confident with our insides, how can we be confident with our outsides? We can't. When we're not confident, we're not sure. When we're not sure, we start to believe the lies.
Okay. Back to the lies. Now you know why we believe the lies. So what do we do with them? Throw them out the window and into the dumpster! Yay! Unfortunately, it's not that easy. Why not? Because we're girls. Girls overanalyze. A lot. Someone could tell us we're pretty over and over but we'll never believe it...until we believe in ourselves. I, for one, have struggled with this for many, many years. Some of you may know that when I was six years old, I had a seizure that did not affect my body but did affect my learning ability. I was much slower at learning my ABC's and time tables than my classmates. But they didn't know. So they laughed. And it hurt. It hurt so much that I grew very shy. I didn't say a whole lot. It didn't help that I was chubby either. There was and is nothing wrong with being chubby, but I thought so. I believed the lie. All through elementary and middle school, I listened to those nasty comments. But something happened in 2008. I stopped believing the lies and starting seeing the truth. The truth that Jesus truly loves me as I am and that He made me beautifully. I begun to love myself. I stopped caring what others thought. I became myself. And when I did, I made more friends and I even lost weight after joining Cross Country. Now I would had never joined the XC team if I hadn't had confidence in myself and faith in Christ. I would had believed the lies that said I wasn't good enough or skinny enough to be running with these speedy people. But I believed the Truth instead. I believed that I was good enough, that I was strong enough, that I mattered.
But even now, I'm not "skinny" like the models in Cosmo girl. I don't think I ever will be, and I don't care to either. I don't want to cover my face with gobs of make-up. I don't want to hide behind a facade. There's nothing wrong with a little make-up. It brings out our best features , but only when we use it to brighten rather than darken and cover. I don't care if I'm flat chested or double D because they're gonna sag someday anyway. It's what's underneath those that matter. No one's going to care who was the prettiest or who was the most the athletic or the most intelligent. They're going to remember the girl whose confident, who loves herself as much as she loves others, who knows she's beautiful, inside and out. Because when you smile on the inside, it shows on the outside and that's more beautiful than a pair of boobs, a flat stomach, an acne-free face, or a nice body. Love yourself because you're loved by Him who made you beautifully.
