i've been working on this whole see myself the way God sees me stuff this week. i am not going to lie, it was a challenge. Lori admits perfection is a challenge she's dealt with her whole life. Julia's dealt with it, too. The world has such a different (and strong) message about who i should be that it can be hard to not get caught up in it.
Be good at everything, you know, like Martha Stewart. Know how to cook gourmet meals, garden, build stuff, organize, and still look put together at the end of the day.
Be skinny, but not too skinny. Oh, and still be really curvy. Have no wrinkles or age spots or spider veins.
Dress in the latest fashion and wear trendy colors. It doesn't matter if it isn't comfortable.
Color your hair and wear lots of makeup so that it doesn't look like you are tired or aging.
Wear sexy, expensive underwear so that you feel desired, even though 99.9% of people will never see it.
See a doctor about surgery so that you can enhance what you want and get rid of what you don't want because imperfection is unacceptable.
Take diet pills and drink diet shakes so that you can lose weight fast.
Do these messages sound familiar? TV commercials, billboards, magazine ads, websites ... you and i, we're bombarded with these messages to be perfect every single day.
So we have to stand in the truth that God created us as a beautiful masterpiece, handcrafted with His loving kindness. Every time one of these messages starts to creep in, we have to dismiss it immediately, taking the thought captive and make it obedient to the Lord.
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. —2 Corinthians 10:5
Cynthia said it well this week:
If we fall prey to the expectations of anyone except God, we allow ourselves to become enslaved to ideas, images, and degrees of good that simply aren't God's.
i may have fallen prey to these messages in the past, but moving forward i refuse. i choose to stand in the presence of the Lord and praise Him for the way He made me.
Lord, i love the way You made me.
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