Beautiful YOU

March 1, 2012

It's really hard to love other people if you don't love yourself.

I've been struggling a lot lately with self image. I mean, yeah, every girl wants to be told she's pretty, skinny, everything they're not. Right?

It really hurts when someone says you're ugly, fat, not good enough, etc. At first, you just start to think, 'well, that really hurt, but oh well. I know it's not true.' Well, when they keep saying all these mean things to bring you down, you eventually start to believe them. That's when you should start to worry.

"You are beautifully and wonderfully made." --Psalm 139:14 <---- There's proof. Don't believe me? Go look it up. God made each and every one of us on this earth EXACTLY how he wanted us to be. It doesn't matter if you're pretty, ugly, fat, skinny, tall, short, or any of that. God loves you and you're perfect JUST the way you are.

Last night at my girls' Bible group, this is the exact topic we talked about. One of the leaders read a children's book. It was about this town of little toy people who either got stars or dots from the other people. If you were pretty, or talented, you got stars. If you were ugly, un-talented, and just didn't seem to be "good enough", you got dots. Well, this one toy got a ton of dots daily. He was so upset. He hung around other toys with lots of dots and felt alright with them. One day, he saw this girl who had no symbols on her. He asked her why that was. She told him she went to the carpenter who made her, and that he cleans her of the stickers.

That night, the toy goes to the carpenter and talks to him. The carpenter calls his name. The carpenter picks up the little toy and the toy tells him how he saw this girl and that he wanted to get rid of all of his dots. The carpenter looked at him and said that the girl didn't have any dots or anything because she didn't believe in labels. He also said that if he wanted to get rid of them, that he would have to stop believing the lies that people were saying about him and think about why he was made. Eventually, the carpenter told the toy to believe HIM and to come back every day to get "clean." The toy wasn't too sure about it, but as he walked out the door, one of his dots fell off.

I think this was one of the best stories. It really shows how much God truly loves you. He wants you to go to him with all your worries, struggles, whatever is going on, and he'll clean you from your 'dots.' You just have to let him in.

Remember, you ARE beautiful and perfect just the way you are. Don't change for anyone. Be yourself, and be comfortable being who God truly made you! <3