Something I have struggled with ever since boys and girls stopped having cooties is comparison. Which also caused lack of self-confidence in my appearance. I never felt “pretty enough” or felt like my body was “skinny enough.” We let those that are famous and viewed as beautiful or “hot” (such a gross word honestly) define what those two words mean; we allow society to skew our view of what beauty is rather than the Lord. We allow our minds, flesh, and the enemy trick us into judging not only WHAT we see in the mirror, but also WHO we see in the world around us.
I still struggle today with my appearance and comparison. Not as much as I did before walking through some things with the Lord, but the struggle is still there (my Seeing the Beauty blog explains that a bit more). There’s a verse in Luke that has been HEAVY on my mind and heart lately. I believe that the Lord showed it to me so that I could walk through experiencing and enjoying beauty in its fullness.
“Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? If fussing can’t even do that, why fuss at all? Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don’t fuss with their appearance — but have you ever seen color quite like it? The ten best dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do His best for you?” – Luke 12:25-28 MSG
Flowers are so effortlessly beautiful. They bring so much of the beauty of the Lord into otherwise dull fields. Flowers don’t need to dress nice, put on make up and a rocking pair of shoes to be beautiful. They just simply ARE. They are beautiful without the primping and prepping that so many of us do. Each one is unique — with different specks, lines or shapes. All of these things proudly show the beauty of the Lord.
This verse isn’t saying that we should be as beautiful as the flowers. It is REMINDING us – Jesus is reminding us – that we are even MORE beautiful than these flowers. We all have different specks, lines and shapes, BUT that IS what makes us beautiful. The unique beauty the Lord has given to each of us. Looking into the mirror and being angry at what you see is like telling God He messed up when making you; that He made a mistake.
DISCLAIMER: God doesn’t make mistakes. He made you beautifully. He made you and me effortlessly beautiful, whether we choose to believe it yet or not. Our Heavenly Father takes pride in how He made YOU. He DELIGHTS in you. What an honor, honestly. I pray that you don’t just read these words and wish to believe it. I pray that you do, fully and completely. I want you to KNOW the truth – I want myself to know the truth – that the Lord has bestowed such beauty onto every single human being that walks on the Earth.
I want to live in the effortless beauty my Papa gave me. I want to learn to love it the way He does. So…. I am fasting makeup for lent. I wasn’t born with makeup on, therefore I don’t need it to feel beautiful. I am beautiful in my Papa’s eyes, so, I am going to teach my eyes to see myself the way He sees me. I have learned to see the world with the Lord’s eyes but I’ve neglected to see myself that way as well. I am a daughter of the King of Kings, and THAT… that is something to delight in, to be proud of. I want to be proud of the Potter’s work he put into creating me and those around me.
Here are a few pictures, makeup and hair prep free, simply embracing beauty like the wildflowers.
