Motherhood/Parenting

Body Talk VI: Seeing Priceless

I hope you will grant me permission to presume something.
I presume that most mornings you do not wake as Cinderella did. There are no birds flying around your head, there are no pretty bows being tied in your hair. Instead, I presume you wake and look into the mirror and see wrinkles, blackheads, gray hair, cellulite, a stomach not tight enough, and a butt that sags. That is what I see. 
Most mornings you don’t look in the mirror and see priceless.
I love this picture of myself to the left. Why? Because I look tiny. It was taken less than five years ago and a few months before my wedding. I had been working my butt off in the gym and watching calories likes I watch Glee. Is this a realistic me? It could be but I don’t chose for it to be. If I didn’t look quite this small, would my husband have still been at the end of aisle? Of course he would have. If I hadn’t lost my baby weight after having two kids in three years, would he have abandoned us? Of course not. The value I find in myself is not about my husband loving me or my friends being impressed by how cute I am; it is about loving me. Loving the person that God thinks is beautiful…loving His creation.
Colossians 3:5-8 says “And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That’s a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God.” (MSG)
I am going to presume again. I presume that you spend part of your day in comparison mode. Looking at other woman and comparing yourself to them. It must stop…it is impurity. Wishing you could fit into those jeans or be able to pull off that outfit must stop…it is a ridiculous desire. Grabbing that Snickers bar because it will satisfy your stress must stop…it is impulsive. Using airbrushed magazine pictures as refrigerator art must stop…it is just stupid. Ban these feelings from your lives because they will kill you. They will kill the spirit that God created inside you.
And while mocking ourselves is not listed in the sins of the scripture above, it ranks right up there. It is sin. Sin is anything that separates you from God. When we look in the mirror and see “yuck” rather than God’s reflection, that has to be gut-wrenching for Him. Have you thought about that? Have you thought about how much you hurt His feelings every time you criticize His incredible creation? Don’t shape your lives on things and feelings. Shape your life around God’s feelings.
Do I think God wants us to be healthy? You bet I do. I am not saying don’t care about beauty. I am saying be able to look in the mirror stripped of the things that add beauty and be able to see God in you. 

This is the conclusion of Body Talk . Please check out the rest of the series here.