beauty

"She sees how her stomach looks when she’s standing in her bra. She sees how her face looks without any make up on. She sees how her chin looks when she looks down at her reflection. She sees how her arms sag when she has them up. She sees how her thighs jiggle when she walks or runs. She sees how her boobs look when she’s wearing a top. She sees how her acne looks when she washes her face. She sees how her legs look when she looks at all of her scars. She sees how her hair looks when she wakes up in the morning. She sees how her wrinkles show when she smiles. She sees how her stretch marks are visable when she sits down. See, the thing about girls, they can see every little detail about themselves, details that other people can’t see and they see every little flaw that other people don’t even notice. So when a girl doesn’t accept your compliments about her being beautiful, it’s honestly because she feels like she isn’t and she’d be lying if she said she was."

- Nash Grier

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wow.

i find that quote infuriating.

who are you to be critical of your body?  who are you to say "i am not beautiful" when you did not create yourself?  what kind of twisted society and culture do we live in where people support a quote like this, which essentially says "my body as i really am is not beautiful, and you don't see me at those times, so i can't accept your compliments because you don't really know."?

stop looking at your body and treating it as though it has to be a certain way for it to be beautiful.

will your body always look the same?  for the rest of your life?  no, it won't.  does that, later on, you won't be beautiful anymore?  no, it doesn't.  seriously, if you've thought this through, how does this make sense in your head?

it's not about your weight.  it's not about your shape.  it's not about your attire.  it's not about stupid crap that people place so much emphasis on like jiggling thighs or stretch marks or messy hair or wrinkles or who gives a crap.  seriously, screw that whole idea of "this makes a girl beautiful and this doesn't".  it's dehumanizing and robs women of their God-given worth, and we are actively supporting that idea if we view women like that and let this idea run rampant without speaking up about it.

by even thinking about "what physical attributes of mine are attractive and what aren't?", you've already lost to the enemy.

who are you to hold yourself to a standard that God doesn't hold you to?

you can't make your own standard.

listen to this.  you're either going to end up prideful by accomplishing it, or you'll end up feeling ashamed/inadequate by not achieving it.  both take you away from the right standard of scripture as God's standard for you.  reading scripture is what gives you the proper perception of yourself, and reading scripture is what guides how you live and how you view yourself.  the biblical standard is not just one standard you can choose in lieu of other ones, it's the only right one.

but what about feeling like you can't shake the thoughts of wanting to look good and be attractive and "measure up"?  scripture, again, transforms and renews our minds (romans 12:2), taking you away from the false standards of the world and bringing you to a place where you can filter out and discard the lies that people (and you) want you to believe, and instead look at yourself only by God's true standard.

it's difficult because influences are all around, it's difficult because living according to God's standard is not cool/flashy/attractive in the world's eyes, and it's difficult because the instant you stop grounding yourself in the Word is the instant you'll start backsliding into thoughts of comparing and achieving and striving.  it's difficult.  God knows, but He provides a constant reorienting for those who ask.

beauty is important.  everything that is beautiful reflects God's image, and your body indeed reflects God's image, as well.

don't take it lightly, and don't think you can abstain from worldly influences by saying "i don't care about it", because the only way to overcome wrongful thinking in a world that only promotes wrong values is to be grounded in truth.  and you have to fight for that truth to be constantly learned and applied.

fight or give up, there's no in between.

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this whole concept of beauty in today's world is an injustice that imprisons women and deprives their beautiful souls of feeling and understanding the worth they have.  my heart hurts for them.

what are you doing in the fight for truth?

(a good read: http://keeleychorn.com/bible-study/identity/identity-body-image/)