I am beautiful because I am made in God’s image

I recently opened up a survey for about 50 women in my life- my friends, my mom, mother in law, mentors, co-leaders in our current and previous church, fellow moms, former women’s and high school ministry leaders, etc. All sorts of age ranges and life experiences with one thing in common- they love Jesus. These women know God intimately, teach other women about Jesus and His love for us, and implement His Truths in their everyday lives.

Yes, I admire these women and have learned a lot from them, but I just want to make sure we are on the same page- we are all a work in progress. God is constantly and faithfully redeeming us, healing us, and making us more like His son Jesus. So I am not saying that the women or I are perfect by any stretch of the imagination, we do not have it all together all the time, we are in process.

So, back to these admirable, real, in process women. 75%, nearly 3/4 of these women answered the question: “What do you wish you knew as a girl that has contributed to your confidence as a woman?” Response: I am beautiful because I am made in God’s image

I would have answered the same. I have grown to appreciate my beauty- I don’t feel as insecure as I did in junior high. Yes, I am 30, so I would hope to have come to appreciate the skin, shape, and ability of my body by now, but I don’t think the answer is to just wait around for a decade or two (or more) until we slowly realize we can’t change what God gave us, so we may as well learn to appreciate it. Eh… that doesn’t sit well with me. I like hope. I want my daughter to come to be confident in her beauty sooner than I did! And I still need reminders, I still need to shake my head and say ‘not true’ to the insecure and ugly thoughts that come fleeting out of nowhere.

I know my increased confidence comes from my developing relationship with God and coming to know Him intimately, His love for me, and what He thinks about me. He offers a place of rest and not striving. I need that! Where we can rest in knowing that He thinks we’re pretty great, even if we feel subpar. He made us in His own image! He didn’t make us in the image of animals, or even angels, but in His own image. Wow- what an honor! You reflect His beauty! When we remind ourselves of this Truth, our foundation grows thicker and stronger. It’s what keeps our feet firm as we get blown by a gust of comparison, insecurity, illness, or disease.

I’d like to remind us of a verse that has been resonating with me a lot lately.

Philippians 4:8 (NLT) “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”

This includes how we think of ourselves. We can think about our value and praise Him for it. Think about how lovely we are and praise Him for it. Think about our purity because of the blood of Jesus Christ- and praise Him for it. Think of how excellent we were made- all that we can do- and praise Him for it.

Even if you are unsure about the Bible, unsure that you believe it, this is still such wise advice to notice your negative thoughts and instead of dwelling on those, begin to think about what’s true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, and excellent. We are all susceptible to thinking poorly of ourselves and frankly, it’s just not true.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for stopping by today. You are beautiful.