Wednesday, June 26, 2013

More Beautiful

Recently, I was scrolling through Twitter while my family was driving to a friend’s house and I ran across this video that was posted on Ann Voskamp’s blog:


So imagine me sitting in the front seat next to my husband sniffling up a storm… so much so that my boys ask if I’m crying.  I was actually being careful not to unleash all the tears that wanted to pour down my face.  I even had to take a moment to compose myself before I went into my friend’s house.  

The tears surfaced right now as I watched the video again.

Why is this video so meaningful to me?  Because God used this exact tactic to help me start fighting the ugly lies that I believed for a long time.  He used friends who only knew me AFTER I got Bell’s Palsy (which paralyzed the left side of my face) to tell me that they saw nothing wrong with my face… that  in fact, they saw me as beautiful.  It was shocking to me… I couldn’t believe that they didn’t notice things like my crooked smile.  But they didn’t and God used their compliments to help me realize that I needed to change my views too… which eventually led me to recite beauty scriptures to myself in the mirror two times a day.  And over the course of time, by renewing my mind with God's truth about my beauty, I began to be set free.  God began to transform my mind with His truth (Romans 12:2), and I began to see beauty in me.  God is so faithful in helping us change our perceptions and thoughts about ourselves when we are intentional about making the changes.   

Can you imagine how different our lives would be if we all believed that we truly were beautiful?  What if we saw ourselves as God sees us:  Fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14), a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned with glory and honor (Psalm 8:5); good (1 Timothy 4:4), made in His image (Genesis 1:26), a beauty (Psalm 45:11)?  And what if we taught these same truths to our daughters?  Our youth?  Our friends who struggle just like we do? 

Do you believe the ugly lies like I did?  Do you know someone who is fighting in a Beauty War?  We can win this Beauty War with God’s help and by using our sword of the spirit.  And we can help others win the Beauty War too… with a simple compliment, a Facebook post, a smile…  So my question for you is:  Who do you know that needs to see this video or this blog post?  How can you help them realize that they really are more beautiful than they think?  Let’s take action and win this Beauty War together... one battle at a time.
 

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