Talia Biel is a member at Crossroads Church. She is a sincere Jesus follower with a gift for connecting her faith to real life, and for sharing that through her writing. Check out her blog “Holding On To Faith.
She stands in the grocery line getting her usual coconut water and strawberries, when something catches her eye at the front counter. She knows the voice ringing in her head tells her not to pick it up. Move along. Move along. Move along. But it’s too late. The magazine is already in her hands and she’s flipping through the pages. She sees the beautiful girls with flawless bodies and deep down she wishes she could look like her. In case you haven’t figured it out. I’m talking about me. This week God has been challenging me to vow to put down the magazine. And this is not an easy thing for me.
For the past year I have been receiving Best Health magazines each month. I get excited as I flip through the pages of inspiring stories, recipes, and workouts that promise 2 inches off the hips by next week. I love to be inspired and I love reading on fashion tips, and beauty tricks and fitness ideas. Although, the more I read these magazines, the more I start to lose the truth of what God says I am and who God says I am.
I look in the mirror and point out every single flaw about myself that there is and I see the image of the beautiful girls I just saw in my head and feel ugly on the outside, which in turn makes me feel ugly in the inside. And I have to continuously tell myself that the photos I see are airbrushed to look that way, and that it is indeed not a real perception of beauty.
And I have to remind myself that God loves me just the way I am (even on my crazy hair days)
Sometimes we feel as though our self worth is determined by our looks. In this world looks mean a lot. People depend and judge on looks instead of our hearts. God doesn’t though! He looks deep into our hearts and calls us beautiful. Our self worth is what God says we are. Not the world. This is the truth that I hold onto that gives me hope on being able to put down the magazine. To fully accept I’ll never look like the girls I see through the pages, and to be okay with that.
When we look in the mirror the enemy can distort our self image. Instead of seeing a beautiful woman looking back at us, we focus on our flaws. I’m not skinny enough, I don’t like my this and I hate that. We become obsessed with the flaws and never compliment ourselves. In fact, when someone does compliment us, it goes right over our head and our hearts don’t accept the compliment because we’ve been too focused on the lies for far too long.
To help me to vow to put down the magazine, I have been referring to these scriptures for wisdom and guidance.
1 Peter 3:3-4 Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewellery, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.
Proverbs 31:30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Song of Solomon 4:7 You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.
Psalm 139:14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
He looks at the heart, and He loves us just the way we are. It can be hard to feel that you are beautiful in a world that is constantly telling you otherwise, but He thinks your beautiful!