Wait, how do I look?
Is my hair in the right place? I don’t really know what i’m doing here.
I laugh as I say these things while my husband takes the pictures.
All I wanted was to update my blog photo. Photo shoots can either be a ton of fun or cause a cold sweat.
I sweat.
This year I experienced freedom from the suffocating expectations I had placed on my body.
I stopped fussing with the details about health. In fact I let go of the idea of what I wanted to look like. I prayed for freedom through a balanced view of health. It wasn’t until this last week that I realized this prayer was answered!
Taking pictures felt like an attack on that freedom I’ve experienced for some time now. I ran out to the grocery store after wrapping up and realized my mood shifted and I felt bad until I captured where those thoughts were headed. I preached to myself..
No, you aren’t going to do this. You aren’t going to trade in peace for a pit.
I started recounting the moments of beauty that were true.
When wind whips hair on glossed lips and all I can do is laugh.
The hair God gave me. Styled fancy or wild, it’s a gift.
Strong legs that support feet hitting pavement one after the next.
Hot tears that run down my cheeks because of a friend’s pain.
The smile that was thought up for me.
I celebrate the work of His hands on the outside of my being but I know this body is decaying. While I take efforts to care for it I know that what’s really beautiful is happening within the body.
I want us women to let go of perfection. I pray this over your life because I know how suffocating it is. I want you to experience peace in this area of your life regardless of your clothes size. I want you to know you’re amazingly beautiful.
..because for those in Christ you are becoming more like him. Nothing is more beautiful than that. Nothing.
What does a beautiful woman look like to you?
Is it thin legs on display in short skirts with tight tummies showing? Or is it the face of a woman who lost her hair and eyebrows from chemo and as she shares her love for Jesus and what good He is doing in her life you can’t help but marvel at a true beauty.
* * *
Curl your hair, dress up, or let that hair fly wild and wear black sweats but don’t you dare believe your beauty is wrapped up in these things. Don’t give an inch to the lie that you are somehow less than the standard of perfection.
That standard is a well crafted lie from the enemy of your soul. He knows what confidence does to a woman.
Wear humility. Ask God for it daily and learn what it means. It’s a rare and beautiful sight to behold.
A woman who is humble is gorgeous and when we see it we know it.
I can’t do this on my own but Christ can in and through me so more than I wish for thinner thighs, I ask to be reminded to walk in the spirit and not my flesh.
For what is more beautiful?
<3
Laura
Girl! I love that 2nd photo, where you are smiling, looking down to your right and not at the camera! Darren caught you off-guard and captured that true “Laura” we all know and love so much.
See, when I feel my best, it’s not from the outside in, it’s from the inside out. Iv’e been hammered lately to do this or that to my hair, my skin, my clothes, my weight, yada, yada, yada, by a mother who weighs 106lbs soaking wet. Yep. She’s less than half my size. And she has been my worst enemy to my weight since I was a little kid. I’m chunky by nature, and it was always HER intent that I be “other” (read: skinny). Consequently, I am anything but skinny. But I am happy. I love tasty things. I love to not worry – though my knees are beginning to be REALLY cranky with my inner happiness.
I guess what I’m saying is this: true “self” begins inside. Christ made us exactly who we are meant to be, but we have to work so hard to ignore the outside messages that have us trying to change who we are to meet THEIR expectations. You are a young woman. Me, not so much anymore. But we both have taken our share of outside messages and I think we each believed our fair share, too. I’ve been working hard for a very long time to lay aside the ideas I was bombarded with…it takes practice.
In you, I see that you are decades ahead of me in both realizing which message you want to hear, and brushing aside the messages you get that do not life you up.
Psalm 139:14 says, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
Words that ring in my head from time to time….most often, they are perfect reminders that I need to listen to the right Messenger. (Honestly, the entire chapter is pretty cool…LOL)
So go out in your scrungies….or in your best jeans, boots and sweater (under a nice warm coat…) or just as you are. Remember that the only ones whose opinion matters are your husband, your son and your God. No one else has the right to change how you feel about how you look.
Love ya, Laura!