What God Sees in My Mirror

“Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, 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.” (1 Peter 3:3-4, ESV)

We live in a society that defines importance and value by what we see on the outside. We are extremely materialistic, and we always want what we don’t have. We want name brands, attention and praise from people, the best body, and the nicest clothes. We think that when we achieve our “dream life” that we will be eternally happy. We think that if we could just lose that extra weight, life will be so much better; or if we were dating someone we will feel better about ourselves, but the truth is that we are falling for a big fat lie. 

We fall for these lies every day and trust me, I am right there with you.  The biggest struggle I face in my own life is truly loving my body for how God created me. Ever since I was a little girl, I have battled with feeling extremely insecure concerning my weight, and anyone that shares that struggle is familiar with those pesky thoughts of feeling not good enough in any sense of the phrase. I have carried this my whole life and God has grown me through it, but it is still something I deal with every day. I am still learning to love myself for who God made me; not perceiving myself by what I might see in the mirror, but defining who I am as a loved daughter of the King.

Here are two truths I have come to realize in this life. First is that we're never going to achieve our dream life because our fleshy expectations and selfish wants are not based in reality. Please understand, I am not talking about your goals. Goals are good and it’s a wonderful thing to have them, but here’s my second point: if you do drop those 10 pounds or you get that significant other, you will feel like you’re on cloud nine for about five minutes and then you will want more. The only thing that holds complete and honest truth and leaves us eternally satisfied is Jesus– the one who never fails to leave me in awe, who never makes me feel as if I need more or I am not worthy. 

I have realized through my own struggle that no matter if I work out twice a day or drop 10 pounds, I am never going to be content because my motivation is not from a place of pure or healthy ambition. We chase after these unhealthy, unrealistic goals to the point of feeling utterly worthless. That is our society today: wanting everything that we can’t have. It’s a disease that is wrecking our inner confidence, while we grow more disappointed with the outside. 

1 Samuel 16:7 says “But the Lord said to Samuel, ’Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’ “

We constantly fall for the lie that we are not skinny enough, that we are not unique, or that we need the nicest things to find worth and happiness but the beautiful thing is, God doesn’t care about that. Why do we continue to care so much that it leads us to feel crippling insecurity and demolished self-worth? 

Trust me, I am not trying to be a Debbie Downer. Today, I want to encourage you and encourage myself that we don’t have to feel that way. The reason we fall for those lies that Satan feeds our minds is that we don’t find our hope in Jesus. We find our hope in things and people. But when our hope is in all of Jesus’ unfailing words, we begin to truly believe in ourselves that we are beautiful, and capable, and worth it, and unique. Satan’s lies have no place in the presence of God. 

I’m not saying it gets 100% easier I am just saying your battles will go from overbearing weights to something that’s a little more manageable, and eventually, if we continue to let Jesus be our confidence, they shrink up even more. I have days where I wake up and don’t feel so great about what I see in the mirror, but then I remind myself what it's all about, what God says about who I truly am to him. I know how insecure I used to be, but once I started holding on to the truths of Jesus more relentlessly than the lies of the devil, God started to take that insecurity away. He’s shown me no matter how I feel about how I look, I am beautiful and worth it to  Him. And the more I listen to what He says about me, the more I realize I should believe that about myself as well. A woman who sees life through God’s eyes and not her own is a woman who will feel truly adored and loved, by herself and others. 

“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” (Proverbs 31:30, ESV)