Beauty

The other day when going to take my shower I noticed a cut on my shoulder. I took out the peroxide to pour over it and clean it. Since the shoulder is round, as you can imagine, it dripped all over. I wiped up the floor and as I turned I noticed streaks down my shoulder, that looked as though they had bleached a part of my arm. After my initial freakout I realized my skin would be back to 'normal' after I washed it. It reminded me of being in the Caribbean, and the stories from the young ladies, even as young as 10, talking about how they soak in bleach because they want their skin to be 'lighter'. And the irony of many American young ladies who tan regularly to look 'darker'. No matter how God has made us , our sinful nature wants to be restless and complain, comparing ourselves to someone else. Yet we are all made so beautiful. I can't imagine creating a painting, sculpture etc and feeling I finally made a masterpiece, only to have the painting try to destroy itself, or the sculpture try to mold itself into a bowl. Why? Because it was made lovingly by me and perfected in my eyes. And that's how God must view us: every part of us perfected lovingly by Him. That's not to say we shouldn't strive to be healthy etc but to accept how we are loved by God will change our perception of ourselves, and what our motivations are towards our bodies. Praying for the young ladies struggling to meet an unobtainable goal, that they would feel the unconditional love of God and find it to be freedom to live and laugh in the way, shape, color, and method they were intended to. ~