Friend, You Are Wonderfully Made

A friend of mine was born with naturally curly hair. She wishes it was straight.

An acquaintance of mine is 5′ 2″ tall. She wishes she was taller.

Last week I overheard a woman say, “I’d give about anything to be thinner. I’m so ‘big-boned.'”

And another friend deals with a condition she was born with. It hasn’t been the easiest life for her.

I imagine we each have a thing or two about ourselves we wouldn’t mind changing.

I’d change my thighs, and my left ear.

In my opinion, my thighs have always been too big. I’ve never liked them. Even at my fittest, they were still “big.”

And my left ear? Well, my hearing was damaged in my 20’s, and I now have hearing loss in that ear. One of these days I’ll be wearing a hearing aid. Oh joy.

I confess I’ve struggled with body image much of my life. I’ve shared before how I let my perception of my worth be tied to my weight and how fit I was. At one point I allowed my fitness to consume me as my body fat percentage plunged to unhealthy levels.

Others saw me as “fit.” I saw me as “fat.”

In the mirror, the person looking back at me (in my perception) had more weight on her bones than she should have.

That was a frightening time in my life. I felt completely out of control.

But God had me in the palm of His hand. To make a long story short, He snapped me out of that dangerous pattern.

Psalm 139, especially verses 13 and 14 from The Voice translation read:

For You shaped me, inside and out. You knitted me together in my mother’s womb long before I took my first breath. I will offer You my grateful heart, for I am Your unique creation, filled with wonder and awe. You have approached even the smallest details with excellence; Your works are wonderful; I carry this knowledge deep within my soul.

I began to realize God created me uniquely and wonderfully. He formed me in detail, with excellence. Yes, He even formed my thighs! It took some time, but I came to accept them and appreciate all those thighs allow me to do. I stopped focusing on trying to change myself, and began praising God for making me, me.

And I offered Him my grateful heart.

I can’t begin to guess where you might be in all of this. If you’re finding yourself struggling with, wishing, or comparing yourself or any part of you, I offer you this truth:

Be reminded God made you who you are.

He took His time creating you… 40 weeks to be exact for most of us. He didn’t miss a single detail. Pause a moment and celebrate the unique creation you are.

If there’s part of you that you don’t particularly like, take comfort and encouragement that God created that, too. Not to punish you, or to make you suffer or question, but to be something special. Something unique. Something amazing. That can be used for His glory, and for your and other people’s good.

I invite you to read Psalm 139 in its entirety. Pause and celebrate the unique creation you are. Then thank God for making you, you. 

You are wonderfully made!

I am celebrating you today!

Much love,

Julie

 

 

Day 3 of #CelebratingWhoYouAre, our 31-day journey. I’m also linking this post with Barbie at #TheWeekendBrew and Deb at Faith & Friends and Suzie at #livefreeThursday.

I sure appreciate the opportunity to celebrate with you!

What’s one thing you can celebrate about yourself and thank God for today?