The World's Projections

Last week, Malea wrote about the self image we should have of ourselves.  Of how we are ‘made in the image of God’ and are thus beautiful, because God is beautiful.  She’s right.  We are beautiful creatures, beautiful humans, because God made us so, but the world likes to tell us differently.

Standing in line at any checkout counter in any grocery store, there are magazines with models on them, posing.  Thin waists, long legs, large busts, and narrow faces, we are led to believe they are the image of beauty, and something we should strive for. You’ve probably heard this before, but it won’t hurt anyone to hear it again.  The models on the covers of the magazines don’t look anything like themselves, they are airbrushed and photo shopped to what lots of people consider near perfection.

In fact, what they look like is impossible for almost all women – the world wide!  One major issue is waist size.  It seems like every girl today is obsessed with the desire to be thinner, and they will go to major lengths to attain it.  The waist size of the magazine models, or what seem to be the models, is totally unattainable for the majority of girls in the United States.  Anorexia is the leading psychiatric cause of death in the United States, including depression.  This is one of the trends that needs to stop before it can cause more damage than it already has.

Another thing I notice every day is the amount of makeup teen girls wear.  It’s ridiculous!  Honestly, I think the girls just look uncomfortable.  Why wear so much makeup?  Is it because we feel self conscious without it?  Is it because we feel the world won’t accept us if we aren’t coated in color?  Or are we hiding behind a mask?

One of my favorite songs is Identity, by Lecrae.  The third verse in this song says

Got her hair done, toes, nails

is that Her? well it's hard to tell

 Identity is found in the God we trust
Any other identity will self destruct.

I love this song for the message it carries.  It reassures us that no matter what we do, nothing we have on this earth will account to anything.  It’s only in Christ that anything can give us Identity.  We don’t need to hide behind layers of makeup, behind immodest clothes, or behind our put-on personality, because God loves us for who we are, and no matter what the world says, God’s love is all that matters.

The world will tell us we are ugly and unloved, but God says that’s not true. He says ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love, I have drawn you with loving-kindness.’  (Jeremiah 31:3).  No matter what the world tells us, we can rest in the fact that God loves us; so much that He would send His only Son (my parents say I won’t understand the true sacrifice of this until I have my first child) to die for us!  How awesome is that?

Don’t listen to what the world says anymore.  Listen to what your creator, the lover of your soul says.  Listen to Jesus

I am a sixteen year old daughter

Lost in the mirror, no self esteem

But God made me in His image

And that makes me a beauty queen

Mandisa, Freedom Song, 2009

cause she's so caked up in all that make up

It's like she's tryna make up for what she ain't got 

she's a saint but so confused

cause she's been rejected by all these dudes

they tell her on a scale of 10 she's a two

but that ain't true, if she only knew

In Christ she is loved she secure and accepted

never be rejected by God who's elected her 

Her beauty is her Godliness

And she ain't gotta flaunt it cause it's obvious