that should say with B in mind! I’m getting B, Bonny, and Bonnie all confused! Sorry!!

Kay,
While I know that you wrote this with Bonnie in mind, it was well written and ministered greatly to me. Thank you. I’ll be saving a copy of this for myself as well as for my daughter who also struggles with believing that she is beautiful.

David, the man after God’s own heart, writes: “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.”

“Your workmanship is marvelous.” What workmanship? David’s body. From the delicate, inner parts to everything bigger. Marvel at his workmanship in your body. Your body is marvelous. ? Know it. Believe it.

You are loved. And you are beautiful.

Kay, thank you for your kind and thoughtful reply. I struggle a LOT in this area, and you’ve given me a lot to think about.
I compare myself WAY too much to everyone, and I always find myself lacking, and I always thought that was the right, proper, and humble way to be. I’ll admit though, this line of thought does NOT make one happy.
Thinking positively and having a good or even decent body image are foreign concepts to me that feel wrong and weird. I am just now finally starting to learn and understand how wrong this thinking is.
I’m not sure why this is such a struggle.
In your sentence where you wrote “Like Bonnie said, what would happen if you came to a place where you truly felt you were beautiful?” That sentence actually makes me uncomfortable. Like, doing that would be a bad, egotistical, self-centered, not to mention delusional thing. On the other hand, I’ve never thought about looking at it as praising God’s creation. * sigh *
It’s hard to feel beautiful in a world where unattainable beauty is thrust in our faces at every turn, even in the grocery store. I know that way of thinking is wrong, and I have to learn to stop comparing myself to everyone else. It’s a HARD habit to break.
Anyhow, thank you for taking the time to reply. As I said above, you have given me much to ponder.

First of all, 150 pounds at 5’9″ is MEDICALLY considered normal according to the body mass index. Not obese, not even overweight, but NORMAL. Healthy. Where you should be. So you cannot call yourself anything else, because this is a scientific fact! 😉

I’ve read before that our childhood critic (often our mothers) becomes the “voice” of the critic in our heads as we grow up. It has helped me tremendously to ask myself when I have a negative thought, “Wait, is that me talking? Or is that my mom?” If I hear my mom’s voice, I know Satan is at work. (I’m not calling my mom Satan, lol; I am just saying he loves to disguise himself using a familiar voice so it goes undetected.)

The thing is, God is a Creator, and everything he creates is good. Satan can create nothing; he can only distort, corrupt, and destroy what God has made to be good–including our body image. It is not Christian modesty or humility to think of yourself as ugly; that is sin. (I hope that doesn’t come across as harsh, but I firmly believe that it is. If God says your body is good, then it is a sin to call it not good.) God commands us to honor him with our bodies. That means that our bodies are honorable, and how we think about them matters!

Like Bonnie said, what would happen if you came to a place where you truly felt you were beautiful? If you could say, “Wow, God. My body is amazing. You are amazing!” Guess what, that’s called PRAISE. It pleases God to praise him for his creation. How many of the psalms talk about the work of God’s hands? (Hint: it’s a lot.) Your body is the work of his hands. To believe that it is bad or wrong or ugly dishonors God. Oh sweet sister, how I wish you could see what Jesus sees. Imagine that you are standing next to Jesus looking in a mirror. Would he be pleased by your current thoughts or would he be hurt? Would he instead cup your face in his hands and say, “My daughter, can’t you see? I made you beautiful. You are mine, and so you are beautiful.” (Picture your husband chiming in here, “See! I told you!”) You are the bride of Christ. No bride is ugly on her wedding day. Celebrate your body. Love your body. You are a stunning bride.

I pray that God will lead and guide you as you seek to determine which voices are godly and which voices are sinful. Satan will do what he can to hinder your progress. I pray for strength and perseverance, because it sounds to me as if God is doing something big by uprooting all of these lies you have believed. God made you exactly as he wanted you to be. Embrace it. Delight in it. Your husband already does. And God did first.

Jesus said that thieves come to kill and destroy but He came to give us abundant life (John 10:10). Abundant life is full of his peace and Paul’s contentment (Phil. 4:11). His abundant life is full of the Holy Spirit’s fruit and I believe that the abundant life is also full of self-value. The Freedom we have in Christ is the freedom from undue guilt. The freedom to feel that as we delight in God, He delights in us. There is no condemnation for those in Christ (Rom. 8:1).

I am glad you are working on giving yourself permission to feel beautiful as the Lord made you and to lavish yourself in Jesus’ grace. I’ll be praying for you and cheering you on!!