What if we could see ourselves as God sees us?

I've had 2 wonderful people in my life criticize how they look this week. When the words came out of their mouths, I thought 'Are you kidding me?! You are so beautiful! I wish I was that beautiful! I wish you could see that!'

And isn't that really how God sees us? He loves us for all of who we are, not just parts. In His eyes we are all beautiful. When God made man and woman, he simply made man and woman. He did not make 'Beautiful Sexy Eve' and 'Hot Studly Adam'. He made man and woman without any judgement on how they looked. How have we gotten so far away from that?

All my life, I've had images in front of me of what we think a woman should look like. I've even had guys I've dated tell me I should grow my hair out long because they like women with long hair. (For the record, I look MUCH better with short hair.) Everywhere I go each day I have images of scantily clad, perfectly tanned and toned women in my face telling me that I can only have fun and be like them if I look like them. I'm speaking from my experience as a woman, but I'm sure that many men experience this, too. How many ads to we see with men wearing only their underwear with glistening six packs and ripped biceps?

But if God made us in his image, why are we trying so hard to fit into someone else's image of what we/they think we should be?

There is a moment that occurred this week that I'm quite ashamed of. It really opened my eyes to how much we let our culture and society get ingrained into us. I went to yoga and a very large woman was in the class. I thought 'what is she doing here? she can't even sit cross legged?" And then I caught myself, and I was ashamed that I would think like that. It's not so long ago that I was that woman and I felt everyone was thinking things like that about me. And then I remembered how hard it was for me when I first started down my path to be healthy. I would go to the gym specifically at hours when I knew not many people were around. Every time I'd walk on the treadmill, I'd feel all this weight jiggling and to me it felt like a tidal wave for everyone to see. And I thought 'they're all thinking 'what is she doing here?' And I let myself do it to someone else.

And then I decided to try and see her how God would see her. I sat down beside her after class and started chatting while we were putting our shoes on. She was so sweet and nice and cheerful! She has a beautiful smile that is full of light, and I could tell that she was so proud of herself for making it to that class. She has a light shining in her, as do we all. But we can't see it unless we look past the obvious.

This may seem pretty standard to some. How many times have we been told not to judge a book by it's cover? And this is definitely something I plan to work on. I want to see people as God sees them, not as our culture does.

There's a caveat here, however. If we seek to see others as God sees them, then we must seek to see ourselves as God sees us. I envision myself standing before God and and I am not this physical body. I am not fat nor skinny, beautiful or ugly, tall or short. I just am. God does not judge how I've looked through my life, but what I've done and how I've treated others and myself. The physical body means so little compared to the spirit it houses. That means that we also have to not judge ourselves when it comes to our bodies. It's a fearful thing, because we have so much thrown in our faces every day telling us what is beautiful and it's a standard the majority of us will never meet. It's fearful because we have to admit to ourselves that we are beautiful and that we deserve to be loved. Loving others is easy, loving yourself, and letting the love that surrounds you into your soul is the hard part.