Well, today was alright. Not as good as yesterday. I will admit though, going to youth group last night did make me feel self conscious and it took a little while until the feeling wore off. But I'm learning not to be so concerned with this stuff. It's hard, but it's something I have to do. I'm tired of a bad hair day or unwelcome breakout setting the tone for the rest of my day. No matter what, I still have Jesus. I have no reason to complain.
I definitely started out rocky this morning. I'm ashamed to admit that for a second I regretted even coming up with this challenge. But like I said before, if it's so hard for me to give up, I need to give it up. Anyways, here's my second picture.
I talked about how I felt about my acne yesterday, so I'll name another insecurity that I've been trying to get over; my glasses. They're not really that bad, and I don't know how I got the impression that I'm not as pretty when I wear them. I ran out of contacts for this month and I'm overdue for an eye appointment, so glasses it is for another week and a half. I know this seems really dumb and petty, but I feel like we all have things that we really shouldn't be so insecure about. When I freak out about something, that "imperfection" is all I see. When really, to someone else, they would have never considered it something bad.
Even though today didn't start off on the best note, I hung out with Jesus and that made it a million times better. I read through the book of Galatians today and verse 20 of chapter 2 related to me in a different way than it usually does. "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." This has pretty much been my life verse for a long time and states exactly how I want to live. But I never considered how it could also relate to beauty.
Jesus is beautiful. His love for me, the sacrifice He made, the grace and forgiveness He shows me each day is something spectacular. I could never earn it; never be worthy of experiencing it. But yet He chooses people like me; small, insignificant, insecure, and uses us to do His work. If I do anything that is remotely positive, it's Jesus. Psalm 16:2 says "I say to the Lord, 'You are my Lord; I have no good apart from You.'" Apart from Christ, I am a filthy, dirty, rotten person. But if I am truly living out Galatians 2:20, I will be considered beautiful, because it will be Christ who lives in me. If people say they love me, they must love Jesus, because I'm sure they wouldn't love who I'd be without Him. If people consider me beautiful, then I know for sure that Jesus is being seen.
I used to think of my glasses as really lame too--I used to wear them when I was little and they were really too big for my face, so I got a bad taste. :P But later on I found out that glasses can be pretty stylin'. I've always said glasses suit girls better than guys though. *shrug*
ReplyDeleteKeeping Christ at the center of works is a challenge--It's not that Christians are foolish enough to believe our works are what get us to heaven, but we all to easily label ourselves "good people." Which, really we're not. Very though provoking.