On being one of the pretty girls.

So.  As you can probably figure, this post is directed primarily at any women who have accidentally stumbled upon my blog.  If you're a man, I'm not going to divulge any too-telling info or anything, but it will have to be up to God to work anything in you regarding this content.  That's not really what I'm after this morning.


I mentioned several weeks ago in a post about favor, that I had struggled as a teenager with an eating disorder.  God brought it up again, after years of not thinking about it, during a fast... sort of ironic dontcha think?  This is really not a topic I like to revisit.  I don't enjoy thinking about those times, but it has come up with a fair amount of regularity lately, so I wanted to just touch on a few things.  


I spent my childhood as an outcast.  I was a chubby kid.  I had no fashion sense.  I was sort of brainy.  I had acne and was so painfully shy that I was in pretty much a perpetual state of blushing.  You've seen Napoleon Dynamite?  I was the girl with the side ponytail, selling keychains and making dresses with puffy sleeves.  I wasn't necessarily "unliked," but I was definitely ignored and rejected.  I always wanted to be one of the pretty girls.  You know the ones.  Those girls that traveled in packs, wore makeup and bras before everybody else... snickered in the hall about boys and had slumber parties on the weekends.  No matter what I did... what clothes I wore or what music I listened to... Underneath, I was still me and I guess that showed.  And that was never enough.  I gave up trying after awhile, and even brazenly rebelled by ultimately becoming what I perceived to be the exact opposite of those pretty girls and everything they stood for, but that feeling of wanting to be something I'm not stuck with me for a long time.  


So why bring this all up now right?  I mean, does it really matter anyway?  We all have junk we've had to deal with.  Everyone has felt rejected, hurt, ignored at some point in their lives.  There's really nothing special about my experience.  Well, that's not exactly true.  All that crap I went through is not what makes me different.  But the fact that I am an overcomer of all that stuff is.  And more importantly, that I have overcome by rejecting the world's opinion of me and really even my opinion of me, and embracing my Father's opinion, knowledge really, of me... That's what makes me different and special... I can say with absolute certainty that He is really the only one who has ever really understood me.  


He knew I was going to need the most extravagant grace and friendship and acceptance to be able to leave my rules-based, legalistic, control-freak, critical, wounded, hurting, broken (the list goes on and on- maybe you can relate) SELF behind and become the person He had planned for me to be.  It has not been easy.  It's been (and will continue to be) an everyday, every decision thing... to decide to line my will up with His... to show myself grace, the way He would/does... I screw up.  I backslide.  I get into some of my old self-loathing patterns from time to time.  But I can't ever really go back now.  I have to trust that He knows what He's doing with me, even when I can't see it.  Besides, you know, He has made me one of "the pretty girls..." After all this time, in my middle age, in my mommy-of-four body, with sickness and scars... I don't wonder anymore if I'm beautiful... if I'm loved... if I'm accepted... How can I feel rejected or not good enough, knowing how The King of the Universe feels about me?  


So you're dying to know what He thinks of me right? lol.  I'm not bragging... Well I am, but not about anything you can't have or experience too.  Women... especially married women... I challenge you to literally take every thought captive in obedience to Jesus... Catch each negative, self-hating thought before you let yourself bring it to fruit.  Remember who made you.  Think about why He loves you.  Don't slight your husband or your God by being down on yourself.  They both think you're beautiful.


Here's what the "pretty girls" think of themselves:

• I am a child of God.  But to all who have received him--those who believe in his name--he has given the right to become God's children … (John 1:12).

• I am a branch of the true vine, and a conduit of Christ’s life.  I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me--and I in him--bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing (John 15:1, 5).

• I am a friend of Jesus.  I no longer call you slaves, because the slave does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything I heard from my Father (John 15:15).

• I have been justified and redeemed.  But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:24).

• My old self was crucified with Christ, and I am no longer a slave to sin.  We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin (Romans 6:6).

• I will not be condemned by God.  There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

• I have been set free from the law of sin and death.  For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).

• As a child of God, I am a fellow heir with Christ.  And if children, then heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ)--if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him (Romans 8:17).

• I have been accepted by Christ.  Receive one another, then, just as Christ also received you, to God's glory (Romans 15:7).

• I have been called to be a saint.  … To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours (1 Corinthians 1:2). (See also Ephesians 1:1, Philippians 1:1, and Colossians 1:2.)

• In Christ Jesus, I have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.  He is the reason you have a relationship with Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption … (1 Corinthians 1:30).

• My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells in me.  Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you (1 Corinthians 6:19)?

• I am joined to the Lord and am one spirit with Him.  But the one united with the Lord is one spirit with him (1 Corinthians 6:17).

• God leads me in the triumph and knowledge of Christ.  But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and who makes known through us the fragrance that consists of the knowledge of him in every place (2 Corinthians 2:14).

• The hardening of my mind has been removed in Christ.  But their minds were closed. For to this very day, the same veil remains when they hear the old covenant read./netbible2/index.php?header=&book=2co&chapter=3 It has not been removed because only in Christ is it taken away (2 Corinthians 3:14).

• I am a new creature in Christ.  So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away--look, what is new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17)!

• I have become the righteousness of God in Christ.  God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

• I have been made one with all who are in Christ Jesus.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female--for all of you are one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).

• I am no longer a slave, but a child and an heir.  So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if you are a son, then you are also an heir through God (Galatians 4:7).

• I have been set free in Christ.  For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1).

• I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.  Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).

• I am chosen, holy, and blameless before God.  For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love (Ephesians 1:4).

• I am redeemed and forgiven by the grace of Christ.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace (Ephesians 1:7).

• I have been predestined by God to obtain an inheritance.  In Christ we too have been claimed as God's own possession, since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will (Ephesians 1:11).

• I have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.  And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation)--when you believed in Christ--you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13).

• Because of God’s mercy and love, I have been made alive with Christ.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you are saved (Ephesians 2:4-5)!

• I am seated in the heavenly places with Christ.  … And he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus … (Ephesians 2:6).

• I am God’s workmanship created to produce good works.  For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them (Ephesians 2:10).

• I have been brought near to God by the blood of Christ.  But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13).

• I am a member of Christ’s body and a partaker of His promise.  … The Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:6). (See also Ephesians 5:30.)

• I have boldness and confident access to God through faith in Christ.  … In whom we have boldness and confident access to God because of Christ's faithfulness (Ephesians 3:12).

• My new self is righteous and holy.  … Put on the new man who has been created in God's image--in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth (Ephesians 4:24).

• I was formerly darkness, but now I am light in the Lord.  … For you were at one time darkness, but now you are/netbible2/index.php?header=&book=eph&chapter=5light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light (Ephesians 5:8).

• I am a citizen of heaven.  But our citizenship is in heaven--and we also await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ … (Philippians 3:20).

• The peace of God guards my heart and mind.  And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7).

• God supplies all my needs.  And my God will supply your every need according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).

• I have been made complete in Christ.  … You have been filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority (Colossians 2:10).

• I have been raised up with Christ.  Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1).

• My life is hidden with Christ in God.  … For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3).

• Christ is my life, and I will be revealed with Him in glory.  When Christ (who is your life) appears, then you too will be revealed in glory with him (Colossians 3:4).

• I have been chosen of God, and I am holy and beloved.  Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience … (Colossians 3:12).

• God loves me and has chosen me.  We know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you … (1 Thessalonians 1:4).