creation & its Creator.

It's easy to take for granted the creation around us daily. Every season has something beautiful about it, doesn't it? The snow is beautiful once we've gotten sick of months and months of heat. We see the snow as an example of purity, renewing, and freshness. It's a gorgeous sight when we see the snow falling so heavily that it looks like tons and tons of glitter is being splashed all about. Then there comes Spring... and we sure are glad to see it once it hits because we miss flowers, showers, thunderstorms, blue skies, and flip flops :) Spring signifies new seasons... fresh experiences, and we're able to see more and more beauty around us as we look around outside. Sometimes I walk around and don't even realize I'm walking amongst the beautiful creation God has made for us. I used to be a nanny for a family a few years back. One day I took the girls on a stroll down the street on a gorgeous, April afternoon. The the thought occurred to me. "Mikayla, let's play a game. Let's take turns and point out ONE thing you love outside, and thank the Lord for it." It was something so simple as "Thank you Jesus for the color of the sky." How precious :) I need to constantly remind myself that God's beauty is EVERYWHERE. Outside in the trees, the sky, the clouds, the rain, the sunshine, and even the people we see walking to class. God is the Creator of the whole universe. He's created our surroundings and environment and He's especially created US as human beings.

We were created in God's perfect image. This probably doesn't pertain to many guys because they aren't usually the ones with the problem. But in our society today, girls are set at SUCH a high standard as to what they should look like, how they should dress, how skinny they should be, what kind of makeup they should wear, how they wear their hair.... and the list goes on and on. Society has tainted and abused the images of young girls... and it's getting worse and worse. Media plays a huge if not the biggest role in this situation. I was working out a little while ago and noticed that on VH1 (they had that on the TV.. I didn't choose it) they have a show to see who can lose the most weight. If you gained weight you were penalized for it. If you lost only one to two pounds, you were STILL penalized for it. What has our society come to? No one sees EVERYONE as beautiful perfection anymore. We compare each other to others. We look in the mirror daily and say 'ok, how can i make myself look BETTER today?' We usually hate ourselves on the inside. If that's you... I can relate. As a girl growing up, I have no idea why.. but I always had this sense of NEEDING to be beautiful. And beauty on the inside didn't even occur to me. I was only worried about the outward appearance. I struggled for years with dieting, exercising, and thank God I truly honestly never dealt with any eating disorders, but it has still been an ongoing battle. I constantly compare myself to others thinking 'Wow... she is perfect. I'm nowhere near that, I look awful.' There were even times when I wouldn't even look in a mirror. What I would see in the reflection was something I dreaded and hated.

This is a serious issue. Satan knows that in our generation today, girls desire to be beautiful and live up to a certain standard. If we feel we aren't good enough, we try whatever it takes to get there. Obsessive dieting, exercising and sometimes even eating disorders. It breaks my heart for those girls who go through this... but for myself, I even struggle with it. It's hard sometimes to go day by day and really be unhappy with yourself. As I thought about this, I prayed and truly poured my heart out to the Lord. I mean, He's the One who created me... He knows everything about me. I was real honest with God. I told Him how I hated myself and the way I looked and that inside...these 'inner demons' as I'd like to call them, were slowly killing me. I then realized something.

God is the ultimate Artist. He created the birds of the air, the land and sea. He created the color of the sky, the clouds, the flowers, snowflakes, rain drops, grass, dirt, and all else that has to do with our surroundings. He also created ME. Why should I have to change the way I look and try to be BETTER? That must be insulting to God. How would you feel if you painted something for years, and it got into an art gallery. One day someone walked up to your painting, picked out every single thing they didn't like, took a paint brush, some paint and just repainted over the ENTIRE thing. Wouldn't you be humiliated? Upset? Offended? You were the artist of that painting...how dare someone just change it and say they hate it? It's hurtful.

The same goes with our God. He's created ME, and you into His perfect image. When you say that you hate yourself, and that you are unhappy with what you see in the mirror... it hurts God. You're insulting His artwork. He is the ultimate Artist and has created everyone beautiful in their own special way. It's true when we say... we often want what we don't have. Why is that? It's because our society and Satan has gotten to the core of what girls (and even guys) think of a lot. It's the main issue as to why there are a lot of eating disorders and suicides. Satan knows that if he can just dig deeper and deeper and deeper on this issue, many will walk away from God, abandon Him, or just lose hope in Him. It's heart wrenching and heart breaking.

Even though I am and have been struggling with this... my hope, love, and faith in my Lord has NEVER ceased. I may not always be happy with what I see... but God is there.. He has created me in HIS image. Perfect in all my imperfections. He knows what I'm struggling with on the inside, and He wants to continually preserve me and strengthen me in His might. I hate that Satan knows just what to do to get me depressed, anxious, upset, and hating myself. But ya know what....I'm not letting him win. God is truly victorious over IT ALL.

He has created you perfectly. You ARE beautiful. There are a few verses that really ministered to me lately as I have been struggling with my self image. God poured His love upon these verses when He wrote them to me. Here they are:

"For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ." - Galatians 1:10

"Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing; But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised." - Proverbs 31:30

"For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with You." - Psalm 139:13, 14, 17, 18

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, except no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end." - Ecclesiastes 3:11

God doesn't look at the outward appearance, but the HEART. For the heart is what matters most. Jesus is the perfect example of beauty. When we are walking close with Him, He pours that beauty upon us... we are completely satisfied! My prayer for me and for anyone else struggling is that we would find our love, beauty, and contentment in the Lord.

He has made you perfectly beautiful.

"But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7