Your Brokenness is Beautiful

For awhile I have been pretty hard on myself and the way I look. I walk past the mirror to see how “fat” I am or to stare at my cellulite that feels like there is more of but there really isn’t. It’s all still there but my view of it has changed. Just yesterday I was on Instagram looking at a cute picture of  Emily Maynard Johnson, her husband, and someone had the audacity to comment and say and I quote; “You are both beautiful, inside and out…. and I hope you are hiding another baby bump! Maybe a little sister this time??”

Emily’s response to this was so amazing! “no I’m just fatter than I was before I had 3 babies in 2.5 years. Also I’m 32 years old and no longer feel the need to be a size 0. Not pregnant. Just a little fatter than I was at 24 and I’m ok with that.”

Why do we feel the need to be so ugly to ourselves and each other? I have accepted the fact that I will never be as skinny as I was after I had my second daughter, and I am ok with that at times and at times I’m not. I have accepted the fact that no matter how many products I buy my cellulite is there to stay even though it can drive me insane. I have more moles than I would like to have, my teeth could be whiter and I could be skinner if I didn’t love the crap out of cream cheese, sugar and coffee-mate in my coffee, and I drank more water than sweet tea. I have come to realize though once I turned 30, life is short and if I want to enjoy my coffee then I am going too. If I want some cherry cheesecake I’m going to eat it, because it’s so good. I want to enjoy my life not spend it wishing I looked a certain way for someone else’s standards of beauty when God created me to be the beautiful person that I am.  

A woman that I love following on Instagram is Jordan Lee Dooley. If you do not follow her, you need to, her whole drive is that “Your Brokenness is Welcome Here.” It is amazing. She is so uplifting and encouraging. She is all about us embracing our beauty for what as it is. Loving ourselves and the way God made us. One of my favorite things she has said is this:

“When it comes to you being broken it may describe a circumstance you’re in but it is certainly not an identity.

Don’t identify with what’s broken. Identify with the One who makes you whole.”- Jordan Lee

This is such a beautiful reminder. You are not broken, your circumstance may be or the way you view yourself, but that is not what defines you. That is not what makes you beautiful.  If you set your heart on pursuing God and pleasing Him, your view of yourself can and will change. Everyone of us has days or a week where we just haven’t loved ourselves, and that’s ok, because we are human it’s going to happen. Just remember the love that God has for you and the beautiful person that He created you to be. Looking a certain way for everyone on this earth is not the big picture in life so do not let that mentality take over you. The enemy loves to feed you lies because all that noise takes you further away from His truth. I know when I am falling short with this because I haven’t been spending my quality time with Him like I should be, then that noise becomes more at the forefront of my mind instead of the back. God’s love fills my heart, and when my heart is full of His words and His wisdom, it reminds me of the truth of who I am. 

Remember to love yourself because He made you beautiful. It is impossible to be all to of these things that the world tells you you should be, because that is not what you were created for. You were created to be enough for God, and no one person or thing on this earth has the capacity to love you like He does.

XOXO