Body Image or God's Image?

"No offense, but you actually have to be skinny to be on dance team."

Those were the words. The words that some immature, jealous and insecure seventh grade "friend" of mine told me when I told her that I wanted to be on dance team in high school. They were also the words that made me first question and start critiquing the way my body looked. Everything before then had been so simple. I ate what I ate, I only ran when the PE coaches told us we had to, and I wore basically whatever I wanted to wear because it was comfortable. Sadly, those days quickly disappeared as my childhood carelessness melted into maturity; and with maturity came insecurity. Never before that one day in PE when my friend called me fat had I even thought about what I physically looked like. At first, it made me mad. How dare she say I was fat? And how dare she think that because of what I looked like I couldn't be on the dance team? Looking back at this moment, I realize that it wasn't anything more than an insecure preteen trying to get a rise out of her friend and feel better about herself, but I still get angry at the fact that I let that one comment change the way I viewed myself. Unfortunately those insecurities were bound to happen at some point, but now it's got me thinking.

When will those insecurities change to securities? It's bound to happen at some point.

We, as human beings live in a very human body. We love to pick apart and hate on ourselves because we don't look like other people do, or we don't measure up to the vision we have for ourselves. And guess what? That's wrong. God created us 100% exactly how we look for a reason: criticizing how we look is like criticizing God's artwork.

This is a very difficult thing for me to remember every time I look in a mirror or at a picture of myself and cringe because I'm either too pale, too fat, or too short. And I know I am not the only one who does this. We are constantly looking at our own reflections or pictures and being disappointed because we don't like what we see. Why is this? If the Lord of all creation can hand design and create you, then we should honor that and not bash his creation.