I have always struggled with my image, and how others see me. It's something that I can remember feeling all the way back to 6th grade when I first began to feel that I had to look a certain way and dress a certain way to impress those around me. I can remember asking for Abercrombie shirts and fuzzy Ugg boots because that's what everyone around me wore.

As I entered high school, those worries just grew as everyone got cuter clothes, more highlights, and bigger egos. It was so easy to feel self-conscious about myself and worry that I wasn't as pretty or cool as those around me. I enjoyed high school, but I would have those days where I felt inadequate and unworthy.

When I went to college, I decided to go through sorority recruitment. It was easy to compare myself to the hundreds of girls looking for the same thing as I was because I knew the sororities were. But I found a sorority that I loved and loved me, helping to ease my insecurity.

What I didn't realize was that no clothes, no party, no organization, and no friends were ever going to make me feel worthy and confident like God could.

I think the problem I've always had was that I compare myself to those around me instead of focusing on God and His plan for my life.

My main motivation and worry was envy and comparison of my neighbors, but like Ecclesiastes 4:4 says, "this [comparison], too, is meaningless-like chasing the wind." There will always be someone that is smarter than us or more accomplished than we are so it is so meaningless to use that as a measuring stick for our own improvement.

Maybe the problem facing people like myself who feel so inadequate is that we focus on ourselves rather than our Creator. Because we are sinful in nature, we can never live up to the expectations that seem to constantly surround us. In grace, God sent his only son Jesus Christ to take our sins upon himself so that we may live an eternal life with the Lord. How wonderful it is that our worth is not dependent on our works, but on the life of Jesus Christ?

There's a song I like called "Who Am I" by Casting Crowns and in that song a verse that says, "not because of who I am but because of what you've done, not because of what I've done but because of who you are." This song is one of my favorites because it highlights how little our accomplishments mean as long as we have the one who is everything as our Savior.

I know that I won't be able to rid myself of that self-consciousness overnight, but I also know that when I shift focus from myself to God it is possible to overcome anything. We are accepted in the eyes of the Lord despite any imperfection, and that is the only approval that we will ever need.