All right, let’s be real. We’ve all had at least 10 moments this week where we’ve looked in the mirror and thought, “Wow, why can’t I look like [insert your favorite human being ever’s name here.]”

[For visual aid, i included what mental picture goes through my head in the scenario described above.]

But in all seriousness. We all do it! Whether it’s because we’re in college and haven’t stayed fit or the boy we’re crushing on prefers a girl who looks more like Blake Lively (I mean hey, I don’t blame him), we all get down on ourselves. Self worth is something that girls have been struggling with for years! I mean, why else were corsets invented?

I think the struggle to find/feel self worth is caused by the fact that we look in all the wrong places. A girl’s self esteem falls instantly when a boy doesn’t find her adequate enough or the scale shows a number she never expected to see three months ago (welcome to college). And I’m not putting anyone down here; I constantly struggle with feeling like a 10 when I think I look like a -3. But today’s society tells us that if you aren’t a size 2 with long hair and eyelashes, a toned body, and straight, white teeth, you’re at the bottom of the list.

It’s so easy to believe, though! I’ve been at college for a little over three months now, and I’m sitting here with the same-looking teeth I’ve had since I was 10 years old and without the fit body I had in high school (thanks, Coach Taylor). I’m constantly beating myself up for it, and I find myself wishing I looked differently than I do an unhealthy number of times a week.

It’s a trap. Once you start noticing your flaws, you become addicted. And while at times I feel like there is no solution, I came to my senses the other day and remembered something that I seemed to have put in the back of my head:

There’s a really cool dude who made you in a really special way for a really awesome purpose.

Yep. We’ve been told since our first day in Sunday School that God made us the way we are, in his image, for a reason. It’s been thrown at us a thousand times, and it’s easy for us to check ourselves out every time we hear it because it’s nothing new. But how many times will it take a Sunday School teacher or your mom pounding this information at you until you actually take it to heart?

He says in Song of Solomon 4:7, “You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you.” He literally made every part of us flawless in His eyes, and He made us for a purpose. God is God. Trust me, I’m pretty sure He knows what He’s doing. He created man and, after saying everything else He created was “good,” said that man was “very good.” And not only did he create man, but He sent His son to die on a cross for man. Don’t you think God most really love the human race? And if He loves us so much, why would He create us as anything but perfect in His eyes?

So yeah, some boys might not see us through the same lens that our Father does. And yeah, maybe I’m not going to the gym as much as I thought I would now that I’m in college. But does that make me, you, or anyone else any less perfect in the Creator’s eyes? Absolutely not. We are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:4), and no pound on the scale or crooked tooth is gonna change that.

Yes, I still wish I had the body of a Victoria’s Secret Angel, and yes, I sometimes wish my teeth didn’t look like the kid I babysit’s do. But I’m still perfect in His eyes, and my value isn’t any less because I don’t look like Blake Lively. So, moral of the story: you’re good enough. Maybe you’re not “perfect” in the world’s eyes, but you’re beyond perfect in the eyes of the one who made you and loves you more than anything… and that’s all that matters.