You wake up in the morning. You roll out of bed and stumble into the bathroom. You start to wash your hands and gaze up in the mirror. You see that your hair’s a mess, there’s a spot of dry drool chilling in the corner of your mouth and, my oh my, those zits that have taken up permanent residence around your chin are looking lovely this morning.

You go back to your room to get ready for the day. You brush your hair, maybe you do something with it — put it up in a bun or, if you’re not running too late, curl it. You get out your makeup and put some on. Maybe it's just a little mascara or maybe you prefer full-face coverage. Whatever you’re feeling that day. You look in the mirror to see the finished product. You hid the zits... kind of. Your eyeliner’s a bit crooked. Your eyebrows are still weird. Your hair is overtaken with frizz, the curls aren’t quite right, your hairline’s still awkward. Most of your flaws are still there, but you figure you can’t do anything more about it.

You change into your outfit for the day, then step in front of the full-length mirror. You check for a muffin top, you feel bad about the size of your legs, you suck in your gut and imagine “what if,” you worry about the shirt you’re wearing, you consider whether or not everyone else will see the flaws as loudly as you do.

At some point during the day, you stand in front of a mirror beside your friends. You compare. Their clothes are so much nicer, their makeup is done so much better, their hair is so much prettier and their faces are so much more perfect; they look so effortlessly lovely. You see their beauty, inside and out, and you end up having to look away from the mirror because you simply gross yourself out next to them. You go on with your day, trying to forget about what you look like.

This is the dumb crap we do to ourselves.

Have you ever looked at yourself in a mirror? Have you ever looked — not at your clothes or your makeup or your body or your flaws — have you ever looked at yourself? I’ll be honest with you, friend: it’s a game-changer.

Have you ever stepped up to a mirror, set down all vanity and anxiety and just looked at that face looking back at you? Have you ever seen the skin and the nose and the mouth and the humanness and thought, “I exist. That’s cool.” Have you ever looked in the eyes of that person in the mirror, thought “Huh. Maybe this is what God sees when He looks at me. Maybe that’s why He likes me so much,” and smiled at that thought? There’s something about looking at you in a mirror that makes you feel created and real. It’s a weird thing. But it’s a beautiful thing. I promise.

Here’s my challenge, if you want to take it: look at yourself in a mirror sometime. Put down comparison, put down the concept of “flaws.” Look at yourself objectively like you’d look at your favorite piece of art. Look at the curves of your face, where what is you physically ends and the rest of space begins. Think about the fact that you have lips and eyelashes and those silly things called eyebrows (then think about how ridiculous the concept of eyebrows is—they’re honestly just two strips of hair in the middle of your forehead; laugh at how preposterous they are). Look at those glossy circles of color that we call eyes and think about what you see. You won’t see a physical face that has to meet certain standards set by humans; you will catch a glimpse of the Maker of the universe. Or maybe you’ll just see eyes. But they’ll be some dang-good-looking eyes.

I don’t care what you look like. Look in a mirror and see that you is beautiful.