Recently I started losing weight, growing out my hair, and getting tan. It's what you do during the summer when you're a girl, but it made me think about something. I am not the world's definition of pretty and it destroys me.

People who struggle with self worth and self confidence get this. You get that feeling of walking through a store and seeing pictures of models and even just seeing other people and thinking to yourself "I want to look like that". You understand all too well how it feels when you are constantly told how gorgeous your friends are and it isn't that you aren't pretty and/or handsome, but you just don't look like the world wants you to. You definitely know that the feeling that comes after hearing that you are the "ugly" friend is the worst feeling you can ever feel, but I am here to tell you- you are not the ugly friend. Just because you don't fall under this world's insanely unrealistic definition of pretty doesn't mean you are not the most beautiful human in this world.

If you're a Christian and even if you aren't any time you open up about your feeling you probably get this verse in return- "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well" Psalm 139:14. It's an amazing verse that speaks so perfectly about the time God spent making each and every one of us. There is truth in that verse, but it does not address how you feel about yourself. You know you are beautiful in the eyes of Christ, but that doesn't change the fact that you are weak in the eyes of the world. Well here is this brothers and sisters- 1 Peter 2:9 "but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light". Not only are we "fearfully and wonderfully made," but also we are royal!

Here is the truth- a few weeks ago I bought an eyelash serum to help grow and strengthen my lashes. One day laying out I didn't put on sunscreen and got a nasty, painful burn because I knew it would come back tan. I haven't cut my hair in over a year because I want it to be long and pretty. I try to look how the world wants me to. I lose weight not because I need to, but because that is what the world wants. This is what I want to say to this version of myself- go eat that cheeseburger, drink that shake, cut your hair, and definitely wear sunscreen because you are gorgeous.

In the world we live in we need verses that preach the truth about who we are in Christ, because we are not enough in the world. Even the people who are pretty aren't enough and that has to tell us something. Our only hope is to find our self worth in the One who gave us worth in the first place.