One of my great regrets in life is that I was going through my own healing when my daughters were growing up. I was battling my own demons of low self-esteem and bad self image, and the negative voices in my head. I didn't know how to feel good about myself or to help them feel good about themselves.
In spite of me and in spite of our society, they have come to know Jesus and He has helped them through some difficult times and they have turned out strong and beautiful, inside and outside. I'm so proud of them.
I pray daily that my granddaughters can grow up healthy and sound and whole and that Jesus will be their best friend.
It's hard to be a girl in our culture. Society values beauty, thinness, sexiness, youth, and popularity, and we all want to fit into that mold. We lose our individuality. We're afraid to be different.
We are all wounded in one way or another. Satan uses our experiences as the basis for his lies that tell us we are not good enough, not worthy, not even loved by God. And we begin to believe those lies are truth. But they are only lies.
The truth is that God made each of us special. He loves us just like we are. We are worthy. We are accepted because of His grace and we don't have to do anything to be good enough. Jesus has already done it all. Because of Jesus' love we are all beautiful girls. Isaiah 61:3 tells us Jesus came to "provide for those who grieve...to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes". NIV
"The Lord will hold you in His hand for all to see-a splendid crown in the hand of God", Isaiah 62:3. NLT
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come", II Corinthians 5:17. NIV
"You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God", I Peter 3:4. NLT
Peggy, this is just beautiful and very very true in regards to the lies that the world and Satan want us to believe about ourselves. I too think that the messages society sends us are so skewed and potentially damaging. I pray too that your sweet grand daughters turn out just the way you pray they will. They are so lovely Peggy.
ReplyDeleteI hope you had a wonderful Easter! God bless.