Here at Wonderfully Made, we love featuring other ladies who are doing amazing things. Krystal shared a music video she created to remind women of their God-given value. Enjoy the music video and read our interview with Krystal:
What inspired you to make the music video “So Why”?
When the studio production for the song So Why was fully completed, I remember listening to it over and over. Writing the song was cathartic and a therapeutic way for me to further process things, but hearing it in a beautifully produced format made me start picturing things in my mind as I listened to it play. I know when I watch movies and there’s music that just fits moments perfectly, it can stir such strong emotion. And although we’re not to be guided by our emotions, God also feels emotions, and since we are created in His image, we feel them. With this music video, I wanted to bring that combination of visual imagery and song to life – in essence creating something that would share how I felt when I wrote this song and more importantly share the truth of God’s Word and the ability to overcome by meditating on what He says.
Could you share a little with our readers about your story and how it is reflected in your video?
My story is long, but in short, I faced traumatic things growing up that shaped how I perceived the world and how I perceived myself. I honestly didn’t put it together that my eating disorder likely stemmed from earlier childhood trauma until much later in life. It was in the 8th grade, as my parents were going through a divorce, that I became anorexic. What started as trying to control a small aspect of my life, became an obsession with my body image. Everything I did was flowing through a distorted lens completely based on lies, and yet I was blinded to it and kept hurting my body through disordered eating.
I met my husband in the last half of high school and being happy in our relationship, I felt like I was healing from anorexia and was able to eat without as much guilt. Unfortunately, I started binge eating instead. After graduation, we got engaged and I gained quite a bit of weight. The pressure to be thin for our wedding was there, but I tried doing things the healthy way of eating right and exercising. After getting married and having kids, I struggled going back and forth from anorexia to binge eating.
It was after having our second daughter that I decided enough was enough and I didn’t want my girls to see my struggle and have the same body image issues that I have. I tried to focus on my relationship with the Lord. It wasn’t until I resolved to study what God says about me, writing them on sticky notes and putting them on my bathroom mirror, and choosing to meditate on God’s Word over what I felt every time I looked in the mirror, that I began my healing journey from disordered eating.
In this video, the mirror is personified as an antagonist to true beauty – it mocks, belittles, encourages bad eating habits, and gives the false perception that outward appearance is where my worth is found. I still have times of struggle and have to battle this, but the victory comes when we arm ourselves with the truth of God’s Word and what HE says about us. In this video, there is a contrast between being stuck inside with the mirror taunting versus being transported outdoors in nature when meditating on the Word of God. It’s when I decide not to listen to the lies, but to meditate on the things that are true, right, and lovely that I find joy and freedom from that battle. And it may be a battle that I fight every day, but it’s a battle that I can win every day with God’s Word.
What would you say to a young woman struggling with their body image?
O, my beautiful sister, you have unfortunately been told lies; lies by our culture, lies by advertisements, maybe even lies that your brain constructed out of trauma – BUT GOD, who created the universe, formed you in your mother’s womb, knitted you together for a purpose, and fearfully and wonderfully made you as the beautiful, unique woman that you are. Our bodies will grow old, our flesh will wrinkle, our hair will turn gray – and despite all that fleeting beauty, the thing that pleases the Lord is a woman who fears Him. Outward beauty shines for our glory. But if you focus on your relationship with God, your true beauty will shine for His glory.
When God directed Samuel to anoint David as the next king of Israel, God didn’t hold a beauty contest, He chose the one who was a man after His own heart. If you have given your heart to Jesus, and accepted Him as your Lord and Savior, you are His masterpiece. You are being molded and shaped into the image of Jesus as you’re refined in this lifetime, and when the Father looks at you, He sees His Son. We all have our scars to bear from the things we’ve faced, but we’re in good company because Jesus bears His scars and they’re a beautiful reminder of who we are in Him. My dear sister in Christ, your beauty and identity are found in Jesus!
What do you hope girls and women will walk away with after watching your video?
I hope that they walk away with either the realization or the reminder that in our lives of fleeting beauty, our true beauty has nothing to do with what we look like. We’ve heard it said that true beauty is on the inside, and that’s true but it’s not found in who we are, it’s found in Who is in us. I spent years of being ineffective in serving the Lord because I was so caught up in shaping my outer appearance and trying to cope on my own. But now, I choose to walk in a manner worthy of my calling, tearing down the idol of my body image, and live only concerned about whether I am pleasing to my God, of which I hope to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” I hope girls and women walk away with the useful tool of meditating on God’s Word and encouragement to find their beauty and identity in who they are in Christ.
If you could go back in time to your younger self, what would you tell her?
I would tell her to always look upward and keep moving forward. Times change, fashion changes, lingo changes, everything changes except God; God never changes, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever – make Him your stronghold and foundation for everything! You could talk to thousands of people in a lifetime who could all have different opinions on what beauty is, but the truth is that beauty is found in God.
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