Jessica Simpson recently opened up about her life-long struggle with body image and self-confidence in the past issue of Glamour Magazine.
I was struck by the words of advice she offered her readers: “No matter how much money you spend to make yourself beautiful with all the products, the diets, the plastic surgery in the end, women need to fall in love with themselves and realize they’re beautifully and wonderfully made.”
Okay, if you’re reading this you probably already know that I’m freakishly, over-fanatical about preaching the message to girls and women everywhere that we are indeed “wonderfully made.” In fact, I’ve made that my mission. So, you got that right girl! But JSimp, I have to tell you that I downright, totally disagree with the notion that we need to fall in love with ourselves. I know it sounds so warm-fuzzy, hopeful and promising and like it’s even something that’s actually achievable. But the possibility of me falling in love with myself without divine intervention would be like opening a can of tuna and getting chicken casserole.
You are not an accident. You have a Maker. A Maker who loves you; who knows you. Who calls you worthy; beautiful, valuable. A Maker who has planned all of your days before one of them came to be (Ps. 139:16). A Maker who has sent His son into this broken world to redeem you (John 3:16); to one day make things right; to turn your ashes into beauty (Isaiah 61:3); to give you a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11); and to give you life to the full (John 10:10).
Don’t tell me you don’t have enough faith – that you actually believe this all just happened. That we just evolved or came to be uniquely human. With emotions and dreams and love stories and heartaches and evil. I don’t have enough faith to not to believe in something bigger than myself.
