Summing It Up

Romans 1:24-25 ESV : "They exchanged the truth for a lie." In this life, we will be tempted and lied to about our image and bodies. It will be through lust and through feeling less. There is a great deceiver. He maligns God's character and beguiles with lust. In our world, we are too focused on the creature rather than the Creator. If we were just as obsessed with God as we are with what our society says is "beautiful," we would be more apt to see the true beauty God presents to us everyday through the "unexpected things" (the things our society says isn't particularly what we should see as desirable). Why not start adjusting our eyes to the kingdom now? It's coming anyway, and all the rest will disappear. God's sight will be the one that stays. Take comfort in knowing that you are not defected, that we have been pre-conditioned since infancy, and that some things are too good, they have to be true. ♥

Thoughts on Physical Appearance/ Scriptures to Help - Search for Truth Part2

before I post my second part of my search for truth article, I want to preface that my beliefs and my faith are the foundations for what I decide is truth and not truth. It makes sense if you think about it ;) So if you do not share my faith, you probably will not agree 100% with what I have to say. But you may learn something interesting about the topic at any rate. Thanks for reading!

Below are some things I have meditated on and prayed on and I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter...

• some scripture:
  

  Romans 1:24-25 ESV : "they exchanged the truth for a lie." We will be tempted and lied to about our image and bodies; through lust and through feeling less. There is a great deceiver. He maligns God's character and beguiles with lust. In our world, we are too focused on the creature rather than the Creator. If we were just as obsessed with God as we are with what our society says is "beautiful," we would be more apt to see the true beauty God presents to us everyday through the "unexpected things" (the things our society says isn't particularly what we should see as desirable). Why not start adjusting our eyes to the kingdom now? it is coming anyway, and all the rest will disappear. Physical youth and beauty fade. People eventually age and die. God's sight will be the one that stays

  "Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen."-romans 1:24-25 verse

  Psalm 16:8 ESV / 

  "I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken." We set our sights on Him and what He thinks, and we are not shaken

  1 Samuel 16:7 ESV / 

  "But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”": we have to look to God for our self image. because the definition of beauty varies and changes from age to age and culture to culture anyway

  1 Peter 3:3-4 ESV 

  "Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious." --do we really care what is precious to God in comparison to what is precious to the world?
• 1:08am
  

  1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV 
  

  "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."---we are not even ours to consider. why should we let the world or the forces that try to tear us down consider how we look or how we are on top of that? It is for God to consider us and tell us what He thinks. And he made us and our bodies to glorify Him in our own individual ways

  Proverbs 31:30 ESV

  "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."---according to this scripture, what do you think is most precious to God?

  Psalm 139:13-16 ESV 

  "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." ---How did God make us? "WONDERFULLY!" was any part of our bodies or personalities hidden from God when He made us and knew how we would grow to be? NO! We have to stop thinking that we are somehow "defected." There is not possibility of that. we were "woven in the depths of the earth." Have you ever been there? no. only God. Only He knows the full purposes of how He created us. But we can appreciate that.
• 1:12am
  

  
  
  

  
  
  

  Genesis 1:27 ESV
  

  "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." God created us in his image. He is a father who loves us. There are remnants of Him created in us. Can we open our eyes and see it? there is a saying... "it's too good to be true." well my lovely freind, sometimes, "it is too good, it has to be true."--(my new philosophy)

  Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV 

  He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

  Ephesians 2:10 ESV 

  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

  Psalm 139:14 ESV

  "I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well."

  Psalm 45:11 ESV 

  "And the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him."= The King desires your beauty. Before He made you, He knew how you would look. He desired to make you before you were made.

Thoughts on Physical Appearance and Pre-conditioning- The Search for Truth Part 1

I think about all of the times I pitied myself or seen in others physical/personal “imperfections.” Trying to be a “perceptive person” I  began to unavoidably see “flaws” all around me; flaws I had been trained to see. Of late, I have realized that none of it was and will ever be honestly true. 

 A huge injustice is being done to all of us! Don’t we all feel inadequate from time to time( for some of us, all the time)? There’s always something to pick out, whether it be our physical appearance or our personality (pretty much anything about who we are that “comes up short”).  I am talking about the struggle beyond a healthy desire to grow and mature as a person or the desire to be the best, healthiest, version of oneself in order to bring FREEDOM to live life. FREEDOM is the key word here. 

Lately I have begun to notice the strong desire for freedom within myself. It is a drive that continues to grow in me and  the more I get, the more I want whatever will give me more of it.

But back to feeling inadequate... 

Whenever these so called “flaws” (whether it be something I notice or someone else notices as an "oddity" in my actual physical appearance) are noticed it sprouts a distressing discouragement. The idea creates a feeling of helplessness and unfairness that an individual was somehow given or found oneself to be the way they are: short of perfection, short of just a few things(or a lot of things). And if these things were “fixed” then one would truly be free, have joy, and move on with life in confidence (without boundaries) to accomplish all that was ever desired. 

Yet we never seem to get there do we?

Why? 

Because this very thought pattern is what cages us. And it comes from a collective cultural definition of beauty and adequacy. 

A quote from Bridget Jones 2 pops in my head. Bridget comes to the end of her monologue as she tells Mr. Darcy off, "And I will always be a little bit fat!."

I could replace "fat "with "short "( I am 5' 2" 3/4) if I took to heart everything that is said to me.

Yet you may be thinking right now, “Then why does it feel like truth?” 

"Why is it then, when I go to the mirror the first thing that comes to mind is a negative perspective on some aspect of my physical appearance?"

Or may be you do not even have to look at the mirror or at yourself. May be it is a thought always in your mind. 

 One may ask, "If it is not truth, then, why is this negative thought (such as, 'my nose is too big,' or 'my eyes are too close together.' or 'my stomach pokes out too much,' ) comes before I am able to make my own assessment of what I will perceive?"

The answer is =  the preconditioning of our society. Here is a theory: when these negative thoughts come, so does a feeling of unfairness that one has to live with these attributes that were not “meant to be.” Therefore these attributes are seen as defects and people see themselves as defected. 

The result= In the back of a person's  mind, every day,  they believe themselves to be defected. This is the sad truth of it all. But the sooner we realize the lie we believe, the sooner we can turn this lie on it's head. 

So... when it comes to physical attributes belonging to a person, who is to say that they are defects? If one’s body is what it is, how can it be wrong? Now, it is one thing to be unhealthy and that is a whole different story. But if you do your best to keep yourself as fit and healthy as possible, without it going out of BALANCE the other way into an unhealthy obsession to be fit, why would we allow some collective culture to set up a standard other than the best version of our present selves?

There is a reason why this all seems unfair and  that somehow it has to be wrong. It is. 

Yet, the thought that you were made to be beautiful is one that seems too good to be true.

It sounds silly thinking about it now. But unfortunately this is why preconditioning is so powerful. It gets underneath everything and underhandedly dodges our common sense. We should never be ashamed of what we cannot (in a healthy way) control. 

But I challenge us all to think a little differently... some things that seem too good to be true, may actually be true. 

Lets open our eyes to see beauty in the unexpected places. You may be surprised :)