MOMentum: In Faith & MotherhoodPrøve

[IMAGE CONTENT] Children change us. They change our relationships, our friendships, and our marriages. They change our names – and use that name on repeat. Children change our physical appearances whether or not we birthed them from our own bodies. Hello, gray hair, wrinkles, and stress acne! These changes can cause a host of insecurities and identity crises. In this social media age, it’s challenging to feel beautiful. Beauty tips and beauty secrets parade across our feeds. We look to likes, emojis, hashtags, and swipes to give us affirmation and to validate us. Yet when we look in the mirror we still don’t feel like we measure up. We set our eyes on obtaining our ideal weight, ideal shape, ideal brows and lashes, ideal hair texture and body, etc. As soon as we reach one ideal image, we create another to pursue. “Idealness” becomes a goal that we sprint towards with vivacity. When we define beauty by what we see in our social media feeds, we unwittingly idolize a false ideal. Oftentimes we are chasing a moving target. In Ezekiel 16, God talks about the beauty of Israel that came as He rescued her, as He grew her, as He protected her and promised to love her. God bathed Israel, perfumed her, and adorned her with jewels and fine clothing. He fed her the most exquisite foods and made her a queen. She was beautiful “because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign Lord.” (Ezekiel 16:14 NIV) God creates a beauty within us that is a reflection of Him. And as we align our hearts with Him, the imperfections, idealisms, and unrealistic goals fall away until what we see before us is a reflection of Jesus Christ. Do you struggle with your image and self-worth? Do you idolize the idea of the perfect body? What will it take for you to not only be beautiful but feel beautiful as well? Pray for God to replace your idea of beauty with His. Pray that you see yourself as He does.