she's so pretty

I am having a really good day and then....came across someones picture on facebook who is absolutely beautiful and suddenly I don't feel as good about myself. I instantly compared myself to her in every single way only to end the thinking with "she's much prettier than I am".

Why do we do that? Why do we compare ourselves to everyone we see? Why do we assume their life is so much better than ours? Why do we look to someone else to measure what beauty is instead of accepting the beauty that is within us?

1Peter 3:3-4 says "Let not yours be the [merely] external adorning with [elaborate] interweaving and knotting of the hair, the wearing of jewelry, or changes of clothes; But let it be the inward adorning and beauty of the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible and unfading charm of a gentle and peaceful spirit, which [is not anxious or wrought up, but] is very precious in the sight of God."

A picture says a thousand words...those words can be false, my dad can manipulate a picture so much it doesn't even look like you. When we look at a picture we're seeing a single moment in time, that again can be altered. Over and over God says beauty is not skin deep and I would venture to say according to this passage beauty isn't even totally in the "eye of the beholder" because with that thinking we're still looking to someone to tell us we're beautiful, we're still comparing ourselves to the chick on facebook whom we know NOTHING about. She just has a really good photo (and she probably doesn't think she's very pretty).

I struggle with body image every single day. I hear the comments made about others and wonder what they must think of me, I see what someone "skinny" looks like and think that will never be me. I let a stupid picture alter my good mood....according to 1Peter that's just not ok.

I want to align myself with Truth, with what God says and no where in the bible does it say beauty depends on how I look in the mirror, how I look standing next to someone, how that chick looks to me. No where in the bible does it say compare yourself...what it does say is where's your heart according to your relationship with Christ.

So, I encourage you (and me) to recognize the next time we are tempted to judge someone according to their body to stop and judge where is our heart...because my friends, that's apparently the secret to being beautiful.