As I stand in the checkout line, I can’t help but notice the magazines perched at eye level.  Hollywood movie stars grace their covers with airbrushed good looks and perfectly sculpted bodies.  I find myself feeling insecure, imperfect, and unacceptable—just as I did years ago.  It’s been a long road to a healthy self-image and I remind myself not to wander down that path again.
Like most children, my first perception of self originated at home.  And, though my mother offered words of encouragement, my step-father’s abusive language only polluted a fragile self-image with terms like ugly, worthless, and stupid.  Without realizing it, I began collecting those labels as if they belonged to me and used them–against myself.  Ugly.  Worthless. Stupid.
I believed the lie.
Like Alice in Wonderland, my self-image kept shrinking and shrinking—even as I grew.  There wasn’t a magic cure to be found.  All of the rabbit holes were dead ends.  Listed on the honor roll?  I should have done better.  Homecoming queen?  The other girls all looked prettier.  A lot of friends?  Maybe, but not a boyfriend.  I was too skinny and uninteresting.
Over the next several years and even into my young adult life, I tried to earn favor and recognition from others.  Always striving; but never quite attaining.  When I looked in the mirror I saw imperfection.  Why?  Because my self-image was based on the perceptions of others.  I failed to view myself through Christ’s eyes.
As I matured in faith, the truth of scripture began eliminating the lies I’d accepted as reality.  Ugly?  Scripture promises that the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit… is of great worth in God’s sight.  (1 Peter 3:4)  Worthless?  No.  Instead, I have been adopted as his [daughter] through Jesus Christ.  (Ephesians 1:4-5)  Stupid?  It doesn’t matter because God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.(1 Corinthians 1:27).
Maybe you’ve accepted the negative labels others have tossed in your direction.  But, listen to what God says about you.  Instead of allowing the world to determine your self-image, why not claim the assurances of the One in whose image you were made?
 

• Scripture for Reflection–But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.  (1 Peter 2:9)