comfortable in our own skin.....

1st off....check out my fellow schoolmate/blog partner Matt's post today about being "skinny & beautiful..."

or do that 2nd. Either or.
SO.....

What happened to feeling comfortable in your own skin? Think about it.

When's the last time you felt your tummy coming over your jeans?

When's the last time you looked in the mirror and thought "wow, I am beautiful?

When's the last time someone told you that you were beautiful? 

When was the last time that you felt beautiful?

 What is your definition of beautiful?

Now that I've played 20 questions with you, I shall get started. hehe.

Let me start by saying that YOU, yes, YOU reading this. You are beautiful. You are brilliant. You are enough. The scars on your tummy, the freckles on your face, your teeth that aren't "People Magazine" perfect, they are all beautiful. You are beautiful.

I remember being in high school and constantly trying to be like the "pretty girls". I never felt pretty. I never felt beautiful. I had a train track mouth (braces), a terrible perm and still hadn't lost my baby fat. It. was. bad. My nose was constantly buried in Seventeen magazine and Vogue. Just wishing I could do something to look like those girls. I'd see girls my age and be blown away at how they didn't look 15 or 16. They looked older. They were pretty. I would sit in the mirror for hours listening to "In this Skin" by Jessica Simpson (my idol.), and play with all different ways to wear my makeup. From the terrible horrible too much bronzer, to the jet black eyeliner that I caked on my eye lids(I ignored my mom about when she told me I was beautiful and I didn't need to wear it as heavy and dark as I was--mom, if you're reading this...you were right!) I just wanted to be pretty.

little did I know, I was. 

Fast forward about 10 years later..and now, I hate wearing make up majority of the time, and I finally have grasped and figured out what beauty is. I feel pretty. I can be in sweats, greasy hair, no make up and still feel beautiful. My poor fellow college classmates are probably sick of seeing me with no make up, but that's me. I hope my future hubby doesn't mind me not wearing make up... (I mean yes, I will, but honey I ain't gonna have on a full face of make up to be sitting around the house, or grilling out back. Sorrrrry)

I'm okay and I am comfortable because I know where my beauty comes from. I know that I was woven by God's hands. I am beautiful. You are beautiful.  

ignore the messs.. I was re organizing the room and got bored. story of my life.

Embrace your differences. They make you who you are.

Be unique. Be yourself. Be confident. Not feeling too confident I can PROMISE you, see what God says about your beauty... you will believe you're beautiful when you get done reading it....

Psalm 139:14
"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."

Song of Solomon 4:7  

"You are altogether beautiful, my darling, beautiful in every way."

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Stop comparing yourself to other women. Stop comparing yourself to the women in the media. Once you start believing that you are beautiful, you will feel it.

Comparison IS the thief of joy. End of story.

1 Peter 3:4