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Whenever I was younger, I was extremely self-conscious of the way I looked, mainly because my body looked very different from my other siblings. I was considered to be the chubby sibling, and it started to get to me; especially if that was the first thing people noticed.

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As I went through puberty, this only got worse. Throughout middle school and high school, I hated the way I looked, and hated the fact that I was one of the few black girls in a predominantly white school. I started to be ashamed of my body and the fact that I was black, primarily because I wanted to fit in with the other girls at my school.

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I wanted my peers to consider me beautiful despite my skin color being difference than theirs. I was trying to find validation in other people, instead of God.

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It was not until my freshmen year of college, that I started to see my body as a gift of God.

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I have always heard of Psalm 139:13-16, but I never truly reflected on the importance of this verse. This verse reminded me of how much God loves me. It blew my mind when I started to think about God creating me in my mother’s womb, he specifically made me the way I am, and not being satisfied in my body is to not be satisfied in the way God created me.

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Instead of trying to change myself, or coveting other people’s bodies, I should be satisfied in myself and my body because my body is a reflection of God and his love.

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Psalm 139 talks about God creating people wonderfully, meaning we are his masterpiece. Realizing this made me start being proud of the fact that I am black, and that I look different from most of the girls at my school. Since God made me wonderfully, and God never makes any mistakes with his creations, it made me consider my skin color as beautiful.

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I started to be proud of the way I looked, and started to realize that God created diversity, and that diversity is a beautiful thing.

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The other thing that God calls us to do is treat our bodies like a temple, which reminded me that I should take care of my body. This means, being careful of what I put in my body, and making sure that my body embodies the temple of the Holy Spirit!

While working on this post over the past week, I have been able to really reflect on 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Growing up in the church, I am very familiar with this passage, but this week God really spoke to me through this verse.

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These words have reminded me that my body is a temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells. The Lord has blessed me with my body to be used for his good and his kingdom. What a sweet gift!

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The Lord has put on my heart to remember that my body is not my own, but a gift from Him to be used to glorify Him through the way that I talk, the way that I dress, and the way that I take care of myself.

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God also commands us in this verse to glorify him with our bodies. What better way to do that than by viewing and treating our bodies as a gift from our heavenly father?

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This week I have also been reminded of the power of viewing my body as created in the image of God. This is a truth that I have also heard plenty of times but after dwelling on it this week, I have realized the power of it.

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God loves us so much that he created us to be so like him. That is so humbling.

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All of these truths have reminded me of how loving our God is. He has blessed me with the priceless gift of a body made in his image that can be used to glorify him and serve his kingdom!

Throughout my life I have struggled with perfectionism, people-pleasing, and control. I have always wanted people to view me as perfect and an expert in everything I do whether that is work, school, or just my personal life.

I struggle with the desire to be someone that everyone likes, admired, and looked up to. And I have always struggled with trying to control the things that are not in my control, but are up to God. 

Over the past several years, God has been revealing to me more and more every day about how he views me and about the Grace and Mercy he gives me on a daily basis.

Through time in the word, prayer, and community, God has been teaching me that I am not perfect and the desire to have the world view me as perfect is not healthy.

My desire has shifted to focus on how God views me instead of how the world views me. God has been teaching me to love and view others the way he loves and views them.

This has helped release some of my people pleasing tendencies because I have started to view myself in the way God views me. Finally, God has been teaching that He is in control and not me. This is very humbling because my pride often gets in the way of trusting God’s plan over mine. 

I love Hebrews 4:16 because it reminds me of who God is, how He comforts me in times of joy and in times of sorrow, and because it reminds me that God created me to be bold and confident in who I am and who He created me to be.

God continues to reveal Himself as I press into His truths about who I am in Him. Genesis echoes the promise that I am made in the image of Christ. How cool is it that I am a mirror of Christ’s boldness, gentleness, love, and grace?

Although these are words that describe my inmost being, my body is made by the greatest artist I can think of — God. I was formed knowing this image of Christ would resound in the way I exercise, what foods I choose to eat, and how I view my body as a temple.

Now, I have not always had this view. 

I have struggled with needing affirmation since I was in middle school. I would seek my identity in what the world said was culturally beautiful. I would ignore 1 Peter 3:3-4 and dismiss the idea that I was made to glorify a Holy God.

But I’m thinking differently these days. And I’m curious if you’ll think through these questions with me. Would you walk past a beautiful painting and tell the artist that He made a mistake?

How are you treating your body as a masterpiece?

How are you treating your temple?

I encourage you to begin, if you are not already, thinking of your body as this — a holy and righteous place.

“When I laid my life in God’s hands, He began working on me in ways I couldn’t always see. It seems like every day He reveals a new aspect of my identity in Him.
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Slowly, but surely, His unconditional love for me is teaching me to love myself.
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My identity is no longer found in the mirror, the numbers on the scale, or my past riddled with struggles and an eating disorder. When I look at my life now, Romans 12:2 comes to mind. I am no longer a slave to the opinion and standards of society, and IT. IS. GOOD.
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My fears and past have been drowned by His perfect, unyielding love, and dear friends, this freedom is exhilarating! With God at the center of our goals, we learn to rely on a strength that is not our own and to follow a plan greater than we could imagine.
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So I want to encourage you, dear reader: If you’re in a season of doubt, struggle, or really any season of life, strive to live in wholehearted surrender.
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As our precious Jesus said in Luke 22:42, “.. not My will, but Yours, be done.”

“Howdy Ladies! My name is Erin, and I am a sophomore Sports Management major from Houston, Texas. I am a part of Aggie Sisters for Christ at Texas A&M University.

I love to cook, bake, do zumba, and watch any and every Houston professional sports team!

Psalm 139:14 is a verse that I have always stuck to when I think of my body. It says: “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

God fearfully and wonderfully made us!

During my middle school youth group days, I heard a speaker once say, “God made you himself. You would never call something that one of your friends made on their own, “ugly!” So why would you call yourself, something that God hand crafted himself, “ugly?”

This is something that has really stuck with me throughout my middle and high school years, especially since body image is such an important thing for young girls.

As I focus on body image and our bodies, I keep thinking about how God created our hands. God has taught me a lot recently about serving with my hands.

During my senior year of high school, I got the opportunity to go to Riobamba, Ecuador, during Spring Break. My group was sent to the most remote villages there.

These villages had never seen people who were not Ecuadorian, much less people who were coming to them to wash their feet. Most of these people had never had a pair of shoes before.

Being on my knees and washing the dirty feet of people I didn’t even know was truly a humbling experience. And it changed how I saw my hands as a gift from God. It helped me see how our hands further the Kingdom in incredible ways!

My hope for any young girl reading this is that you strive to love yourself and your body, just as God made it. And to appreciate how using your body well can further His kingdom work!

You are fearfully and wonderfully made, and I hope you never forget it!”

Erin leads us directly into our message for next week – How do our hands affect body image? I’m already looking forward to Monday’s post!