This morning as my 4-year-old daughter patted her shirt against the form of her body she asked, “Am I chubby?”
“Am I chubby?” How does she even comprehend that concept? What is chubby and why does she think it’s bad? Why does this precious little girl think there is something wrong with her?
I am usually quick to blame society, media, even myself. But the truth is we have four daughters and a fifth one coming any day. I have safe guarded everything I could. We don’t have cable. We don’t buy magazines. We don’t even go to the mall. I never speak self loathing or lament my own body image (even after seven pregnancies). I buy books on healthy body image and take the girls to events that promote good self-esteem. Their daddy loves on them and tells them how lovely they are every day.
So where did this come from?
I’ll tell you where. Hell.
The devil is out for the hearts of little girls. He doesn’t need TV commercials or magazine ads to do it. He is the creator of lies and he is whispering them into the hearts of my daughters.
He says:
- You are not beautiful.
- You are not lovely.
- You are not good enough.
- You are too fat, too skinny, not stylish and have bad hair.
- You just are not lovable the way you are.
Why is this such a big deal? So what if my daughter is health conscious or wants to look good? The big deal is it defies the created purpose of woman and mocks the design of the very one who formed her in his own image. The story of our beginning goes like this:
Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us…
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.
So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.
“At last!” the man exclaimed.
“This one is bone from my bone,
and flesh from my flesh!
She will be called ‘woman,’
because she was taken from ‘man.’”This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.
Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.
Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! (from Genesis 1 &2)
Let’s match all those lies up against the truth of God.
- We were designed to look like God. Yes GOD!
- Good men are captivated by our natural created beauty.
- There was no shame in the garden.
- God said it was all “very good.”
What happens to us when we aren’t anchored in the truth of what real, divinely inspired beauty looks like? We hate ourselves. We hate the way we look. We torture ourselves with insane exercise routines and eating disorders. We cover up God’s image with make-up, clothing and accessories. We hide. Because we don’t value his creation, we end up giving our bodies away to just feel beautiful and wanted for one moment. But the truth is we walk away feeling uglier than ever before.
So what’s the solution? It’s simple.
Let’s get back to the garden, back to those simple truths when cosmetics, hair dye and diets didn’t define our beauty. Let’s get back to letting God the Creator define our beauty. Let’s get back to believing the truth that God is good at beautiful and he made us beautiful. Let’s put away our shame and embrace our purpose. Let’s look in the mirror and really believe we are “very good.”
That’s my prayer today for my little girl. May I expose the lies of the enemy of her soul at every turn. May I illuminate her life with the truth that she is perfect just the way she is.
For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. 1 Cor. 6:20
