Our value according
to the world depends on:
At the beach in a bathing suit for the first time in my life!
Our physical beauty, weight and youth: All the fashion magazines target
women with headlines that cover these three areas. How to look more beautiful, younger, and
thinner. They sale lies and women buy
into these deceptions. I was an avid
fashion magazine, tabloid reading girl and I got sucked right in to the fad
diets that in five days I could have a new body if I just followed the latest
diet- no exercise or eating healthy required.
When I followed the steps and failed to lose weight I felt miserable –
the reality is that losing weight is hard work and no fad diet is going to be a
permanent solution. If we want to be fit,
we need to eat properly and exercise- that’s the truth… Magazines use the same
false headlines to offer ways to look younger and more beautiful. Buy this product and your wrinkles will disappear
or wear these trends and you will capture the attention of any man. We see these ads everywhere selling these
ideals by making women feel that their worth depends on having smaller bodies
& keeping their youthful looks while enhancing their beauty.
In my favorite place with my favorite dog!
Teaching RCIA.
Supporting Mexico in world cup- curly hair and all.
Traveling in shorts!
Our intelligence and success:
Again the media tells us that we must be brilliant and pursue careers
over family. They attack the traditional
family and demean housewives to antiquated, repressed women. Prior to returning to my faith- I too looked
down upon women who chose to be housewives over university or a career outside
of the home. They represented weakness to
me and I pursued my education and career with the desire to be strong and independent. My worth depended on how far I got in my
goals and achievements.
This is my uniform- comfy leggings and a roomy top.
My uniform again.
At my friends wedding - wearing a thrifted dress.
With Father after a great confession and spiritual direction session!
Now don’t
get me wrong I am not saying that we shouldn’t work hard to achieve things that
give us joy and purpose, what I am saying is that our value is not dependent on
the list of qualities we possess. At the
senior home I volunteer at, I see women abandoned and forgotten by society and
more sadly by their families. If we
believe what the media tells us that our worth depends on these variables then
our destiny is to end imprisoned and forgotten in nursing homes once we can no
longer (due to old age) produce these results.
My only living grandma turned ninety last year and she is still as much
a presence in our lives as she ever has been.
We seek her wisdom and value the experience life has given her. And though she requires care because she’s
elderly and almost blind her value is priceless. What makes her priceless is not even the
wisdom she’s picked up over her lifetime- her value (like our own value) depends on
one thing only: GOD. He created us and
gave us the utmost value! He told us
straight out, “I made you in my image and I chose you as my family.” Father was
speaking this weekend about how each of us has a stamp that reflects that we
are copyrighted by God, He loves us so much that He even stamped us with His
signature “made by and belongs to God.”
Even after we sinned and broke that bond, God wouldn’t leave us to our
own demise, He sent His son to earth to bear our sin. He put a price tag on us-
He declared our value to be greater than the whole world. There was no clause: only bring the
beautiful, young, slim, intelligent, successful women leave the rest
behind. He came for all of us. We were chosen by God- that’s what makes us
precious; that’s what determines our value.
When we realize and accept this HUGE truth, we can love ourselves in
light of knowing our flaws because the truth is that we are special not by our
own merit but because God chose us. This
truth frees us to love our imperfect selves and to value others with the same
degree that God does. In my last post I
wrote that I am at my heaviest, but I am content and happy- I can even dare say
I like myself. The reason is God, He
loves me now as I am and He will never love me any more or less than He does
right now. Wow! Slowly as I have spent time getting to know God- He has freed me from years of erroneous thinking and I want
to emphasize that if you are low in your self-esteem go to God. Get to know Him
and love your neighbor these two things will free you to love yourself. To look
in the mirror and say with great confidence, “I am special because God chose
me.”
With my abuelita this Christmas.
I am
sharing elven photos as I did last time- only this time I can say that I liked
these photos when they were taken as I do now.
They are full body pictures at my current size and believe it or not I
like all of me in these images (smile).
The nerd and her BFF.
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