"Mama, I have big ears!"
(Note: This is a delayed post. This article was originally written in mid-March 2020.)
So this week has taken a huge turn of events from what-was-planned, both in my little blog world and my little sliver of the real world. Just a week or two ago, I was sitting at my breakfast table, looking at our dry erase calendar on the fridge, and telling my husband how March looked so-thankfully-slow compared to previous months because we didn't have anything scheduled. Well - while still true that we have no place to be - it's easy to long to be anywhere else right now instead of a in house with two sick toddlers. Hope has an ear infection, and poor sweet Hannah has an ear infection, conjunctivitis of the eyes, and Flu type A that the doctor said has almost gone into pneumonia. Add on to that all the mommy guilt I have for not taking her to the doctor faster than when I did, and the nagging thought, "Would she be better off if I had taken her sooner?" Sigh.
I know, I know, you're probably wondering how any of this is encouraging? But I share all of that to just point out that real life happens, and when it does, it makes "giving thanks in all things" even more difficult. I almost didn't even blog this week because of it - which would be understandable. But blogging sometimes helps me process things, and I know giving thanks is what we as Christians can do, both in good and bad times.
With that said, here's the blog I started writing for this week...
_____
"Mama, I have big ears!" was the exclamation I heard the other day from my 4 yr. old.
MY 4YR OLD.
When I asked her who told her that, she just said, "oh, I just saw it myself."
Now, I have no clue what's going on inside my 4 yr. old's mind at any given time, but - just from her words - I can assure you she looked at other people's ears, looked at hers, and then came to a conclusion that she had big ones. Like a good, honest mama, I reassured her she didn't have big ears and that she was beautiful just the way she was. I also reminded her that God made her ears exactly the size they are, so that was His idea of beauty when He created her. And He knows better than we do what creativity and beauty truly is, doesn't He?
Y'all. I'm not sure at what age you were taught, figured out, or came to a faulty conclusion that you weren't "enough" in the looks department in any way, but I'm sure we've all had those kind of thoughts about some part of our bodies and at some point (or multiple points) in our lives. I once read that if you ask a woman - any given woman, on any given day - what she would change about her looks, she'd at least have 3 answers on the spot. When I read that, I thought that sounded silly. But then, I thought about the question for about 5 minutes... and you know what, I had 3 answers myself. Honest.
But really sad, right?
Why do we oftentimes feel the need to be discontent about our looks or compare ourselves to others?
I know we're taught from a very young age (or we conclude on our own at a very young age) that we don't measure up, but you know what? We can do a lot of different things with that information. We can stay discontent about it. We can compare ourselves to one another, and feel more or less about ourselves, based on our assessment of those surrounding us. We can spend inordinate amounts of time, money, and mental energy "fixing" all the things we want different about ourselves.
Or we can not.
While there's nothing necessarily wrong in-and-of-itself on spending money on nice clothes or makeup or haircuts or perfume or what-have-you, thankfully, we don't have to do any of those things in order to be rendered "beautiful" in God's sight.
I have an alternative. We can be content in who God made us to be. (It's not always easy, but it is oh-so-freeing.)
Psalm 139:14 says, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made." No matter what elusive beauty standard the culture throws at us, we can rest in this TRUTH that the God of the entire universe made us fearfully and wonderfully!
Fearfully and wonderfully, ladies.
Fearfully.
and
Wonderfully.
Today, we are going to thank God that His definition of beauty is deeper.
And here's what the Bible has to say about it:
I Peter 3:3-4 "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight."
I once did a Bible study by Elizabeth George on this verse, and she explained it like this:
"gentle" = "not causing disturbances"
"quiet" = "not reacting to the disturbances of others"
...or maybe my memory has those mixed up? Either way, you get the idea.
God is much, much more concerned with the inner person and matters of our hearts than He is our outward beauty. And you know what? We should align our thinking to God's, and not the culture's.
Though our culture sets us up for discontent and failure, we have victory in Christ. When God looks at us as His daughters, He sees Christ. Christ is our perfection. Christ is our beauty.
"Big ears" and all. ;-)
______
If I can, I want to provide some perspective to this issue after having a week of difficult sickness invade my house. (Sickness has a way of doing that sometimes.)
Oftentimes, we as women can only see other women at a surface-level-glance. We tend to measure by measuring sticks of this world that God would call foolish. We see something in another person and think to ourselves that if we only had that or looked like that then we would be better off. To be straightforward about it: that's a lie that discontentment sells us. And we don't have to buy it.
When we look at others, we don't know their hearts and we don't know their entire story. We see what we think is a glamorous snapshot, but we don't have the backstage pass or know how that snapshot fits into the whole movie reel of their lives.
I like to think of it this way:
We may envy her shoes, but not the places she's had to walk in them.
So consider that next time you slip into the discontentment of comparison and longing to be "her."
More than that, today, we can thank God that His beauty far surpasses anything this world can come up with AND that that beauty is available to us in His Son Jesus Christ.
Bringing it super close to home, take your 3 things you'd change about yourself (mentioned above) and turn them around to a praise to God for His hand of craftsmanship in your life.
(Ex. instead of complaining about having big ears, thank the Lord you don't have an ear infection right now.... and thank Him for giving you two ears... two ears that can hear all sorts of beautiful things... you get the idea.)
Ladies, let's start thanking God for all He has given us, instead of spending mental energy dwelling on what we think He should've given us. Along with that, let's live in our true identity in Christ and bask in the beauty that is ours in Him.
-----
I know my thoughts were scattered on this post. I'm going to blame it on sickness & mommy brain. :-) In all seriousness, I've included some resources below that are good to look into for more on this topic. Comment in the section below if you have any other resources you'd recommend on this topic as well.
Resources:
-Beth Moore did a fantastic job at delving really deep into this topic in her book "So Long, Insecurity." I would encourage and challenge you to read that.
-Elizabeth George's 1 Peter Bible study
So this week has taken a huge turn of events from what-was-planned, both in my little blog world and my little sliver of the real world. Just a week or two ago, I was sitting at my breakfast table, looking at our dry erase calendar on the fridge, and telling my husband how March looked so-thankfully-slow compared to previous months because we didn't have anything scheduled. Well - while still true that we have no place to be - it's easy to long to be anywhere else right now instead of a in house with two sick toddlers. Hope has an ear infection, and poor sweet Hannah has an ear infection, conjunctivitis of the eyes, and Flu type A that the doctor said has almost gone into pneumonia. Add on to that all the mommy guilt I have for not taking her to the doctor faster than when I did, and the nagging thought, "Would she be better off if I had taken her sooner?" Sigh.
I know, I know, you're probably wondering how any of this is encouraging? But I share all of that to just point out that real life happens, and when it does, it makes "giving thanks in all things" even more difficult. I almost didn't even blog this week because of it - which would be understandable. But blogging sometimes helps me process things, and I know giving thanks is what we as Christians can do, both in good and bad times.
With that said, here's the blog I started writing for this week...
_____
"Mama, I have big ears!" was the exclamation I heard the other day from my 4 yr. old.
MY 4YR OLD.
When I asked her who told her that, she just said, "oh, I just saw it myself."
Now, I have no clue what's going on inside my 4 yr. old's mind at any given time, but - just from her words - I can assure you she looked at other people's ears, looked at hers, and then came to a conclusion that she had big ones. Like a good, honest mama, I reassured her she didn't have big ears and that she was beautiful just the way she was. I also reminded her that God made her ears exactly the size they are, so that was His idea of beauty when He created her. And He knows better than we do what creativity and beauty truly is, doesn't He?
Y'all. I'm not sure at what age you were taught, figured out, or came to a faulty conclusion that you weren't "enough" in the looks department in any way, but I'm sure we've all had those kind of thoughts about some part of our bodies and at some point (or multiple points) in our lives. I once read that if you ask a woman - any given woman, on any given day - what she would change about her looks, she'd at least have 3 answers on the spot. When I read that, I thought that sounded silly. But then, I thought about the question for about 5 minutes... and you know what, I had 3 answers myself. Honest.
But really sad, right?
Why do we oftentimes feel the need to be discontent about our looks or compare ourselves to others?
I know we're taught from a very young age (or we conclude on our own at a very young age) that we don't measure up, but you know what? We can do a lot of different things with that information. We can stay discontent about it. We can compare ourselves to one another, and feel more or less about ourselves, based on our assessment of those surrounding us. We can spend inordinate amounts of time, money, and mental energy "fixing" all the things we want different about ourselves.
Or we can not.
While there's nothing necessarily wrong in-and-of-itself on spending money on nice clothes or makeup or haircuts or perfume or what-have-you, thankfully, we don't have to do any of those things in order to be rendered "beautiful" in God's sight.
I have an alternative. We can be content in who God made us to be. (It's not always easy, but it is oh-so-freeing.)
Psalm 139:14 says, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made." No matter what elusive beauty standard the culture throws at us, we can rest in this TRUTH that the God of the entire universe made us fearfully and wonderfully!
Fearfully and wonderfully, ladies.
Fearfully.
and
Wonderfully.
Today, we are going to thank God that His definition of beauty is deeper.
And here's what the Bible has to say about it:
I Peter 3:3-4 "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight."
I once did a Bible study by Elizabeth George on this verse, and she explained it like this:
"gentle" = "not causing disturbances"
"quiet" = "not reacting to the disturbances of others"
...or maybe my memory has those mixed up? Either way, you get the idea.
God is much, much more concerned with the inner person and matters of our hearts than He is our outward beauty. And you know what? We should align our thinking to God's, and not the culture's.
Though our culture sets us up for discontent and failure, we have victory in Christ. When God looks at us as His daughters, He sees Christ. Christ is our perfection. Christ is our beauty.
"Big ears" and all. ;-)
______
If I can, I want to provide some perspective to this issue after having a week of difficult sickness invade my house. (Sickness has a way of doing that sometimes.)
Oftentimes, we as women can only see other women at a surface-level-glance. We tend to measure by measuring sticks of this world that God would call foolish. We see something in another person and think to ourselves that if we only had that or looked like that then we would be better off. To be straightforward about it: that's a lie that discontentment sells us. And we don't have to buy it.
When we look at others, we don't know their hearts and we don't know their entire story. We see what we think is a glamorous snapshot, but we don't have the backstage pass or know how that snapshot fits into the whole movie reel of their lives.
I like to think of it this way:
We may envy her shoes, but not the places she's had to walk in them.
So consider that next time you slip into the discontentment of comparison and longing to be "her."
More than that, today, we can thank God that His beauty far surpasses anything this world can come up with AND that that beauty is available to us in His Son Jesus Christ.
Bringing it super close to home, take your 3 things you'd change about yourself (mentioned above) and turn them around to a praise to God for His hand of craftsmanship in your life.
(Ex. instead of complaining about having big ears, thank the Lord you don't have an ear infection right now.... and thank Him for giving you two ears... two ears that can hear all sorts of beautiful things... you get the idea.)
Ladies, let's start thanking God for all He has given us, instead of spending mental energy dwelling on what we think He should've given us. Along with that, let's live in our true identity in Christ and bask in the beauty that is ours in Him.
-----
I know my thoughts were scattered on this post. I'm going to blame it on sickness & mommy brain. :-) In all seriousness, I've included some resources below that are good to look into for more on this topic. Comment in the section below if you have any other resources you'd recommend on this topic as well.
Resources:
-Beth Moore did a fantastic job at delving really deep into this topic in her book "So Long, Insecurity." I would encourage and challenge you to read that.
-Elizabeth George's 1 Peter Bible study
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