You Are Beautiful…Just As You Are {Coffee for Your Heart}

I think Holley Gerth and God may be staging some sort of conspiracy against me. Every week the topic she has posted for her Coffee For Your Heart series has been something I needed to remind myself just as much as I believe you need to read it. I suppose if it is a conspiracy then it is a conspiracy that is not so much against me as it is FOR me.

You Are Beautiful…Just As You Are!

I hear those words and my head and heart automatically reject them. I have bought into the lie that if I am not a certain weight or a certain dress size then I am not good enough. Believing that lie (and countless others), I have diminished myself and invalidated my gifts because they are not wrapped in the “perfect” package. When I look in the mirror I don’t see beauty, I see only my flaws. I see all the things “wrong” with me. Instead of a smile that lights up my face, I see too much teeth showing and I try to make my smile less broad so I show less teeth & gum. Instead of hair that is wild and beautiful and adds to my uniqueness, I see gray hairs that need to be covered up and a ‘fro that needs taming so I can look the part and be accepted.

I suspect that I am not the only one who struggles to see my beauty. So today these words are for your heart, as well as for mine:

You are beautiful!

YOU, with the crooked smile and gap in your teeth, ARE BEAUTIFUL

YOU, with the wrinkles lining your eyes and mouth, ARE BEAUTIFUL

YOU, with your gray hairs that speaks of wisdom gained and a life well lived, ARE BEAUTIFUL

YOU, with your full hips, round belly and thighs that rub together, ARE BEAUTIFUL

YOU, in your frazzled, haven’t showered in 2 days because the kids have been sick state, ARE BEAUTIFUL

YOU, with your straight hair that refuse to look at, let alone embrace curls of any kind, ARE BEAUTIFUL

YOU, with your nappy, naturally curly, refusing to be tamed hair, ARE BEAUTIFUL

YOU, with that extra 10, 20 or 50 pounds, ARE BEAUTIFUL

YOU, with your narrow, rail thin body, ARE BEAUTIFUL

YOU, with your loud voice and passionate heart, ARE BEAUTIFUL

YOU, in your shy, afraid to let anyone see you personality, ARE BEAUTIFUL

YOU, with the sadness in your eyes from a sorrow you can hardly name, ARE BEAUTIFUL

YOU, with your purple hair and wildly imaginative fashion sense, ARE BEAUTIFUL

You Are Beautiful!

Just as you are, without changing a single thing, you are beautiful. You have been fearfully and wonderfully made by the hand of the Master Designer and He NEVER makes a mistake.

So please stop hiding. Please stop holding back your light because you don’t look the way “they” say you should. The world needs your beauty. It needs your imperfections, if only to remind us that there is beauty in the imperfections. Let your light shine bright today. Flaws and all!

From my heart to yours,

Makeda