Masterpiece
I had a chat with a friend today.
She is beautiful.
She has a perfect figure.
She sees skin blemishes and fat.
I saw a picture on Pinterest the other day.
A photo of a woman looking at herself in the mirror.
She was clearly anorexic, yet the image in the mirror was a large size reflection of herself.
Someone she would call fat.
I struggle with this myself.
Both those women look better than I do.
They are slimmer than I am.
I see myself next to them and feel IT.
That sinking feeling of unworthiness, ugliness, non-value.
That I-want-to-run-in-the-closet-and-hide feeling.
That suck-in-your-gut-and-stand-straight-because-that'll-make-me-look-slimmer feeling.
That grade school feeling of all the times the cute guy would pass me over and approach my best friend.
Or another beautiful girl. Or the thin girl.
Not me.
This isn't a self pity moment ~ just some hard truth.
We all see ourselves so differently.
What one sees in themselves, others don't see in them.
What a burden to bear.
I read a scripture today about God's masterpiece.
"For we are God's masterpiece ... " (Eph. 2:10, NLT)
I started thinking on it.
I believe God to be Creator.
Just look at nature and the phenomenon of the design of the human body.
Different translations of the scripture use different words here
~ "handiwork" (NIV)
~ "workmanship" (NKJ)
~ "masterpiece" (NLT)
But all point to a Creator. An artist. One who has put work into creating something.
I like "masterpiece".
For I am a piece of the Master.
He in me, and I in Him.
He has taken a piece of Himself and breathed life into it, creating me in His image.
So that I become His masterpiece.
I like that.
I suppose self-deprecating thoughts and feelings need to be cast aside in light of this.
But life and culture show us that it is very hard to do so.
It's hard to convince those of us who have lived under this shadow of poor self image that our thoughts are somewhat skewed.
And that we can indeed know and believe the truth that we are each a masterpiece.
And so I struggle.
But, I can also purposely choose to take up the new mantra of "I am His masterpiece. I am His masterpiece. I am His masterpiece."
And so can begin the re-sculpturing of my mind and heart.
There will still be days that the mind speaks too loudly about this, but then the hammer and chisel are pulled out and reshaping happens yet again.
She is beautiful.
She has a perfect figure.
She sees skin blemishes and fat.
I saw a picture on Pinterest the other day.
A photo of a woman looking at herself in the mirror.
She was clearly anorexic, yet the image in the mirror was a large size reflection of herself.
Someone she would call fat.
I struggle with this myself.
Both those women look better than I do.
They are slimmer than I am.
I see myself next to them and feel IT.
That sinking feeling of unworthiness, ugliness, non-value.
That I-want-to-run-in-the-closet-and-hide feeling.
That suck-in-your-gut-and-stand-straight-because-that'll-make-me-look-slimmer feeling.
That grade school feeling of all the times the cute guy would pass me over and approach my best friend.
Or another beautiful girl. Or the thin girl.
Not me.
This isn't a self pity moment ~ just some hard truth.
We all see ourselves so differently.
What one sees in themselves, others don't see in them.
What a burden to bear.
I read a scripture today about God's masterpiece.
"For we are God's masterpiece ... " (Eph. 2:10, NLT)
I started thinking on it.
I believe God to be Creator.
Just look at nature and the phenomenon of the design of the human body.
Different translations of the scripture use different words here
~ "handiwork" (NIV)
~ "workmanship" (NKJ)
~ "masterpiece" (NLT)
But all point to a Creator. An artist. One who has put work into creating something.
I like "masterpiece".
For I am a piece of the Master.
He in me, and I in Him.
He has taken a piece of Himself and breathed life into it, creating me in His image.
So that I become His masterpiece.
I like that.
I suppose self-deprecating thoughts and feelings need to be cast aside in light of this.
But life and culture show us that it is very hard to do so.
It's hard to convince those of us who have lived under this shadow of poor self image that our thoughts are somewhat skewed.
And that we can indeed know and believe the truth that we are each a masterpiece.
And so I struggle.
But, I can also purposely choose to take up the new mantra of "I am His masterpiece. I am His masterpiece. I am His masterpiece."
And so can begin the re-sculpturing of my mind and heart.
There will still be days that the mind speaks too loudly about this, but then the hammer and chisel are pulled out and reshaping happens yet again.
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