“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are beautiful and I know that full well.” 

Psalm 139:14

Growing up in a time like this can be very upsetting, to say the least. On top of dealing with Coronavirus, we also face the burden of school, losing and gaining friends, and most importantly, body image. Everyone deals with it. A lot of this is because of being exposed to what we “need” to look like at such a young age due to social media and advertisements. We have this permanent picture in our minds of what society expects us to look like when, in reality, God made us perfect and we don’t need to do anything to change. Many people, including myself, lose sight of this and you often fall into social standards of how to make yourself look ideal through other people’s eyes. But through God’s eyes, you will always be perfect.

There are four main aspects of body image. The way you see yourself (perceptual), the way you feel about the way you look (affective), the thoughts and beliefs you feel about your body (cognitive), and the things you do in relation to the way you look (behavioral). Many of these can be viewed negatively. For example, the way you see yourself may be rather distorted because of the thoughts and beliefs you have about your body making you view your body differently than what it truly is. The thing is that, it is truly God’s work in all of its perfect glory. Furthermore, the way you think, view, and feel about yourself can impact the decisions you make about your body. Decisions like skipping a meal to lose weight or working out excessively to get the, once again, “perfect” body.

We all have struggles with our bodies. And that’s ok. But what’s important is that God loves us no matter what we look like. The only person you ever need to impress is Him and you’re already doing that. Always remember that we are both fearfully and wonderfully made and God knows and sees that we are beautiful.

Dear God, I pray that You will always remind us of Your everlasting love regardless of what we look like. I pray that you reach out and help us when we feel cast aside because of unrealistic social standards and help us realize we will always be perfect through your eyes. Amen.