I’ve always thought those movie lines when a guy says to a girl as she wakes up, “My you are beautiful,” are corny but I’m rethinking that today. You see, in a recent conversation I was told that ‘If you want to see how beautiful someone is, look at them when they just wake up or are sleeping or are bone weary tired.’

Initially, I laughed because these are the three most likely times we are bleary-eyed and look our ‘worst’. They are makeup free moments that show our greatest perceived vulnerabilities that we usually hide from the world alongside our greatest assets. These are the moments when we see the truth about ourselves and either love or hate it.

Can you stand to look at and love yourself in the mirror straight out of sleep or when you are exhausted and just want to crawl into bed? If yes, kudos. If no, allow me to ask why? It’s not random that many of us don’t like what we see when we look at ourselves. It’s a plan from darkness to disrupt what God has said is good so that we move away from the master plan.

Nothing happens outside God’s realm of knowledge.

This simply means that He was aware from scratch who we are and that this is the road we would take to be in this place on this particular day. This awareness will make Him allow the insecurity but ensure He has planted enough signs in and around us that tell who we are and how he sees us that we may hold onto that reality, deal with the matters at hand and choose the right way… His way!

I remember the conversation because even as I had been complemented I was still wondering if I was actually looking beautiful after a long day in the sun, driving around the city and helping others achieve their goals. Then I remembered all the glances that kept coming my way as I passed different people all day. The heads that turned as we drove into the garage, the ones that turned as we negotiated for wares by the road, or as my little man and I crossed the road, or as four of us walked into a restaurant. The ones that turned as we walked to the car, as we entered the supermarket, as we chatted with friends outside the restaurant or the guard at the gate as we drove into the estate.

None saw how worn out I felt on the inside and I realised the calmness was because I was leaning on the strength my Papa had given. The tiredness was only evident to those I had spent the day with who knew just how much we had expended as well as a few family members who know me well. I’m not always at my best when I am tired but my Papa makes all things beautiful regardless of the situation and this was one such time.

So I choose to believe that since He created me and said “Beautiful,” when He was finished, I can stand on the same and be sure that in my most natural form…

…I am beautiful: I am beloved