Daily Archives: 06/04/2018

Love Me; Love You

The last couple of days have been challenging with a combination of flu and lots of work. Several days I didn’t even have an appetite but ate because of medication and the need to keep going. I even resorted to adding sips of energy drinks to my life for the energy boost I needed. What struck me the most is that all I needed was a sip here and a sip there to get through; a 250ml bottle takes me more than 24 hours. Crazy right? But that isn’t the story here.

I have an additional coach who is just as committed as my other one. I have wondered why God would allow two people to come in and just offer to push me as if one isn’t enough. Anyway…I digress. She is super fit by all standards and has nothing to lose or so I thought yet is an encouragement to me of overcoming adversity and physical challenges. A few years ago she tore a tendon totally and was told she would never get back on the fitness path again. Many of us would take that as permission to give up and lie down, yet not her. It has been a long journey but she is fitter and more active today than before the injury and is back to wearing her heels. I am encouraged to own the space I find myself in.

Last weekend I spent time with a wonderful group of high school students discussing media and its impact. In the middle of sharing it hit me between the eyes that my issues with my body began a long time ago because the booksI was reading presented a certain type of woman as the perfect image. Well, it didn’t say outright that this is the perfect woman but there was a reference to certain measurements. dimensions and shapes that were appreciated and I was those dimensions in class six so you can image that shortly after as I continued to grow I passed the beautiful size and so begun the silent journey and internal battle of I am not good enough.

No one external told me I was big in fact, I remember the boys around me staring until I begun wearing long skirts to cover up and avoid the attention. As I grew older I would attract attention and it would make me feel uncomfortable and that I need to change things about my body so they stop staring. It is only recently that I have realised that they aren’t staring (yes they still do) because I was garishly fat, it was because there was and still is beauty to observe, cleverly placed there by God.

I had judged the situation and taken a position about myself, stamped and sealed it as final and then moved forward with a false perspective. On the outside I was cool and confident but on the inside I was always working on getting and staying a certain kind of small so I could be and remain beautiful. As I have undergone the last ninety seven days of fitness, one of the exercises has been to look at myself. I have looked at myself in the mirror…really looked and begun to see the beautiful girl God created, somewhat shy at times, with a big smile and beautiful curves. I haven’t lost loads of weight…just 2.4kg and several inches yet I love me as I am. I see me as different; I believe God’s word over me.

You see, I have finally understood, just under thirty years later, that I am beautiful because God has said so. Period!!! No other reason needed.

pexels-photo-247670.jpegHe couldn’t be out of his mind when he ‘…formed my inward parts; HE covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise Him, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are His works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from Him, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. His eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in His book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.’ Ps 139:13-16 NKJV (Paraphrase is mine)

Love who He created you to be…Embrace His plan for you.