Exhaling the ugly; Inhaling beauty

"What if you have a genuine and captivating beauty that is marred only by your striving?"

[Captivating - Stasi Eldredge]

I find that I am constantly comparing myself to those around me. I tend to diminish my own beauty by trying to seek out greater beauty in others. Do you ever do this? Why do we strive for greater beauty?

I act as though I can't have a true beauty of my own because I'm not pretty, skinny or captivating enough. I don't always have it all together. Correction, I NEVER have it all together. This makes me feel like I am less than because everyone else seems to be killing it in all of these departments.

Do you ever feel this way?

Are there days when you struggle to know your true worth/value? I have days like this all of the time. We live in a world that is constantly throwing this idea at us that, if we aren't a certain body type, wear this brand of makeup, or have that specific "sex appeal", then we are not worthy of love. You may say, well the world doesn't say that exactly. You're right. It doesn't necessarily use those words. However, the bible tells us that the prince of darkness is like a lion, prowling around for it's next victim. Ladies, we are those potential victims. When we allow our minds to be cluttered with nonsense that media, society and even those in our own lives are throwing at us, about true beauty and love, then we are essentially throwing ourselves in front of the enemy saying, "Here I am! devour me!".

How do we protect our minds from becoming a battlefield with constant warfare of lies being shot at us? We need to shift our focus from striving to surrender. Our mindset needs to be that of growing in the knowledge and understanding of who we were created to be; rather than fixing our so called, "imperfections" to meet a standard, in reality, we will never meet.

Something I have been practicing lately is to "Inhale God's beauty; while exhaling the ugly that swirls around in my mind". Our thoughts can overwhelm us many times by the way they intrude on us when we least expect it. When that happens, I urge you to stop those thoughts in their tracks, inhale the beauty of Jesus and exhale the ugly state of mind you are in.

It's in this, that the truth of who you truly are, how the Lord created you, and your captivating beauty will be clearly seen.

Don't allow your striving to hold you back from the world experiencing your alluring, captivating true beauty God has placed in each and every one of you.