When my son was in kindergarten, he painted me a picture. It was awful! The tree was the wrong color, and the grass was scribbled in a side-to side manner, instead of vertical, like grass is supposed to be! The clouds weren't at all realistic, and the flowers were way out of proportion to the rest of the background. I was ashamed of it! I would never want anyone else to see it. I wanted to throw if in the trash where it belongs!
How terrible of a mother do you think I am? Well, actually, I just made that whole story up! If you have been in my house, you have probably seen much of my boys' artwork proudly displayed for all to see. Because I love them so, I think everything they create is a masterpiece! I look at that sideways grass and think it looks perfect. I love that the flowers are huge! I love that their little minds saw the world in an unconventional way, and I love that they thought it was okay to paint a tree pink. They weren't held back by rules and opinions created by others. They painted the world as they envisioned it to be in their minds. They ran in the door the day they finished it, excited to present it to me and to see my excitement as well.
In my line of work, styling hair, I often hear people critique themselves negatively. They don't like their ears, they don't like their nose, they see themselves as too short or too heavy. People with dark hair wish they were blonde, and people with blonde hair wish they were brunette.
I think often about how sad our opinions of ourselves makes God, The God Who created us exactly like He planned. He put much thought into what color of hair we would have, and whether we would be tall or short. He took little pieces of our mother and father, and our grandparents and other ancestors for thousands of years, and combined each little detail to make us "Us".
What must He think when He sees us look in the mirror with disgust? Do we break His heart that we dislike ourselves so much? In His eyes, we are wonderfully made!
Think for a moment about my previous story. Were you imagining the look on my child's face at the thought of me degrading him? Were you feeling sympathy for how hard he worked, only for me to totally disregard his effort? Would you ever think of reacting the way I pretended to react earlier to an Almighty God, our Creator, if He Himself handed us a hand-painted original He created just for us?
Don't break God's heart. Embrace who He made you to be. Love what He created and appreciate His vision for who you were supposed to be. You are beautiful, and you are exactly who you are supposed to be. Show Him how pleased you are with his artwork!
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
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