Why is It So Hard to Practice What we Preach?

God made you perfect.  He made you the exact size, shape, hair color, shoe size, hand size, nose length to carry out His purpose that He has so carefully planned out for you. Are you going to argue with God?  Who are we to argue with Him?

Sound good?  I tell my children that over and over again.  It is actually very true.  God made each and every one of us unique and special to do His work.  Daughter #1, who spent her summer at a Christian camp with teenage girls, told girls similar things all summer.  Girls spend a lot of time worrying about their weight, their clothes, how they look.  It all feeds into their self esteem and confidence as society tells us that beautiful is measured by specific criteria.  It's so NOT true.  Beautiful is measured by your inner beauty and how you love others.  

I'm not going to say it's not difficult in today's world.  Daughter #1 arrived home, after spending a summer with the Lord at camp ministering to youth and sharing her faith, twenty pounds heavier. The funnel cake for breakfast and all the afternoon snacks took their toll.  Oh my!  The scale yelled at her and it crushed her inner confidence and shattered her self image even though she was so confident in God's love for her.  She had spent her entire summer talking with girls about this exact issue and now she struggled with it even though she knew it truly didn't matter in life.

Then Daughter #3 worries about how her clothes look.  Do my thighs look big? Does this shirt look bad?  Does this shirt make me look fat?  No matter how many times I tell her the shirt is cute or the jeans look really good, the anxiety about looking "big" according to society standards streams through her head.  It just won't stop.  So I'm constantly working with her about her self image and how God made her perfect so that she could play volleyball the way she does and so on.  

Then there is me.  I am not exempt.  I am not big.  In fact, I am thin. I'm 5'9 and 125 pounds.  Yes, I know many of you are thinking "Oh my, she is skinny".  Yes, I am.  However, self image struggles hit EVERYONE even the skinny.  When I look in the mirror, I see thighs that rub together.  I see a flabby stomach.  I see rolls that hang over my  jeans.  Why can't I (who is skinny by all standards) accept what I preach?

It is so difficult and I acknowledge that even though we know the right thing to say as Moms or friends it doesn't mean that it's easy for us to practice what we preach.  Maybe, I am the only one out there.  This is one example, practice what you preach goes to all things.....like gossiping or texting while driving or lying even we think its a white lie (a child will see it's a lie and it's OK to lie).    

Last week, school started.  I walked into Daughter #3's room.  She is the one who I am constantly reassuring about her appearance.  I found a note taped to her mirror.  "YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL".  She is wiser at age 13 than I am.  We all need reminders in life for the things we struggle with so why not post them in BOLD letters where we see them daily.  I was so proud of her for taking on her struggles directly and not hiding from them.  Stare at them square in the eye every single day and one day those struggles will be a thing of the past.  What a great idea....from the mind of a thirteen year old!