Wonderfully Made

It's amazing how something that has seemed so complicated, confusing or impossible can suddenly become so clear and simple once you are looking at it the right way.

I decided that in order to overcome this issue I have with self-acceptance and self-esteem, I really needed to search and find out what it really means. I've been on a mission, searching for bible verses on self-acceptance and I've spent time in prayer asking God to help me understand and overcome this obstacle. My Mom gave me a WONDERFUL book to read, called "Who Calls Me Beautiful?" It's really speaking to my heart.

I'm discovering that my real problem is that I look at myself through the eyes of the world. Everything that I measure myself against is either appearance, possessions or status. And NONE of it really matters. None of that makes any difference to who I am, on the inside, and IN HIM. I see now that the first thing I need to do, is stop comparing myself to everyone else and everything around me. I need to stop and look at myself through the eyes of the one who made me.

One of my friends suggested a verse to me. It's so simple and yet it speaks volumes: "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." --Genesis 1:31 EVERY THING--that includes ME.

While searching for more verses on self-acceptance, I came across this passage: "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. " Psalm 139:13-16

I have known these verses for years, and yet as I read them it was as if I was reading them for the first time, and a light came on. God knew me before he made me. He knew who I would be, what I would look like, who my parents would be and who my children would be. He created me with plan and a purpose. I'm not just some pile of scraps he just threw together and said "Oh well, I tried."

As I dug deeper, I found more verses that spoke to me about my negative self image. These next few made me feel ashamed as I realized I have been guilty of "quarreling" with my Maker:

"Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'He has no hands'? Isaiah 45:8-10

All those times I have looked in the mirror and said negative things to myself, I have been complaining about God's perfect work. It is as if I am a lump of clay telling the Potter he doesn't know what he's doing...totally absurd. Who am I to say that? Nothing. Nothing but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. I have no right to judge his perfect work. And yet, every time I have complained about myself, for whatever reason, I have done just that.

"You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"? Isaiah 29:16

It is time for me to start appreciating God for making me who I am. My God does not make mistakes. He did not make one when he made me. His works are wonderful. He made me. I am wonderfully made by Him.