you are beautiful!!

Friday at MOPS, Dr. Deborah Newman, a Dallas counselor and pastor to women, came to talk to all of us mommies about body image issues with our preschoolers. The statistics she mentioned were shocking - so many of our littles think terrible things about their bodies - and I think they get most of it from listening to us. It makes me cringe to think of the number of times I've looked at my reflection in the mirror, in front of their impressionable little ears, and uttered "so fat..."

I'll be the first to admit that I don't look like I looked at 18, or 22, or even 26 for that matter...but WHO DOES after having kids, and the old metabolism slowdown that comes with being in your 30's, and WHY do I try to live up to an impossible standard? Why can't I just be content with who I am, with how God has made me?? I'm not saying that I need to just give up, and stop exercising, and eat junk all day...but I need to realize that God has made me to do way more than obsess about the way I look in a pair of jeans.

So on Friday, Dr Newman had us pair up, and say a statement about who we are, in light of being God's children, to each other. It made me cry...I just get so caught up in what the world would have me think of myself, that I can't even remember the truth about who I am to the One who created me. I'm not going to put it here, because I think that everything on her website is copyrighted, but I'd love to challenge you to visit her website here, and find "You are beautiful," about 4/5 of the way down the page, at the bottom of the section "What's a mom to do?" Find a trusted friend, a sister, someone you connect with, and say it to each other. You can certainly tell yourself this in a mirror...but it was so powerful to hear these words spoken over me by a trusted mentor and dear friend.

Again, here's Dr. Newman's website - I'd challenge any of you who might be inadvertently passing on lies about body image to visit. It's going to be a regular stop for me!