Self Image

Today we live in a society where image and reputation is everything. From the way we look down to the house we live in, the car we drive and or even clothing labels. Growing up as a teenager in a home with love and from my family, I still struggled with my self image.

Now when I looked up the word self image in the Webster's dictionary, it is defined as one's own idea or self perception".Things can be perceived in so many ways. If I were to ask three students in a classroom to describe a picture painted by Michelangelo, I would get different adjectives.Would any of them be wrong? No. Why? Because they described to me what they saw.What I am trying to say is that we all perceive things differently.

My mom never gave me the perception that my self image was a problem. She always taught me that how I perceived myself is important.But the question is why did I feel as though my physical shape was all wrong? I often thought to myself why my friends had longer hair than I did, or how come the other girls hips were much bigger than mine or how come I was the shortest in the neighborhood? This was how I saw myself.I thought the way I was born was all a mistake.It even got to the point where I would starve myself and attempted to commit suicide so I could escape my mind.There were other factors that came into play with my self-image.

     I admired artists like Brandy, Tamia, and Beyonce. The way they dressed and how men would just lust after them. I remember my mother taking me to the salon to change my hair-style every 2 weeks and buy me new clothes when she could.To be honest after all that,I still felt something wasn't right with me.That feeling that I had was all because it was not about my physical structure, but all internal.Trying to look like a celebrity and adding weave to my hair was becoming exhausting and costly.

     Years later, I came to know someone who would help me see that there was no mistake in the way I looked.His name is Jesus.The scripture that I can first remember and never forget is Genesis 1:27-
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of GOD he created Him;male and female he created them". If God made me in his image then that means that I resemble him in a realm that I can't see. From the various science books of the theorists and their opinions and how this world was created, they all concur that God is an artist whose personality is mysterious.

     Basically as I take this time to encourage myself and have a panoramic view of what I should look like, I want you to look at yourself in the mirror and point out all those areas you don't like and ask why.While looking, you should also realize unless you're a twin (whom by the way has differences), you are a designer's ORIGINAL.There is no one who looks like you or can be you, other than you.So what if I don't have round hips like Beyonce, long hair like Ashanti or legs like Tyra Banks, that's not the image I was meant to have.Learn to wake up daily and love on yourself. Tell yourself daily no one looks like me,I am righteous,loveable,wonderful and I AM a designer's ORIGINAL.

Then I noticed as I started to accept the image I was created in and began placing a higher value on  knowing who I belonged to, people started seeing me differently as well. People around me saw me as this flawless beautiful woman inspite of what I thought was wrong at the time.God's desire is that we see what He sees.

Because no matter how much surgery you have,tattoos or breast implants you have,YOU have to realize that your image must change inside first so you could be at ease with how you were made. YOU ARE NO MISTAKE!!!!