2.01.2010

beautiful you


Three little words every woman longs to hear and most struggle painfully to believe.
I know my own heart has been at odds with this elusive phrase.

I've felt woefully insecure much more often than I've ever felt truly beautiful.  I tried to tell myself that maybe I really didn't need to be beautiful after all, maybe beauty wasn't really that important.  But I never could completely convince my heart of this.  And in all my conversations with my glorious Heavenly Father, I realized that beauty was important to Him as well.

Hovering as an artist over his easel, God composed a world of breathtaking and wondrous loveliness.
And the crowning glory of his creation?  Man and woman.
Men he spun from the clay of the earth; strong, virile, and dominant.
Women he fashioned from the rib of man; relational, life-giving, and beautiful.
Both are formed in His image, both reflect different aspects of the nature of God.
But the world since those perfect days of creation has attempted to re-write the beauty that God designed.  Somewhere along the way, the definition became exclusive.
And I didn't feel like I quite fit the bill.

I vividly remember a heart wrenching time in my life when I was bound by insecurities and I was desperate for God to help me see myself the way He saw me.  I'll never forget what He whispered to my soul.  His gentle plea was simply, "Let me love you."

I dared in that moment to ask him how.  How was I to let him love me?  I thought I was already.  His patient smile hinted that I had much to learn.   There was more, so much more to His love than I could even begin to imagine.  And He began to show me;  In glimpses,  in little gifts, in time-stopping moments when I felt bathed in a love too sweet for words.  Slowly, tenderly, steadily, He revealed to me my inability to love myself had been keeping me from receiving my husband's love as well as the love of my Heavenly Father.

God has done some major heart re-construction since that illuminating moment.  All my ugliness was laid out before him and He didn't flinch.  He didn't run away.  He didn't leave me in the hopeless mess of shattered pieces that I believed myself to be in.

No, He simply changed my looking glass.  
I had been peering into the wrong mirror.  A dirty old cracked mirror the world had hung up in my room years and years ago.  A mirror riddled with lies that I had too easily accepted.  He replaced it with His own--the mirror of His Word.

And this mirror says I'm beautiful.  In a million different ways, God is reminding me that I captivate His heart.
"The king is enthralled by your beauty.  Honor him for he is your lord."  ~Psalm 45: 11
God is not a man that he should lie.  He's crazy about us.  He delights in us.  The Bible tells us that "as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you." (Isaiah 62: 5)  
Wow.  The God of the universe is head over heels in love with us!

Now, when I catch my reflection in His mirror, I find a woman washed in the love of a Savior, purchased by His very own life, accepted as His daughter, rejoiced over as His bride.  

I'm learning to let Him love me.
To let Him write me love letters, send me flowers, bathe me in acceptance, sing songs of love over me.
And everyday His love is surprising me.


**Visit (In) Courage for more divine love stories...

34 comments:

Mrs Anne said...

this post resonated within me.
thank you for posting this.
thank you for sharing this.
thank you for inspiring me.

thank you.

PaisleyJade said...

Beautiful!!! I have walked that journey too.

Missy said...

Thank you for this.
I am still walking in the negativity. It is a daily struggle for me to accept when my husband tells me I am beautiful.
One of the reasons I am taking a blog break is so I can begin hearing that loving voice from our Father.

Unknown said...

We are wonderfully and fearfully made! I once read that we should stand in front of them mirror and say Psalm 139:14 over and over till we believe it true.

Just like what you wrote. We are accepted in HIm! Praise His Holy name!

Love you in Jesus,
Dani Joy
PS: I may use some of this on my fitness blog. Beautiful post! thank you!

Unknown said...

This post was such a blessing to me - thanks so much for sharing your heart!

Kelly @ Sufficient Grace Ministries said...

Beautiful post...beautiful you!

Charity said...

You are beautiful inside and out. Thank you so much for sharing this, I feel those same insecurities and believe those same lies from time tto time, and the truth is they don't exist any more they were bought with a high cost and I need to let them go and be the bride he desires me to see myself as.

Thanks you and God bless,
Cha Cha

Amy said...

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing your heart and HIS love.
Blessings,
Amy

Kelly said...

Thank you for sharing this! I needed it today.

Unknown said...

Amen and thank you! Great post that spoke to my spirit!

Stephanie said...

I love when you post about your conversations with God. You ARE beautiful, inside and out!!!! You have been an encouragement to me!

Kristin said...

Wow, Joye. Another beautiful post from a beautiful person!!

Sarah said...

Simply breathtaking. To be drenched in His love that spills into the lives of others.

Sarah Dawn

Darcie said...

Oh, thank you so much for this "beautiful" post! It truly spoke to my heart and for that I thank you!

Wylie @ Shout A Joyful Noise! said...

Sweet friend, please come by to pick up an award I have for you when you get a moment!
Wylie

He & Me + 3 said...

What a beautiful post. We are all so valuable to Him and so perfectly created. I love this.

Holly said...

Even when I don't feel very beautiful God things I am. I think that He makes me beautiful.

The Single Nester said...

Just beautiful. God bless!

Pilar said...

This post is so beautiful. I am leaving your blog blessed because of it. You have touch my heart and many others today.

Laura said...

Thank you for your post. One of my new year's resolutions is to believe, truly believe, my husband when he tells me I'm beautiful. It has always been a challenge.

Deb said...

(sniff...please pass me a tissue.) I LOVED LOVED LOVED your sharing Jesus' sweet words to you: 'Let me Love you'...and you already thinking that you were letting Him...I am at that very point TODAY. Your encouragement means the world to me...and I take your words as a Word from Him. Thank you so very much...

christy rose said...

"Let me love you" He is whispering that to all of us! How different our lives will be when we finally learn to receive that deep passionate love that He longs to pour into us.

Natalie said...

Wow. Wow. Wow. Thank you, Joye. Thank You, Father.

Catherine Anne said...

Thank you for posting this is beautiful and so very true...

Anonymous said...

Beautiful...thank you for this post!

So Sunny Day said...

"He simply changed my looking glass"

Love it. I would love to place this qoute in my home. great reminder for all of us beautiful ladies!

thanks for sharing, blessings :)

~ Emily N. from "too Blessed to Stress"

Suz said...

My husband and I were talking about this very thing last night. Men don't seem to suffer from the same looking glass that we do.

We have to look at us through God's eyes and know that he thinks we are beautiful. It's hard sometimes when the world gets in the way with its message of perfection. But God is stronger and will prevail.

Mike and Debbie said...

Very beautifully said!!

Erin said...

"Women he fashioned from the rib of man; relational, life-giving, and beautiful.
Both are formed in His image, both reflect different aspects of the nature of God."

This is the most perfect definition of beauty I have ever seen.

I hope I can teach it to my daughter, and to my sons.

melissa said...

a beautiful love story...this is the true meaning of beauty that somehow we as women seem to forget...and i love that...just letting God love us...what a liberating place to be...

much love,
melissa

Anonymous said...

WOW. So true and so beautiful. Every woman should read this.

{darlene} said...

Great post. Thank you.

Deidra said...

Perfect! This is so perfect! Long ago, when I had spent way too much time looking in the wrong mirror, I heard God whisper to me, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." Oh, how He loves us all.

Annie said...

Oh my goodness... I just love, love, love this post. Thank you so much for sharing it with me! It lays out perfectly what I've been teaching my high school girls. (And that verse from Psalms? I love it.)

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