Friend, we have all struggled with low self esteem at different points of our lives. I remember getting picked on when I was young about how light skinned I was and how big my nose was. I didn’t address these traumas and carried these experiences with me well into child-bearing years. I remember praying to God that he would give my son his dad’s nose instead of mine. God already had the plan for my son to look just like me and have the same nose. I concerned about how he may be bullied throughout his life like I was. As parents, we want our children to experience the paths of least struggle, and live a better life than we did. Even to this day, if someone were to say anything minutely as a joke about my nose I instantly get defensive and plot retaliation. Low self esteem is a journey that we must address in order to grow from it.
The fact of the matter is, we all have something that we are not proud of and wish we could change whether it be internal or external. We may put on a facade and try to make people think we are fine and not effected, but truly deep down, we are. We alter ourselves in order to evade public scrutiny. We get fake boobs, fake butts, lip fillers, tummy tucks, nose jobs, if we have straight hair we want curly, eye surgery to change our eye color, the list goes on. The basis of our displeasure lies in the fact that we are struggling with the identity that God gave us. We want more, we want what we think is better.
My friend, still to this day, we are being deceived by the enemy, and falling for the same old tricks that Adam and Eve fell for. You see, we start out with something good and un-corrupted, then the enemy comes along and changes our mind. He does this by planting seeds that quickly spout and grow. Before we know it, we begin to take on his narrative instead of what God said. He whispers the lies he knows we are most susceptible to and trips us up into taking the bait. It’s a sad scheme that we are still oblivious to.
Have you ever asked yourself who you were trying to please? If you get that corrective surgery done, then what? You’ll be perfect? You’ll be satisfied? Rude awakening, my friend, more torment is going to come your way. You see you took the bait, the enemy has even more torment for you on the other side of that bait. Adam and Eve’s torment was that they were going to die, childbirth would be painful for Eve, etc. etc. etc. The enemy gives you bait so that you can fail. God gives you warnings so that you can live abundantly. Just think of all the bullying that goes on with celebrities that have undergone plastic surgery. They also thought that they were fixing an imperfection. The decisions they’ve made is not only effecting their natural born health, but it’s also unnatural to the eye, which will in turn effect their mental health whether you want to believe it or not. The displeasure is never-ending. Go to the comments on any social media post of a celebrity that has gone under plastic surgery, and notice how they are drug through the mud. This is just an example of how we are unsettled in how God made us.
I want to encourage you to learn how to accept your identity. The Lord CAREFULLY fashioned us. Everything we were knit with was for a well thought out reason. I was born with this nose and skin tone to build character and confidence in my formation. My unique features have given me the opportunity to gain influence and exposure. God knew that despite my self esteem, I would be a model and someday become the face of my clothing brand. He knew that every feature is what would make me…..ME!!!
The things we think are burdens could actually be the one thing others may be praying to have. I encourage you to accept what you currently have, because it’s a lesson in it. As you learn to embrace what makes you, you’ll learn to enhance and use it to the best of your ability. I want you to contemplate what the lessons are you need to learn in conjunction with what you consider a “flaw”. The WORLD tells you it’s a flaw. But, who does the WORLD belong to, my friend? Satan!!! He is behind the beauty industry, music industry, the media, and so much more. These are the distractions that we are drawn to. He maneuvers each of these avenues in a way that he can place deception in our minds. We have to learn how to strengthen ourselves and build ourselves up through God’s Living Word. I too am learning the lies of the enemy, where he usually trips me up, my vulnerabilities, and then I am praying over those things with a vengeance. We have to listen to God to see how to better maneuver the enemy with each attack. He switches his schemes to best suit our new seasons of life. We must learn how to work better with what we have, and turn our weaknesses into strengths. Friend, if your weaknesses become strengths, what does the enemy have to torment you with? Join me in this fight of our TRUE identities, we are more than conquerors and we have work to be done.