Personally, I believe this sort of crap flies in the face of reality. I mean, you think about it: Do you really want people to like you because of what you wear? Would you like to be accepted in your circle of friends just because your skin is perfect, your hair is shiny, or your butt is just the right size? What happens when you have an accident and your stuck in a hospital bed unable to look after yourself? What about the many, many people who for different reasons can't compete with the flashy television images? Does your worth and value change? Are you less valuable because you don't measure up. I may sound a bit dramatic, but I do feel strongly about this particular subject.
Recently I saw an interview with a young lady named Lizzie Valesquez from Austin, Texas who has an undiagnosed medical condition that only 3 people in the world share. To say she looks very different to your regular glossy magazine bimbo is an understatement! She's in her 20's, and weighs less than 30 kilograms (less than 70 pounds). Apparently she's written a book, and in it she writes,
God made me the way I am for a reason and I would never change that. I lead a normal life as much as possible and deal with the bumps in the road as they come along with my head held high and a smile on my face.
I am not at all sure of her religious leaning, but her book title says it all: 'Lizzie Beautiful'.
As I watched the interview I was amazed at her conviction. It wasn't just some 'positive thinking' facade here. I think she has caught on to something which is rare indeed - she actually confesses, believes, lives, and breathes the idea that true beauty is what you are on the inside.
Judging by the out-pouring of support and encouragement following the TV interview, I think the vast majority of people can relate to her struggle with acceptance, although on different scales. If this is true - that most people believe that true beauty in not what's on the surface - then why do we put up with so much BS from advertising guru's? Would we buy toothpaste based on an advertisement where an "ugly" person with crooked teeth was used?
I also think that Lizzie (and her parents, it seems) has discovered a little-known, life-changing, and mind-blowing truth which has it's origin in the Bible. Around 1000 BC a song of thanks was written to the Lord that says,
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb. I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking! Body and soul I am marvelously made. I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. (Psalms 139: 13-15 The message)
Another translation says, "Thankyou for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvellous-how well I know it."
Can you imagine looking in the mirror at yourself and repeating this? Could you see yourself making these statements about yourself in spite of how you, or how you think others feel about you? This is liberating stuff! Free to be myself; free to be just who I am.
30 years ago Amy Grant wrote a song/prayer that said in part, All I ever have to be is what you made me.
We live under a lot of pressure to conform to other peoples ideas about what we should wear, who we should try to look like, how we should smell, what car we should drive, what alcohol we should drink, etc, etc. Don't you ever feel like breaking the mold and just being yourself (and getting away with it)??
Talk again . . .
