The Beautiful Belly Challenge- Part 2

For the past few days, I have been hearing an excessive amount of "I'm fat" or "Do [fill in the blank] to lose weight!" and it makes me sad. As women, we all go through our ups and downs of feeling great about our bodies, or feeling like whales. But the honest truth is: we are all beautiful! It makes me sad that media, other people, our ourselves are telling us that we're not good enough.

I'm not saying that being healthy doesn't matter. I believe whole heartedly that we should work each and every day to make our bodies work the way God intended them to. For me, this means taking care of myself by eating healthy, exercising, and spending time in prayer with God. We have one body. For our entire life! So love it! Treat it well!

I have been struggling with my weight since before I can remember. I wouldn't say I'm overweight, but I'm not tiny either. I constantly find myself comparing myself to other girls in the room and thinking "I'm the second biggest" or "me and her about the same size."

Last year, I took a trip with the women of InterVarsity to a lake house where we all hung out, had fun, and talked about God. The focus of the trip was to talk about our worth. "Put your worth in God" "Don't put your worth in boys or other people" blah blah blah. Not that it's not good to hear, or that it's not completely true, but we've all heard it before, right? At least I had. But then we took a quiet time. We all spread out and had our own time with God. I chose to sit on the dock with the lake lookin' all beautiful next to me. I focused on the verse "The King is enthralled with your beauty" Psalm 45:11. It was tough for me. I didn't get it. How could He be enthralled with our beauty? Especially mine?! What did I do to make me so beautiful?

I journaled and journaled and cried and thought about all the things I had done wrong in my life. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. Here I was, sitting on a dock looking out at this beautiful lake with the sun shining in the blue sky. I was captivated by the beauty that God had created. And then there was me. I was not cute. My hair was greasy (we were only allowed 1 shower the whole weekend to save water), I was in my biggest sweatpants and old t-shirt, I had no make up on, and my stomach was stickin' out (we all know the feeling). I felt ugly. But God was captivated, enthralled, with MY beauty. Mine! He loves me! He just does.

Ever since that weekend I have attempted to accept my body for what it is. Since then I have also changed my eating habits. I eat healthier and feel better. But I still have days where my tummy sticks out and I feel fat. But I try not to focus on it. I try not to compare myself to other girls. Being a girl is hard. We have a lot to worry about. But let me just take one thing off of your burden: you are beautiful. The Lord is enthralled with your beauty!

Take this button, write a post about what real beauty means to you, post a picture of your beautiful belly, and pass it on! Go here to link up so I can read your beautiful stories! Oh. And as promised, here is my beautiful belly:

And here's the button for the Beautiful Belly Challenge: