Love the Skin You're In

You may recognize the title of this post from an ad on TV. Olay has used the slogan "Love the Skin You're In" for years. As I was thinking about what I could title this post this slogan crossed my mind, however, I couldn't remember which company used it. So I turned to the trusty old Google to find my answer, but what I stumbled upon was even more amazing. I typed in the phrase but the first thing that popped up was a link to a site that campaigns for the empowerment of young women, to try and "Inspire young women to lead authentic lives." I was blown away! The exact issues I have had laying on my heart are those of insecurities--not just those that women/girls feel but men/boys also feel. We all feel insecure in some ways, we all compare ourselves to others and we all are cruel to ourselves.I am not sure about you but I am my own worst enemy, I constantly critique myself and compare myself to others which causes me to think I need to compete with them. Lately I have been really working on my self confidence and I have been practicing being kind to myself! We are taught to be kind to others and we need to be taught to be kind to ourselves. We try so hard to be perfect and the best that when we fail we are so hard on ourselves. How can we ever expect to succeed if we are are our own worst enemy, continually beating ourselves down?It is time for us all to take a deep breath and remind ourselves that we were created with intention, a beautiful and meaningful purpose.Genesis 1:31"God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good..."We are a big part of God's good creation. We just need to start believing it. We need to recognize that we are special and we were hand crafted with all our quirks and imperfections and that God has declared these as good.Isaiah 64:8"Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand."And yet we look at our own brothers and sisters in this world and compare the work of art we are to the work of art they are. We compare ourselves and we usually declare that we come up short. This thought process has got to stop! So I am going to target one of the main enemies (at least among this generation). Social Media. Social media has its perks but it also has many downfalls; people use social media to project a perfect image of their life-- without the flaws, ordinary life experiences, imperfections, hurt and realness. It is just an image--one that was probably planned out with the intention of getting attention and applause, that come in the form of likes. I am going to be honest, I have made myself MISERABLE looking at social media and comparing my real life to the perfect image of life others have posted. It was toxic and I was unhappy and insecure.  But since Easter I have not been on my Instagram's newsfeed, I have posted here and there but I have not scrolled through its newsfeed. I stopped posting and checking snapchat's My Story. And slowly but surely I have weeded out Facebook.I feel free! I am much more focused on the life I am living here and now, I am not constantly on my phone (my phone's charge lasts longer) and I have begun to stop comparing myself to others. I found a quote the other day that essentially stated that comparison is the number one enemy of joy. And I will be the first to admit that I know that for a fact. But I finally had enough and I cut it out--I do not want to be responsible for my own misery, my mental health is far more important that finding out where someone went on vacation.Social media is not all bad but I can say that holding real conversations, nurturing real relationships, and living in real time is far more rewarding than wasting hours a day scrolling through social media comparing someones perfect image to your everyday life. Social media is a HUGE HELP to me with my blog. It has been a great platform to share my blog. I like the good that social media can do but I dislike the bad it can and does cause.So my advice to you is find the things that make you feel insecure and weed them out. Social media was one of the things that made me feel insecure and I finally recognized the harm it was doing to me. If you know something is not good for your self confidence then stop it. You have the power to be kind to yourself so choose to be kind. Give yourself a much needed break and simply decide to love the skin you're in. I believe we can never live fully into our God given purposes until we can respect and love the temple we have been given.1 Corinthians 6:19-20"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body."My dear sisters and brothers--you were bought with a price, please recognize what that means. You are worth far more than you could ever imagine. Be kind to yourself and others. And love the skin you're in.May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.