"Try" - Colbie Caillat

I head this song recently and it made me think again about how caught up we get in trying to make ourselves something we aren't. We spend loads of time, energy, and money trying to make ourselves look a certain way and be the "ideal girl" who has everything put together and perfect all the time. I did a quick google search and found that the average woman will spend $15,000 on beauty products over the course of her life and another $125,000 on clothing, handbags/purses, shoes, etc. and the current generation is expected to raise that number to as high as $200,000. Congratulations! You could have bought a small house for that much!

We get so sucked up into the mindset that we need to look good that we forget what really matters. Many woman are constantly thinking about what others think of them, and sometime in your life you have probably asked yourself, "do others like me?" Yes it is nice to feel valued and appreciated by others, but is that really your ultimate goal? I think of Matthew 6:19-20 which says, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." Are you laying up treasures in heaven, or are you focused on the here and now that will one day be taken away and destroyed?

Where is it that you get your self esteem and worth? Do you find it in what others think and say about you? Or do you get it from God? Have you accepted the perfect way God created you? Do you love the way you are? What in your life really matters?

For quite a while I struggled with accepting the way I looked. I didn't feel beautiful and sometimes I even felt that I was ugly. I'm not sure how I got this idea or why I did it, but when I looked in the mirror I began telling myself I was beautiful. Eventually I started believing it and when I saw myself in the mirror I didn't have to tell myself I was beautiful, I saw it! The girl I saw in the mirror was perfect because God had made her just the way he wanted her to be!

I'm not at all saying we shouldn't put effort into making ourselves look nice, in fact, all my sisters (and brothers) could tell you that I love getting new cloths, new shoes, creating new outfits, doing my hair, and wearing makeup. When we do these things we just need to make sure were are doing them for the right reasons. Embrace the way God make you and believe that you are just the way He wanted you to be! We have no need to try and be something we aren't. JUST BE YOU!

Sister, You are Beautiful!