Beautiful Flaws

In a world where our culture revolves around the need to be perfect, it's hard to find your flaws "lovable." There's always something you hate about your body: you think you're overweight and your eyes are too close together; maybe your nose is too big, or your ears are crooked or you hate the way your feet look in flip flops.  It's so easy to get caught up in our flaws that we forget about the ways they make us beautiful and unique.

I'm sure you've all heard of Bethany Hamilton, the girl who lost her arm to a shark attack when she was thirteen. I absolutely love her movie Soul Surfer. It not only has a great message for seeing your body for what it is than for what it isn't, but it also shows Bethany's struggle with her relationship with God and her relationship with surfing. After her accident, you see Bethany sitting in her room as she rips off the arm of her Barbie doll. Her mother, Cheri, comes in and tells Bethany that she likes the Barbie doll better with one arm. Bethany says, "I thought at least with clothes on I could have two arms, I thought I could look normal."

I love Cheri's response, "The right guy will love you exactly the way you are because you're beautiful."

And you are so beautiful!

Cheri then shows Bethany a picture of Venus de Milo: the pinnacle of beauty. "And she has one less arm than you," she tells Bethany. What an excellent example of what beautiful really is. When you can find your flaws beautiful, when you can look at yourself in the mirror and say that you are beautiful because of your flaws and not in spite of them, that is what beauty truly is.

In an interview, Bethany said, "There's definitely times in my life where I'm just struggling with body image whether it be having one arm or feeling like I'm fat or having bad hair or a pimple but there are just so much worse things in life than what you look like." Who would have thought that the outgoing, encouraging Bethany Hamilton would be insecure over having a pimple? I guess there's a lesson in this, everyone feels insecure from time to time, but you can't let it get to you.

The media leads us to believe that if we dislike something about ourselves, we can get a quick fix, whether that be with a crash diet or surgery. But you know what? Liposuction isn't the answer to your "fat" thighs. In a survey conducted by the Girl Scouts of America, thirty three percent of girls had a distorted view of their body and saw themselves as overweight. The media is feeding us lies!

Jacqueline Saburido is also a woman I admire for her self-esteem. Jacqueline was a victim in a drunk driving accident in 1999. She was the only one in her vehicle who survived; however, Jacqueline was left with third degree burns on over sixty percent of her body. After undergoing over twenty surgeries, Jacqueline appeared on the Opera to share her story. When interviewing with Opera, Jacqueline said that she only allows herself five minutes a day to cry. If this woman can still keep going after losing everything, how can we possibly shield away when we have a pimple or are having a bad hair day?

In honor of embracing our flaws, I feel the need to tell you one of my insecurities. I think my nose is too big. There, I said it. I have been insecure about this for a long time, but the more I tell myself that I'm beautiful because of my nose, the more I believe it. Besides, we all have our own insecurities and we are most likely focusing on ourselves rather than scrutinizing others. So . . . LET GO OF YOUR INSECURITIES.

If you can't find your flaws beautiful, then for every flaw you see in yourself, write down two things that you love about yourself. This isn't limited to your outward appearance. I think that you'll find when you stop focusing on your flaws you'll see the more beautiful things in yourself that you never saw before.

1 Samuel 16:7b says, "For God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." We need to remember that before we fix our distorted view of body image, we need to fix our heart. Our heart is what God looks at to see our beauty; and that, therefore, is the most important form of beauty we could ever imagine. We can't fix our heart with plastic surgery, we need to fix it by getting right with God, by reading our Bible, and, most importantly, by praying to Him. Once we are right with God, we can find beauty within ourselves and it will spill into our outward appearance.

Bethany leaves us with this advice, "I think the secret to finding positive self-esteem is just loving who you are and just go for it."