You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also?
In Luke, Jesus says to the Pharisees
Hey Pharisees,
Who you are on the outside? My father made that.
Who you are on the inside? That was him too.
Since sometime around January, I think, God has been teaching me to love who I am on the outside.
To the point that for a period I deliberately stopped wearing make-up, purposely set my alarm later to keep myself from thinking much at all about what I would wear that day, and wore my hair back, basically only brushed, for weeks.
I felt plain at best
Like a boy at worst
I've definately never worn much make-up to start with, been a fashion icon in any sense, or overly concerned myself with what was popular this day or that one, but I didn't realize just how much I was concerned with what people thought of how I looked or how much of my self-esteem was based in what boy smiled at me or what girl said I looked cute that day.
And I don't think there was anything wrong with any of the things I've had to generally renounce for a while, at least not until I relied on them to make me who I was.
And as the days and weeks and months have gone on
God has changed my heart and mind
And I've learned that Jesus loves me
That I really am beautiful just the way I am
And I've always known that, don't get me wrong
But as well as I may have known it, I don't think I believed it
So reading that verse last week in Luke came with a big realization.
In context, Jesus is telling the Pharisees that God created the outside and the inside and cares about both--that they're living right as far as people can see, but living for people to see isn't living at all--that they're following all the right rules and doing all the right things, but their hearts aren't right.
But that same truth, that God created me inside and out, took on new meaning.
I've learned to love the outside God created
What about the inside?
