Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

As I turn the page and enter my forty-first year I look back at how I've changed, or should I say, how God has changed me...

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? ...

 The Bible says, Do not worry about your body.... 

In my twenties and thirties I agonized over my weight, wishing I was thinner. I remember when on a date with my husband, after I had had my second child and barely fit into a size fourteen, crying and wishing God had made me differently. I wonder how many times I have looked in the mirror and hated what I saw, basically telling God that there was fault in his creation. How many times I have told him that I was not " fearfully and wonderfully made." 

The Bible says, Do not worry about what you will wear...

In my twenties and thirties, I would change my outfit five or more times most days, because I didn't know who I wanted to be in that moment. Did I want to look cool and casual, sophisticated, girly, or tough, all the traits that I as a woman already embody, but I would worry about what outfit or jewelry would best portray the personality of the day, and how the world would see me.

God asks, "Isn't life more than outward appearances?"

I love how God uses birds as an example of being fully dependent on Him...birds are beautiful, they are all unique, and they each have a different song to sing. Much like people. But, a chickadee doesn't desire a robin's red breast or when nibbling on a seed think, "I can only eat the sunflower seeds because all the other seeds will make me fat." They know and trust that they are cared for and they know that they are "fearfully and wonderfully made."

God asks us..."Are you not much more valuable than they?" 

I have a post-it note on my mirror that reminds me everyday that I am fearfully and wonderfully made and that no matter, shape or size, I am who He intends me to be. My body is not my identity and my clothes do not convey my personality, God does.