Do I Love Myself?

My friend and I were working out the other morning and we had a very interesting conversion.  It was a good one and one that I'm sure is repeated many times.  We discussed why is it that we feel such the pressure to look like when did in high school when we are 20 years older and have 3-5 kids?  I would love to meet a woman who doesn't feel that way and explain to me how.  We decided that your 30's are just awkward years.  40 is considered over the hill and people kind of expect you to start aging and 20's you are still young and the metabolism is working great.  But the 30's, where do you fit in?  I went home and was thinking about that a lot.  It's been on my mind since Wednesday of last week.  I realized how true this question was.  I still want to look young, but yet I do have 5 kids.  I'm aging and my body just isn't the same that it was when I was 20.

I've been searching for an answer and I found it!!  I was reading a conference talk called, Give with Wisdom That They May Receive with Dignity.  I didn't even finish the talk because I realized how easy the answer was.  There were a few things that stood out, but the 2 things I liked the most is "I know I'm somebody 'cause God don't make no junk." and then "A person's image of himself is nothing more or less than what he has learned through his experiences and his interactions with others."  Now I'm going to attempt to explain how these 2 things answered my questions so bare with me :) 

The first thing, "I know I'm somebody 'cause God don't make no junk" reminded me of my favorite book

 

I love this book!!  I heard it for the first time on my mission and it made me cry.  I think it was the first time that I truly realized how much Heavenly Father loves me and who I am as an individual.  My favorite line is "I don't make mistakes."  The little wooden puppet was trying to do everything that everyone else was doing to fit in and stand out, when all he needed to do was learn to love himself for who HE was. 

 

Isn't it the world that has made us think that we need to be so much more.  The world has set the standard for how we should look, how skinny we should be, how big our curves should be, what type of clothes we should wear, what time of mom we should be, etc, etc, etc.  When are we going to learn to stop listening to all that nonsense and Love who we are!!  It is who God made us and what he wants us to be.

 

Now I'm the worse at this.  If I'm not wearing makeup these days, I avoid all mirrors.  When I take of my clothes to get in the shower, I cringe from the stretched out stomach of having kids.  I'm so hard on myself.  I'm made myself believe that I need to be someone else.  I only smile in the mirror when I'm dressed nice and have my hair and makeup done.  But tonight I realized that I should love the person I see.  I should smile anytime I see myself in the mirror.  The person without makeup has spent her time serving others, cleaning the house, or spending time with her kids instead of getting ready.  The body I have is beautiful because I have created 5 beautiful children and what a miracle that has been.  Now I'm not saying that you shouldn't exercise and try to eat right because you have had kids or not take the time to get ready everyday because you don't have time.  I'm just saying that we need to stop being so hard on ourselves and how we looks. 

 

The story of Mary and Martha took on a whole new meaning to me tonight.  I realized I do love myself!!  The person that I see in the mirror is a person who is striving to follow Jesus Christ!!  I'm trying to put His teachings into action.  Isn't that the better choice?!!