Dear friend,
But the LORD said to Samuel, “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for I don’t see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
I stood in front of my closet this morning for ten minutes doing that thing where you try on three shirts and hate your body in all three, like the shirts were never the problem. My daughter asked why I kept making a face at the mirror. I did not have a good answer for a four year old. I do not have a good answer for myself either, if I am honest. I have done this for years. Different mirror, different decade, same face.
I am not writing today to tell you how to feel better about this. I do not think I have that. I just keep thinking about how struggling with body image shows up in the small unguarded minutes, not the big ones. Not at the doctor. At the closet. In a dressing room. Scrolling at a red light. It is quiet and it is constant and it does not care that you already know better.
I wanted to say the plain thing first, before anything else. This is happening to you, and I am not going to pretend it is small. What does the mirror actually say to you most mornings?
A prayer
God, she is tired of the face she makes at her own reflection. She does not need a fix today, just to know You see more than a mirror does. Stay close to her this morning. Amen.