Body Image and how should we see ourselves?

When I was 13 years old, at the beginning of year 8, I was about to enter high school (this was before year 7 was the start of high school). It was the summer of 2016, and I was the kid who was bullied for my weight. And 3 months into the school term, I spent a month in the Hospital with anorexia, because I wanted to be "skinny" enough to have a boyfriend and do the "movie high school stuff", which, by the way, is a movie thing, and when it isn't, it is sad and often ends pretty poorly.

I'm happy to say I'm not like that anymore. I don't hate my body or compare it to people on social media, doomscrolling for hours, coveting the bodies of others. I cannot hate my body anymore. Why? because Psalm 139:14 "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful, I know that full well." What does fearfully mean? It doesn't mean he was scared of making you like "This one is going to be a troublemaker, oh boy" No, fearfully means carefully. God was making you carefully; every detail of your body was made carefully by the creator of the universe, the one who cannot make mistakes. 

When did we start feeling shame about our bodies? Here is the answer
Before the fall, it is said in Genesis 2:25, "Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame." Regardless of whether Eve was 50 kg or 150kg, she was not insecure about it. She didn't care about the size of her chest, her hair colour, her eye colour, her nose, eye or mouth shape or anything like that. Until the fall...

When the fall happened, as we see in Genesis 3:6, "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it." Then in Genesis 3:7 it states that "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realised they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 


This is when shame starts after a rebellion, after evil. We won't feel this in Heaven, no. We will love our bodies because of how God made them. Every part of you is unique, even the parts you "hate" about your looks. You might say this about your looks, "Who would date me?" 

I won't lie and say looks mean nothing; we all, unfortunately, have had it drilled into our minds that some people are better designed than others... Some people are "pretty" or "handsome"; though that varies person to person, what we find attractive, some men like thinner, taller women with curly hair and brown eyes and a more Roman nose. And some men like shorter, chubbier women with straight blonde hair and blue eyes, and a button nose. However, any man worth marrying will NOT only care about your looks! We as Christian women should look to Proverbs 31, where a "wife of a noble character" a woman described as being "more precious than rubies" in Proverbs 31:10. 

Christian men, men of quality, worthy of a relationship with...worthy of your hand in marriage, will know that "A beautiful woman who lacks discretion is like a gold ring in a pig’s snout." -Proverbs 11:22
Pigs at this time were considered unclean, and a gold ring symbolizes value and beauty. The meaning of this proverb is this. Beauty without wisdom or morality is worthless. A God loving man, who will lead a family well and be a Godly husband won't only care about your looks.