Body Image Defines Our Confidence

We are learning how to increase our self-confidence in my series, Confident in God's Hands. Today, I'd like to address the importance of body image in our quest for higher self-esteem.

Check in with your body.
Your body image plays a huge role in determining your level of self-confidence. If you don't feel comfortable in your own skin, how can you possibly feel confident out in the world?

Take time today to really check out how you feel about your body. Stand naked in front of a mirror and assess yourself from head to toe. Most people zero in on the parts that they don't like: hips that are too wide, a belly that is flabby, or breasts that are sagging.

How about praising yourself for the parts that are just right? We can thank God for giving us all of the proper parts, expressing appreciation for limbs that function without pain. We can marvel at the beauty of our skin, which protects us and holds everything in place.

Consider this. Genesis 1:27 tells us, So God created man in his own image. God has created us to be as radiantly beautiful and healthy as he is. So how come we're so unhappy with the way we look?

Why do we hate our bodies?
We have been programmed by the media to hate our bodies for a number of ridiculous reasons. Magazines depict women in skimpy outfits who are stick-thin with enormous breasts. The men in the media have six-pack abs and biceps bigger than their heads. These extremes are not what God had in mind when he made us in his image.

The media teaches us to believe that our bodies should become something impossible. Barbie dolls have such nipped-in waists that no girl could possibly attain such proportions. Women have tried. In the early 1900s, some women actually had surgeons remove their lower ribs to make their waists smaller. A number of these women died during surgery or from intestinal complications afterward.

I believe that we hate our bodies, because we have abused them. We eat poorly, don't exercise, and allow ourselves to become so overweight and out of shape that we look awful in the clothes we wear. Standing naked in front of a mirror is so painful that we avoid looking.

What did God have in mind when he designed our bodies?
The best way to answer this question is to look at the perfect man, Jesus of Nazareth. He was most likely very fit, because he worked as a carpenter and walked everywhere. He probably had some sizeable biceps and admirable ab muscles. But he wasn't taking steroids to bulk up just to impress someone or to look great in a toga. Good body image was a by-product of his healthy, active lifestyle.

We have become obsessed with looking like Hollywood models, but our lifestyle doesn't allow us to attain what we want. We can't sit at desks all day long or in front of the TV all evening and expect to be as radiantly healthy as Jesus was. Our bodies have been designed to move in order to achieve the type of strength that builds confidence in our body image.

Today's Challenge
For today, pay attention to what you think about your own body. How do you feel in your own skin? Look around at others and consider how they might feel in their bodies. Do people exude confidence? Or do they slump in embarrassment over their appearance? Tomorrow, we'll consider some strategies to help us build a better body image.