What Does ‘Made in the Image of God’ Mean? – Seeing Yourself as God Sees You
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Does it seem like you look at all these women with their messy buns and sweats with clean, makeup-free faces and they look AMAZING, but you feel like when you do it everyone asks if you’re sick? I get you!!! Maybe you feel like you just don’t measure up to other people even when you know you are made in the image of God, not to be like other people! We can’t seem to avoid that comparison!
But the Bible, from the onset, tells us that we, His creation, are made in the image of God. In Genesis 1:27 we read:
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
niv
In His OWN image. Not in the image of the angels, not in the image of animals, not in the image of other people we should look at and compare ourselves to. Each and every one of you is created out of love, God’s love, and are made in the image of God Himself.
Seeing yourself as beautiful and as God sees you can be far more difficult at times than seeing yourself the way you THINK the world sees you. Sometimes the negative things are easier to believe. I know that to be true of me! So how do you learn to see yourself as made in the image of God and how HE sees you? Read on to learn more!
Seeing What God Sees – I LOVE Makeup!
And I mean seriously love!! I am trained as an esthetician and makeup artist.
I love playing with colors and textures, experimenting with it and helping people learn to apply it. Makeup is fun! Makeup is awesome!!
Well..it’s SUPPOSED to be fun anyway.
It is supposed to be to enhance your natural beauty and bring out what is already there with color! It’s not supposed to be to hide behind or to try to change your appearance. That should never be what makeup is about!!
But lately…
Lately, it has felt more like shackles for me.
You see, recently I realized I started to feel like I NEED it.
Does it seem like you look at all these women in their messy buns and sweats with clean faces and they look AMAZING and then you feel like when you do it everyone asks if you're sick? I can relate! Click To TweetI work from home. Many days, I don’t leave the house and I don’t see anyone but my family.
And yet, every morning I feel the need to do my hair and makeup, even when I don’t feel like it.
Although I love makeup, there are just some days I want to throw on sweats and pull my hair back and not wear anything on my face. I want to go with the nice, clean-skinned look (Ok I want to be lazy just ONE day! Nothing wrong with that!).
Made in the Image of God – Feeling Comfortable In Your Own Skin
Some days I set out to do just that! I mean, who is going to see me?? The dog??
By the time my husband gets home most of my makeup is worn off anyway! So really, am I doing all this for the dog to look at?
No, he looks at me like it didn’t help anyway!
He’s an Olde English Bulldog…he’s a bit judgmental.
Yet each time, I end up heading into my room mid-morning and applying at least SOME makeup, even if it is just foundation and lipstick!
I’m not doing it for anyone else; it is my OWN need.
You see, I initially thought the problem was that I have worn makeup for so many years that I have begun to dislike my appearance without it.
But the reality was actually the opposite.
But I Disliked My Own Appearance
I disliked my appearance so much that I BEGAN wearing makeup.
I was using it in a way that it wasn’t meant to be used.
It wasn’t the makeup that was the problem. It was the fact that all these years I have used it as an attempt to cover up what I saw as flaws in my appearance.
The makeup was simply the cover-up for the real problem; my own lack of self-worth. It was my own issue where I was basing my value on my appearance!
My face is too pale and red (I have slight rosacea)!
My eyes don’t stand out!
I look old!
I look sick!
The gap in my teeth looks more pronounced!
The list could go on and on and it did!
Made in God’s Image But Yet I Disliked Myself at the Core
I realized that not only did I not feel beautiful, but I also disliked myself at the very core! I didn’t think I was good enough so I relied on the one thing I DID like; my ability to apply makeup! It became a crutch.
If I attempted to go without it I would walk past a mirror and actually look with disgust at what looked back at me.
I told my husband about it. My husband is so amazing! He just doesn’t get it, bless his heart. He sees me as beautiful no matter what. So he just couldn’t understand.
You see, the gap in my teeth that I hate? He thinks is awesome! He says it is unique to me and it sets me apart from everyone else. In spite of what I think, he really loves it!
The extra pounds? He loves that too! He doesn’t want me super thin!
I hate how I look in pictures when I smile. He loves my smile in the same pictures that make me cringe because he sees the beauty that lies in the happiness behind that smile. He’ll say “I love this picture of you!!”, and I will look at him like he’s lost his mind and I’ll ask “eww..why??” He answers with “You look really happy in it! I love your smile!”
When I see myself looking old, he tells me that I look much younger than I am!
If I tell him about wanting to go without makeup, he simply says “So, don’t wear it.”
Simply don’t wear it!
He doesn’t get it because he thinks I am beautiful no matter what and the very things I hate the most about my appearance, he loves!
Made in the Image of God – The Beauty Within
The way my husband sees me reminds me a lot of how God sees me.
Seeing yourself as God sees you means looking beyond the superficial.
God sees beauty IN me, not from outward appearance. He isn’t interested in that.
He sees me as beautiful because I am made in the image of God. So He sees me as beautiful because before I was in my mother’s womb, He knew me, He formed me.
He sees me as beautiful because he sees no flaw in me, as the beauty of His own creation.
Psalm 34:5:
“Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.”
niv
God sees me as beautiful because He is not interested in outward adornment but in a gentle and quiet spirit.
Seeing yourself the way He sees you means looking at the value He places on us for the beauty inside of us, not outside. We have value because of who HE is, not because of what we look like, what we do for a living, who we know, what car we drive, how expensive our shoes are.
1 Peter 3:3-4:
“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”
NIV
He wants me to find my worth and my value in Him and in what His Word says about me, not what my mirror says about me.
Ephesians 2:10:
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
You Are Beautiful in Every Way
You are beautiful because you are made in the image of God, knit together by Him, and that means realizing that you, my dear sister, are beautiful; fearfully and wonderfully made! You were made in the image of God and have His Holy Spirit within you!
Let that sink in for a minute!!
Seeing yourself as God sees you is giving praise to Him because it means you see the beauty in His most precious creation…you!
When you look in the mirror, what you should see looking back is a Princess because you are a daughter of the King, made in the image of God Himself!
So today, I sit here without makeup on. My best adornment today is a gentle and quiet spirit. It is the crown I wear that gives me beauty! It is the crown of a child of the King. When His Spirit fills you, you glow with a beauty that the best makeup in the world cannot compare with!
Seeing yourself as God sees you is giving praise to Him because it means you see the beauty in His most precious creation. You![ Click To TweetYOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!!
And you know what? So am I! Even if the dog doesn’t seem to think so!
My best adornment today is a gentle and quiet spirit. It is the crown I wear that gives me beauty, the crown of a child of the King Click To TweetScriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
Awhhh! The way your husband sees you is so precious. I loved reading about that. It’s incredible to realize that God is even more crazy about us, His girls. So we can rest in that and know that we are marvelous because He says so! Makeup or not!
P.S. I like makeup too ?
Oh thank you!! You make such an excellent point…we are marvelous because He says so! That takes so much pressure off of us if we would just allow it!! We don’t have to try to win approval!