Have you ever felt ugly before?
I have. When I got my first pimple in junior high, I felt ugly. When I got braces as a freshman, I felt ugly. When I was 9+ months pregnant and swollen like a watermelon, I felt ugly. And every time I go outside and my hair frizzes in the sticky Houston air, I still feel ugly.
Feeling ugly is not fun.
But do you want to know when I feel the ugliest? When I lose my temper with my husband or kids. Ugh. I absolutely hate the after taste of those moments! I feel ashamed. I feel like a hypocrite. And, yes, I feel ugly.
But here’s the beauty of feeling ugly. It doesn’t have to last. There’s this wonderful gift that God gives us called Forgiveness, and it’s wrapped in the beautiful package of Christ’s Righteousness. God doesn’t just take away the ugly in our lives. He gives us the beauty of Christ and helps us live beautifully in our everyday lives.
That sounds pretty enticing, doesn’t it? If you want to stop feeling ugly and learn more about biblical beauty, check out Laurie’s Bible study, Beauty by the Book, with free online video lessons!
Your mirror will thank you.
Q: Are y’all ready to open up yet? When do you feel the ugliest?
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Emily Ryan
Jan Hart
Laurie Cole
Priority Ministries
I understand your message. However, posting that picture (not of you), just hit me wrong. That person is someone God made. She is not ugly to him. She is someone’s daughter, maybe their mother or grandmother.
I did pray about this, this is not to chastise you. Rather to perhaps revisit this post and the picture content.
In the love of Jesus….
Thanks for your comment. You are right. I agree that everyone is beautifully created by God. But the world still sees wrinkles and grey hair as “ugly.” The whole purpose of the Beauty by the Book study is to remind us that the world’s standards of beauty are not the right standards. This pic was meant to emphasize the stereotypical (wrong) views of beauty, not to endorse them. Hope that makes sense! Thanks again.
I deeply struggled with negative body image after my son was born. Beauty by the Book changed my life! It really helped change my attitude and I am proud to say I am a negative body image survivor! God helped me put that experience to good use by putting it in my heart to start a blog to encourage other women, talks at MOPS about self image, and to friends around me about it. I recommend this bible study all the time because it really did help me in so many ways. In fact, just a few days ago I recommended the teen version to a friend of mine with a teenage daughter. It really is a great bible study!
Hi Emily………..Happy New Year ;~) Yep. I’ve definitely had those days when I felt ugly inside & out. Thankfully, most times, it only lasted for a day or two. But there was a period, or season, in my life that ugly didn’t even touch how very bad I felt. But I had a lit’l grannie whom I KNOW prayed for & over me every day. And day by day, week by week, month by month I began to heal & almost at least once or twice a month God would put one of His angels in my path that would lift me up, higher, towards Him…………It’s the warm, safe, bright & shining place that you simply just can’t feel ugly anymore because you’re His child & nothing nor any one can touch that….
unless you let them. Thank You Father God for your Loving Grace.