Jenny turned the pages of her fashion magazine slowly, taking in all the details on each page. She adored how all the models looked, the clothing they wore, and how happy and glamorous they looked as they smiled back at her from the pages of the magazine.
From a young age, Jenny had always wanted to be a model. She had fond memories of trying on her mother’s shoes and pretending that she was walking down the runway as a beautiful model.
As Jenny grew older, she began to realise that this dream was never going to be possible. She began to see herself as ordinary, not as beautiful girl or model material. There was nothing about her that looked beautiful, and nobody ever complimented her on being pretty. She was not tall and skinny like the models, and her face was just plain with no striking features.
When she compared herself with other girls in her year level at school, she knew that she was not as pretty and as beautiful as them. They were the ones that got all the attention, all the popularity, and all the boyfriends.
Jenny felt unattractive and unwanted, and she wondered if anyone would ever love her. So began Jenny’s story of “I am not beautiful” and her life quest to attain it.
We live in a world where the standards of beauty are well-established, where being a certain weight and having the “right look” is the accepted definition of beautiful.
It is a world we are judged instantaneously by our looks and criticised if we do not measure up.
Sadly, a person’s worth and value are all too often summed up by how good looking they are.
However, this outer beauty is not our real and true beauty, and is not what makes us truly beautiful.
For our true and real beauty is knowing who we are and having confidence and self-respect. It is having boundaries and setting standards on how we treat ourselves and how we allow others to treat us. Self-respect starts with seeing our own uniqueness, accepting ourselves, and not needing to compare ourselves with others.
So this week’s challenge is to examine how much you exhibit self-respect in your life. Look at how you speak to yourself: Is it kind and considerate or cruel and harsh? Take time to examine how you treat yourself and how you allow others to treat you.
When you speak and treat yourself kindly and give yourself praise, you build up your confidence. You develop belief in yourself, and your self-respect grows.
Nothing is more beautiful than a person who knows who they are and is confident, strong, accepting, and values themselves!
Forever creating
Deborah Ruth
