Respect Your Body First

We must first learn to love and appreciate our body before we look to someone else to find it beautiful. This awesome appreciation for for our body opens the door for others to find us desirable and worthy of respect. Like a fast-moving virus or a silly laugh, how you feel about your body is contagious. If you carry yourself and your body in a way that communicates confidence, security and contentment, others will get this vibe and reciprocate it. If you are blessed to become a mother or a mentor someday, you will have the opportunity to teach your daughter (or encourage another girl) to be confident in her own skin, even though some of our moms or mentors may not have been able to do that for us.

As a friend, you can model to your girlfriends how to love and find beauty in their own bodies by finding beauty in your own. If you walk and talk like the body beautiful daughter of God you are, you can liberate the women around you from the bondage of negative self-image. How can we expect our boyfriends, husbands, children and friends to cherish us if we don’t see ourselves as worthy? God has already called your body “good”. You are the crown of His creation and He wants you to walk in this truth and communicate it to the world around you. So walk tall and carry your body like the temple of God it is. If we are going to change the ways of this world, it has to start with us.

Let's do it!

*Excerpt from HEAL: Healthy Eating & Abundant Living by Allie Marie Smith & Judy Halliday (Coming December 2008)