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When did it become so rare to love yourself that it is now revolutionary to do so? That\u2019s a question I came across very recently and it just hit home.<\/p>\nWhen did it become so rare to love yourself that it is now revolutionary to do so? That\u2019s a question I came across very recently and it just hit home.<\/p>\n
Loving yourself has become such a foreign thing that when you do, people stand in awe of you like \u201cWow, how awesome is that?\u201d. Yes, it is totally awesome that you love yourself, but why should it be one of those things that only a few people have? Loving yourself should be a universal feeling, like joy or excitement, we should all love ourselves, so why don\u2019t we?<\/p>\n
As a young woman who once lived in such a deep self-hate for myself, I can totally relate to those who feel bad about themselves. I get it. We see ourselves at our absolute worst, with our bad messy morning hair, our imperfect complexions, the scars and marks that feel like they cover our entire body, and all the other random things we pick on. We look at ourselves like that for so long that it does change the way we see ourselves, because then when we go out and someone compliments our hair, we immediately think back to that morning hair struggle we had that morning.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know about you, but I still battle to accept compliments even now. Someone will say \u201cHey! I love your hair\u201d and I\u2019ll either just brush it off and pretend they didn\u2019t just say that (It\u2019s so bad, I know) or I\u2019ll shoot them back with a \u201cOh, trust me it didn\u2019t look so great this morning\u201d and kind of down play the compliment. Truth is the way we see ourselves versus the way people see us, they are often so different, it\u2019s almost like being in two different galaxies.<\/p>\n
I feel like people don\u2019t really know what they\u2019re talking about when they complement me because they don\u2019t see me at my worst, they only see the side of me that is dressed nicely because well like every other woman on earth, I wouldn\u2019t dare leave the house looking bad. Honestly though, I am wrong in thinking that. People may not see all sides of me, but when they complement me, they are just saying what they are seeing. A change of mindset is in order. When people say something nice to us, we need to learn to accept that as truth. Why would they say \u201cnice hair\u201d if your hair isn\u2019t looking so great? Why would someone call you beautiful if you didn\u2019t look it?<\/p>\n
So part of our self-image problem is comparison. Oh my, the way it irritates me that we always compare ourselves, I actually irritate myself when I catch myself comparing myself to someone else! I don\u2019t understand why we do it, and I really wish we wouldn\u2019t because it\u2019s probably one of the biggest things that tears our own self confidence apart. Society has put so much emphasis on what we look like, what we wear and the type of body we have, it\u2019s not fair. We are not all meant to look the same, and sound the same. God made us UNIQUE for a reason. We aren\u2019t meant to be carbon copies of each other, we are meant to be the unique and beautiful individuals we were created to be. You are beautiful in your own way.<\/p>\n
I know you are probably thinking \u2018well that\u2019s what people say to those who don\u2019t fit the model standard\u2019, and its super clich\u00e9 to say that, I know, but it is the truth. Let\u2019s take flowers for example, a white rose and a red tulip. I think we can all agree that a white rose is really beautiful. A plump, full petalled little flower that\u2019s beauty is radiant. I also think we can all agree that a red tulip is also extremely beautiful. A bright red flower with the most exquisitely elegant shape. Both are beautiful. Just because the white rose is beautiful in one way does not mean the tulip is now ugly, no the tulip is also beautiful, but the tulip is beautiful in the way it was made. Maybe some would prefer a white rose to a tulip, but that does not make one more beautiful than the other. The beauty of a white rose does not take away from the beauty of a tulip or vice versa. Both are just as beautiful as the other and both will end up being looked at with awe and loved by the person who picks it.<\/p>\n
See where I am going with this? You are beautiful in the way you were created, and just because your beautiful doesn\u2019t look like someone else\u2019s beautiful does not mean you are now not beautiful, you\u2019re just beautiful in your way, and they in their way. Since society is so messed up, what do we model ourselves on? God\u2019s Word! Who God says we are, and what God says and thinks about us is by far more important than anything else. What God tells us is what we ought to accept as truth.<\/p>\n
When you look at yourself, look through God\u2019s eyes. Redefine the beautiful you have been taught, to be the beautiful God will show you.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
-Kelly Hardouin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When did it become so rare to love yourself that it is now revolutionary to do so? That\u2019s a question I came across very recently and it just hit home. Loving yourself has become such a foreign thing that when you do, people stand in awe of you like \u201cWow, how awesome is that?\u201d. Yes,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/womenofdestinyrsa.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/womenofdestinyrsa.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/womenofdestinyrsa.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/womenofdestinyrsa.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/womenofdestinyrsa.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/womenofdestinyrsa.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":344,"href":"http:\/\/womenofdestinyrsa.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions\/344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/womenofdestinyrsa.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/womenofdestinyrsa.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/womenofdestinyrsa.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/womenofdestinyrsa.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}