I’m too fat. I’m too skinny. I’m too tall. I’m too short. I wish I had your hair. I wish I had your eyes. You are too dark. You are too fair.

Lies. All lies. Not just lies but accusations. Accusing the Father that He somehow made a mistake in our design.

You know, there has been a lot of talk recently about how to prevent the violence prevalent in America today. I don’t believe there is one answer. There are a plethora of solutions needed to correct our woes. Most are outside of my pay grade. But there is one thing I can do, one thing we all can do:

Learn to accept and love ourselves, then teach others in our sphere of influence to do the same.

Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Our problem is most people don’t love and accept themselves.

The truth is: We are beautiful. We are strong. We are smart. We were intentionally created. We are a divine collaboration of the Trinity. We were made in His image. We have purpose. We are valuable. We are loved. We are accepted in The Beloved. We are sons and daughters. We are beautiful!

I wish, even if just for a second, we could look in the mirror and see ourselves as God sees us. I wish we could learn to love ourselves as God loves us. If, as Christians, we would recognize the powerful, beautiful, awesome beings we were created to be in Christ, we would stop accepting the lies of the enemy and instead go out and love others as we love ourselves.

When we see the intrinsic beauty within us, it frees us to see the intrinsic beauty within others.

When we know how valuable we are, we can recognize the value in others.

When we understand God created us uniquely, we are released to celebrate the uniqueness of others.

Friends, ask God to show you your worth in Him. Then believe what He says about you. Begin to declare His truth about you. Let the truth of who you are in God speak louder than any lie of the enemy.

Then ask God to show you the worth in that people group you fear, that organization you mock, that political party you despise. Then love them as you love yourself.

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:10