Beautiful: Healing the Disconnection Between Body and Soul

"I'm gonna take off all my clothes,
Look at myself in the mirror
We're gonna have a conversation
We're gonna heal the disconnection
I don't know where it started,
But this is where it's gonna end
My body is beautiful and sacred
And I'm gonna celebrate it." (India Arie, "Private Party")

One of the biggest lies that we are told as women is that our bodies, as they are, are somehow imperfect. Either we're too fat, or too skinny. Either our butts are too big, or we suffer from 'nosatall' (no ass at all). We walk around with silicone breasts, kenkalon hair, acrylic nails, body shapers, Maybelline mascara....

All of that to fit a standard of beauty that was never meant for us.

Psalm 139:14 says, "I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth quite well." The Creator made us beautiful, marvellous creatures. If the Maker of the universe crafted us, and called us beautiful, by what measure are we to say we are anything else?

I must admit, for all my 'natural woman' trappings, I do have those moments when I feel unlovely. It is difficult to separate self-image from what we are told about ourselves. Somewhere in my soul is a 180 pound little girl who was always insulted by children and adults. "You're too fat. Don't make no sense you're bigger than me," my mother's voice in my head says.

It doesn't matter that I am 130 now because my mind still sometimes sees what is no longer there. I fight every day to keep my balance and not see ugly where the Creator has placed beauty, nappy where the Creator placed glory. But as God continues to heal the wounds of the past, I walk in the knowledge that no matter what I look like, I am still fearfully and wonderfully made.

So, my sisters, do not be afraid to stand naked before the Creator. Walk in the knowledge that you are beautiful, divine creatures. Make this your daily meditation:

"My body is beautiful and sacred, and I'm gonna celebrate it!"

And even if you don't believe it at first, say it till you mean it. We become what we say, and if what we say is positive and divine, that is what we will become.