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Chapter 6: Not Buying – Pages 35-42

I remember recently standing in my bathroom and staring at my reflection after stepping out of the shower. Taking time to observe every wrinkle and pronounced imperfection on my body– such visible scars of life. Each scar carrying with it a story – like the time I was pushed into a steel gate by one of my classmates in second grade and permanently broke my front tooth or the time I contracted mumps that still to this day leaves the right side of my face swollen or the evident birth mark that runs down the left side of my arm that looks like a botched tattoo.

I started to feel pity for what I thought I could have been but was not.

Negative emotions, raw and unscripted, started to flood me and the tears crackled in the crevices of my eyelids. I started to feel anxiety as if I was sinking unable to gain a footing. I felt like I was lacking and came up wanting in the beauty department. Honestly, I did not feel good enough. I found combating these false notions of scarcity in my life. These lies that society and media daily feed us that tell us that who we are at present is not good enough. We must lie, steal, covet, cheat and go into debt to be more, have more, and do more.

Popular researcher and psychologist, Brene’ Brown, describes the ideology of scarcity as this:

“It [scarcity] thrives in a culture where everyone is hypersensitive of lack.  What makes this constant assessing and comparing so self-defeating is that we are often comparing our lives, our marriages, our families, and our communities to unattainable, media-driven vision of perfection, or we’re holding up our reality against our own fictional account of how great someone else has it.”

I had to look at myself square in the face and remind myself who and whose I was.

I had to declare the words that are so hard to hear especially after facing trauma or tragedy.

I had to look at myself and repeat the words: “I am enough.”

These words although so true can seem so caustic to our ears because we’ve accepted the media’s standard of beauty. Our skewed perceptions have limited beauty and allure to a doll in a size 2 dress with plumb eyelashes and lips who ‘lean in’ with their fierce heels to ensure that they can have it all regardless who they have had to manipulate to get their desired end.

We must reject the lie.

“You are not a total hot disaster!  Well no more than any of us.  You can do hard things.” {For the Love}

The carefully curated Instagram accounts that have us suffering from serious “FOMO” are many times illusions of the only way to actively battle the Fear of Missing Out and scarcity is contentment. It’s taking time to intentionally choose gratitude in the midst of every situation. It is seeing our imperfections as a gift divinely composed by a perfect God. It is choosing to see through the lens as David did:

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” – Psalm 8:3-9

You were made in God’s image. Do not let shame hold you hostage.

[Tweet “”You can do hard things.” @JenHatmaker #forthelovebook #intentionalfilling”]

Being enough is accepting the reality that God is good and all that He has created is good. In Him, there is no lack. God has fully clothed you in an identity given by Him even in the times you feel naked and most vulnerable. The work that Christ has begun in you continues. Your features may change but God’s love and promises towards you would never. His call is what qualifies you.

Having a Godly perspective changes everything.

How do you view your physical imperfections/limitations in light of God’s design and purpose for creation?

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Kimberly Bolden is a 30 somethin’-year-old islander living in Atlanta, GA with her husband and two furbabies. Together, she and Wesley, lead Tri-Cities Church.

Kim can be found parked at http://kimspeaksup.com where she shares encouragement for purpose-filled living.  You can connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

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