I believe one of the sweetest gifts you can continually give to your Heavenly Father is embracing and walking confidently in your unique, beautiful self.

Does that make sense? If you are a Christian, you are in Christ. Being in Christ means a lot of things, but one is that it is a real, actual, living and breathing relationship. You have a perfectly loving Heavenly Father.

A Father who knit you together, pieced you together, to be precisely you.

You. Your personality, quirks, habits, features, passions. What comes naturally, what is more challenging.

Me. Curly hair, conversationalist, perfectionist, sensitive, emotional, diligent. Eats too much peanut butter. Likes to have a plan, hates to arrive late. Enjoys time alone. Creative because God is creative.

The Bible says we are God’s handiwork. His craftsmanship. (Ephesians 2:10) Part of His creation. Fully loved and completely accepted.

It makes me sad to realize how this culture has taken it upon itself to name ‘beauty’ as one particular mold or set of features. Right?

Every single person is their own brand of in-God’s-image-beautiful.

There is no perfect size, despite what this world expects and encourages. But, there is healthy and unhealthy for your personal being.

There is no perfect personality, in spite of your self-consciousness in a room full of people. But, there is pride and fear and joy and peace.

There will be no arriving at a perfect self in your lifetime, because our default nature is sinful. But, there is freedom and hope.

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself. Anna Quidlen

The discouraging (and usually damaging) thought that you need to look, sound like, act like, be like another person is not from God.  

Give Him praise by loving what He created (you), exactly as He created it.

Thank Him for this life, with it’s twists and turns, by finding joy and freedom and peace in His craftsmanship.

You are His child. Love Him back by being the best YOU you can be.

Serve the world with your strengths, create community with your quirks and passions, love people well with your personality.

Enjoy Him when you eat your favorite foods, because He created your taste buds that way.

Embrace a style that makes you happy, and worship Him with your fashion, because He has provided you with a variety of colors and choices.

Find Him indoors or outdoors, in whatever activities refresh and strengthen you, because He arranged all kinds of exercises for your benefit.

You have stories worth telling, memories worth remembering, dreams worth working toward, a body worth feeding, a soul worth tending, and beyond that, the God of the universe dwells within you, the true culmination of super and natural.  You are more than dust and bones. You are spirit and power and image of God.  And you have been given Today. Shauna Niequist