True Campaign

I have shared my fondness of the True Campaign with many of you, but wanted to share some of my thoughts from a recent post they had on their website. The title of the post was "How I Started Making Peace with the Mirror (and other inanimate objects)". In the post, the author Michelle Watson, a professional counselor and instructor at an eating disorder graduate program in Oregon, discusses how skinny has become synonymous with beautiful, acceptable, and worthy. This really struck a cord with me...because it is one that I have definitely struggled with myself.

In my psychological exam at Weight Wise, I had to rate how I felt about different parts of myself and my life. The results showed (and of course I already knew) that I like the person I am but I have a strong dislike for my physical appearance. In the past, I have taken this physical appearance dislike and translated it into self hatred and loathing. But I have recently taught myself that although there are parts of me that are "imperfect", that doesn't mean I am not beautiful.

Dictionary.com defines beautiful as "having beauty; having qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind". God thinks I am beautiful because he looks at my heart. When he sees me, he isn't focused on the external, but on the internal. I'm having to retrain myself to focus on the same as well. This retraining doesn't mean that I can't want to improve my physical appearance, but it does mean that my every thought and effort shouldn't be focused on it.

If I tell myself enough that I am unworthy, not beautiful and not to be accepted, I will eventually believe it. The reverse should also work...right? At the end of the True Campaign post the author says she is going to start what she's calling "777" where "in the next 7 days I’m going to say these 7 words, “I’m beautiful just the way I am!” 7 times a day. " I'm going to join her and hope that you guys will join me too.

If I can retrain myself to believe that I am beautiful just as I am, then maybe I can train my kids to believe the same thing, and they can train their kids, and their kids, and their kids....for generations to come. Until we all believe in God's love for us, just the way we are.

(Please visit http://www.truecampaign.org/ to learn more about the True Campaign and read the entire post. Join the campaign and end the crisis. Do it for our kids and grand kids!!!)