More Than Skin Deep

I remember the first time I felt I was ugly.

I was walking home from school, and was teased by my fellow classmates about my crooked teeth. They laughed and I grinned and I acted like it didn't devastate me.

It did.

I became obsessed with having braces. Surely, when my teeth were straightened out, I reasoned, THEN I would be beautiful.

But an odd thing happened. After my braces came off, I realized my nose was too big. My breasts were too small. My pores were much too large. My hair was irritatingly curly. In general, I looked not one bit like any of the girls I thought were beautiful.

And oh, how I wanted to be beautiful!

I began looking at magazines and movie stars, and even at my friends, in a whole new way. I didn't just admire their beauty, I ached inside wishing I had it too. Why couldn't I have that figure? Why didn't God give me eyelashes like hers? Why can't I have a cute button nose like that??

Beauty is hard to see for what it really is when instead of giving joy, it makes you feel like dying.


An odd thing has happened since I was a teenage girl. I have had two daughters. Though I freely admit to being unashamedly and ridiculously biased, I can honestly say they are gorgeous. Those two sweet girls are truly stunning. I look at them and my heart just aches. But in a whole different way. It throbs with love.

I have taken a long look at myself in the mirror. And I realize I too am Someone's daughter. I too am beautiful.

I now have silvery streaks that accent my form, places where I was once so full of love my body had to stretch far and wide to hold it all in. These marks bring memories of the babies I have carried beneath my heart.

I have curves I never had as a teenager. I was once told, by a nurse, that I had good birthing hips. I wasn't sure how to feel about that at the time. Now, after nine babies, I am thankful for them.

Some parts of my body are falling apart, wearing down, or painful from disease. I still have a big nose.  Strangely, I am comfortable here, in this body. I don't fear rejection.

My husband and my sons and my sweet older daughter look at me, eyes filled with love, and tell me I am beautiful. And the miracle of it all is that I can hear the truth in their love.

I am so much more than my body. I can now look upon a lovely face or form and admire it without feeling ripped off. I can appreciate true beauty and reject the fads and fashions that substitute for it.

I have found gentleness, joy, hope, contentment, and love- these things are the most beautiful of all. These are the things I now long after, that I wish to make my own. These are the adornments of my choice. These are the things I depend on now to make me lovely.

And the greatest of these is love.

~amy danielle