Bathing Suits (Maternity Suits and the Like)

So, who decided that modern women's swimsuits should be designed in the fashion that they are today? I think it was some sort of sadistic crazy person/people (excuse my strong language). It's just sick ya know. 99% of women HATE swimsuit shopping, loathe wearing them, and feel like less of a person when out in public. I can't really blame all of that on the design of the suits, it's also the women they put in them to advertise them. You know...the 1% that are blessed (in our societies eyes) genetically or have had the opportunity to experience the magical world of plastic surgery. It's just all around unhealthy. What happened to the good ol' days of those old fashion swim outfits that took longer to put on, and had more fabric than your every day clothes?

The dilemma we have as women comes down to a choice. Do we loathe ourselves for the way our body looks, or do we live it up? The first option is much easier as we have been trained to hate our bodies since the first time we saw a Barbie. It starts young and can get more and more overwhelming as we get older. Many of us fall into the trap of thinking our entire worth, and the only reason anyone should find value in us, is because of our looks. It becomes our self esteem, or lack there of. The funny thing is...we are NEVER satisfied. Not as individuals, girlfriends, wives, daughters, mothers...we're not even satisfied as a nation. Everything points us back to how we fail to meet a standard.

Side note: In earlier posts I promised to keep this blog at a PG/PG-13 level. I didn't say anything about keeping things PC though (Politically Correct). So every now and then, I might talk about my faith. If that's offensive to you, it's not meant to be, but with a subject like this, I must bring it up.

So, what about that other choice? The harder choice, to live it up and love ourselves. It's clearly the best choice so why do we consistently ignore the fact that this way of thought is even an option. BECAUSE...you ready for this...we are all born into a condition of inadequacy. What do ya think about that?

I bet some of you are getting pretty ticked at me right about now. Some of you are thinking, "She's crazy, I am just fine, I have a great self esteem, I am a powerful woman/man", and that's fabulous is you think that. But I would challenge you to analyze what it is in your life that you have done, accomplished or do on a regular basis that has to be maintained or had to be done in order for you to believe that about yourself? What is it in your life that gives you that assurance, and if it was taken away tomorrow...would you be loathing yourself?

Others of you feel the pain, you don't have anything the gives you any sort of assurance of value. Ultimately, we're all trying to prove ourselves from the very beginning, and if you haven't had opportunity, good looks, or anything else our society holds up as valuable you're stuck loathing yourself. OH, and you don't have any problem finding excuses, reasons or affirmation as to why you should stay there.

The age old question...am I good enough? Let me help you with that. On your own, the answer is NO, you're not. (Now some of you are SUPER TICKED.) You're thinking, "what is this girls phone number, I need to give her a piece of my mind, she's messed up". Let me assure you I have thought long and hard about this, so bare with me (and you can leave any comment you want at the end of the blog).

You're not, you're not good enough on your own. You know why? Because you're not complete. Like I said before, we're all born into this condition of inadequacy. We're born without God in our lives. We've established that we're never satisfied with ourselves, anyone can acknowledge that, and we know that we all have an underlying need to prove ourselves to the world, our parents, ourselves, our friends, our spouses or whoever it may be. So where does that come from? A lacking. Being incomplete. If we were whole from the beginning, we would never experience loathing.

Back to the God-thing. What I have come to understand is that we all come out lacking something, but the good new is, God IS that something. Not religion, not rules, not fulfilling moral expectations or just appearing to, but knowing God. I know God, and I'm getting to know him better everyday, just as I am my husband, family and friends. I've known about God for years, but it wasn't until 3 years ago that I began to get to know Him for who He is.

I'm not talking about God like we hear about on T.V. or the PC god that we're "allowed" to talk about in social circles. I'm talking about the one true God. The God of the Bible, Jesus Christ, the Trinity, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That one, the real one. Whew...surprisingly that takes a lot of guts to say. Now that I've lost over half of you, I might as well continue.

My daily choice to live it up and love myself comes from my desire to honor God who tells us in the Bible that we are all enough. Boom, plain and simple. No actions necessary. He loves us unconditionally as his creation and if we can live in acceptance of that love and that truth, we can be ENOUGH. See how that all fits in? You all thought I was going to tell you that you're not enough without God and you have to do this, that and the other thing to even begin to have an inkling about what it's like to be enough. NOPE, like I said before, we are lacking something but only GOD is that something. A relationship with Him, not a knowledge of Him or what you should do to make Him or it or what every you thought God was before happy, but an actually relationship.

To me that makes all the sense in the world. It's modeled around us everyday. What actually matters in life? Our job, our stuff, or how we look in a bathing suit? We would all agree that no, it's our family, our friends, the people we have relationships with in our lives. We may not live like those are the most important, but we all know that they are.

So, what are we going to choose on a daily basis? We can loathe ourselves which is as easy as it is to breath our next breath, or we can come into a relationship with God and trust what He says is true about our value. We are enough! He said so over and over in His book. It's a processes, but it's one worth giving a change, because there will be progress. Hope you can find encouragement in that. Have a great day!