Today's encouragement comes from Chapter 7 entitled, "Joyous Body: The Wild Flesh"
I have been taken with the way wolves hit their bodies together when they run and play, the old wolves in their way, the young ones in theirs, the skinny ones, the fat ones, the long-legged, the lop-tailed, the floppy-eared, the ones whose broken limbs healed crookedly. They all have their own body configurations and strengths, their own beauty. They live and play according to what and who and how they are. They do not try to be what they are not.
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To take much pleasure in a world filled with many kinds of beauty is a joy in life to which all women are entitled. To support only one kind of beauty is to be somehow unobservant of nature. There cannot be only one kind of songbird, only one kind of pine tree, only one kind of wolf. There cannot be one kind of baby, one kind of man, or one kind of woman. There cannot be one kind of breast, one kind of waist, one kind of skin.
Estes goes on to state that as women, our confidence is often wrapped up in our appearance or our idea about our beauty/how we believe others perceive our beauty. It leads to a preoccupation of our daily habits. She says that we have a "hungry" one inside. "But rather than hungry to be a certain size, shape or height, rather than hungry to fit the stereotype; women are hungry for basic regard from the culture surrounding them. The 'hungry' one inside is longing to be treated respectfully, to be accepted, and in the very least, to be met without stereotyping. If there really is a woman 'screaming to get out' she is screaming for cessation of the disrespectful projections of others onto her body, her face, her age."
Yes! Isn't that what we feel? Initially we would probably say no, we'd really like to be skinnier, bigger chested, younger, etc., but I think that we fight to be what we aren't all of the time. Wouldn't it be better to just be happy with who we are? To be the wolves who hit their bodies together when they play? If we realize that God created us, made us uniquely beautiful, and in His image...ponder that one...then why would be try to be anyone other than ourselves? God accepts us. Dear sisters, listen to who He says you are. You are His. You are a uniquely, beautifully, handcrafted work of art.
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.~Psalm 139: 13-16
Be confident. Be you.
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