She was beautiful.
Her cheeks were sunken in, and her arms and legs were so thin she looked easy to break. She weighed nothing, and yet, somehow, she was filling the room. Her eyes were gentle and soft, and when she spoke of Christ, you could see the love pouring from her small, angular face.
She weighs nothing because she can't eat. She can't eat because she is bound by the same thing that all the other thin girls are bound by.
These are the girls I see once a week. Girls who throw away their fears, insecurities, pasts, tears, and anger with the pounds. The scale doesn't weigh the bone, and skin, and fat; it weighs their beauty, it weights their worth.
These are the girls we have made.
They all once had round, happy faces. They once played on the swing set, and painted butterflies with their fingers. They giggled when little boys walked by, and they whispered secrets in-between teacher chatter. They wanted to be princesses, they wanted to fall in love, they wanted to be safe, they wanted the world to be like the one they imagined it'd be. And it wasn't.
They grew up believing that beauty was more important. That their bodies were more important. That their hearts were little to be considered. And at some point, they began to hear the commercials and conversations and comments thrown in their direction. And their eyes opened to their jean's size, and that number on the scale. And once they saw, they couldn't forget.
"You're not thin enough, good enough, pretty enough, sexy enough, worth enough." That's what we're telling them. "Be better, work harder, be more disciplined, set standards, be prettier, be thinner, be better, be better, be better."
And it's so cheap, so empty, and incredibly misleading.
"Be braver, be stronger, be louder, be brighter, be more and more and more of who you already are." That's what we should be telling them. Throw away that damn scale. "Eat the damn cookie," as one of the girls said. And enjoy the life you have been given, and do it knowing that you are incredibly, incredibly beautiful.
I'm constantly blessed and humbled by them. That despite the incredible struggles, they are so brave and strong. And I am absolutely amazed by the little mountains I've seen them overcome.
I guess, I felt strong enough for them to write these few words. Our ideas of beauty is cheap, you guys. God's however, are not. Maybe we should get more acquainted with God's mirror, and less with ours. Because ours is ruining a lot of lives.
