When I look in the mirror, I don’t always like what I see. I tend to focus on every imperfection, every flaw. As I age, more wrinkles naturally appear. And I’ve never been high maintenance, so the gray hairs are becoming more frequent, too.

Growing up a lot of negative words were spoken about me: my body, my weight, my hair, my build. Words I’ve somehow carried my whole life. The people who proclaimed them as my truth don’t even remember what they said, I’m sure. But that’s the power of negative words. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words . . . can hurt even worse because they have the capacity to break our spirits.

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It’s true people have said positive words to describe me as well, but I never hold on to the affirming words like I do the negative ones. I can’t help but question whether they are genuine. And I’m sure I’m not the only woman hanging onto the negative words versus the positive when it comes to body image and/or who we are on the inside.

I’ve been self-conscious of my body since I can remember. It doesn’t matter what the world says because we will never measure up to the world’s standards. There will always be something we are lacking and all the filters and photoshop in the world simply can’t hide the person who stares back at us in the mirror.

But through the years you know what’s never changed? The way God sees us. He never sees the flaws we see. He doesn’t let what other people say define us. He never looks at any of His children as flawed. To Him, we are all masterpieces. I recently taped Psalm 139:13-16 next to my mirror because every day I need to be reminded of God’s truth.

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I pray for all of us to remember we were knitted together by the most wonderful artist. And I pray every time I look in the mirror, I’ll eventually like the woman staring back at me. Because I’ve been fearfully and wonderfully made and because I want God’s words embedded into my heart.

I want to cling to His truth more than every single negative word ever spoken about me. I’m simply tired of carrying lies around. Anyone else?

Originally published on the author’s Facebook page