Once upon a time I enjoyed shopping, like really enjoyed it. Perhaps because I grew up an hour from the nearest ‘real’ mall so it wasn’t too often I would go within a year. My younger years were in a time before online shopping so that wasn’t even an option. In middle school it was a ‘thing’ for one of my friend’s mothers to take a group of our girlfriends on a day long excursion to the mall. We’d leave early morning and return in the evening. It was an adventure. Once we all got our driver’s licenses we ditched the mom’s and took the highway of independence to the mall on our own, and it’d still be a day long fiasco.

I loved it. Probably because it was time spent with close friends and because it was more of a rarity for me to shop then. Living in Nashville there’s a clothing store nearly everywhere I turn. But I really don’t enjoy shopping anymore. It often feels like a chore. Maybe because I tend to be indecisive and will try on everything in a multitude of patterns, colors, and sizes before I decide what I want or find something I feel is even remotely flattering. One reason I no longer enjoy shopping is because it’s a time suck, and I know I could be better spending my time elsewhere. But one other major reason I think I’ve grown to dislike shopping over the years is the dreaded fitting rooms.

Ugh… those small, horribly lit fitting rooms rarely ever make you feel good about yourself. Or maybe that’s just me. However, I’m willing to bet I’m not alone in this sentiment and one particular fitting room I happened upon while in Florida back in November proved my fitting room fears are not mine alone.

It can be difficult to look in the mirror and choose to see our Creator’s beautiful artwork. It’s difficult to see ourselves as beautiful. Why? Because we do have incredibly distorted ideas of beauty. Our socially constructed ideas of beauty are based on a Hollywood standard. Unfortunately that standard is not reality. It’s not authentic and it’s photoshopped. Often times that standard of beauty is starved or misinformed or crying out for love and attention. How sad that we strive to meet very worldly terms of beauty and in the process end up losing the one thing that makes us most beautiful, our authenticity.

You are beautiful because you are wonderfully made. [Psalm 139:14]

Your originality and uniqueness is what makes you so beautiful. You were created with purpose and intent. Your God knit you together in your mother’s womb. He called you by name and spoke you into motion.

Yet, we desire something different. We compare, compare, compare and find we are not the same as everyone else and somehow see our uniqueness as a fault instead of a mark of beauty. That is a lie. When you decide to live fully as yourself – your true authentic self – that is when you will radiate your immense, God-given beauty the most. Don’t for a second tell yourself that you aren’t beautiful. Don’t believe that lie for a moment. When you fall into that trap you choose to live in your own personal hell of continual torture and it’s all a lie. You are beautiful, uniquely beautiful.

You are all-beautiful, my beloved, and there is no blemish in you. [Song of Songs 4:7]

As I faced off with the mirror in the dressing room that day, I glanced up and saw a reflection of a sign hanging high above my head. It contained two simple words in a very simple font printed on white paper with black ink, and framed with a very minimal frame, and yet the sign spoke powerfully to my soul. It was an unexpected reminder very strategically placed. It called to mind that we often allow the voices in our head to tear us down the most. We stand in the mirror and tell ourselves we are not thin enough, our skin is not clear enough, our nose is too big, our eyes are too tired, our cheeks are too chubby, our silhouette is not desirable. We allow ourselves to steal our own joy right there in the dressing room of a clothing store where we are the only ones looking at our own reflection. And then we believe the lies we’ve sent swirling in our head. We buy into the lies and give power to all the negative thoughts and doubts.

As I glanced up, it made me smile. I was so captivated by the words of positivity, power, and truth in that dressing room that I knew I had to capture them on camera and would soon write about them. As I read those words above my head I was reminded not to believe those negative thoughts burgling real, authentic beauty.

Two simple words made me recognize the lies I tend to so easily believe. Hello Gorgeous.

Yes, YOU are gorgeous so it’s time you start speaking truth to yourself. Every time you walk into a dressing room from here on out, look at your stunning reflection and celebrate what a gorgeous human you are – crafted with love and gifted to the whole world. Yes, you gorgeous little gift to the world, it’s time to own it!

Live you. Be you. Embrace the wonder of your own beauty. Because, yes, YOU are gorgeous.

YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL.