LOOKIN GOOD

Last Sunday, a very nice gentleman, told me, “You are lookin good.” 

I replied, “Well I don’t know about that but I look like me.”

And you know what?  That is exactly how I should look.  But I have not always felt that way.  Most women do not.  Now, I am not male bashing (although that is fun to do), but women are held to a whole different level of “lookin good” than men.

·        Women, who no longer have a high school body, have let themselves go.

·        Women are supposed to look like a famous fashion model.

·        Women are expected to return to their previous measurements, after giving birth.

·        Women are supposed to apply makeup and fix their hair and then take care of the house, the children, etc. without getting a hair out of place and heaven forbid their mascara might run.

·        Women are to go through the “life change” with no mood swings, no hot flashes nor weight gain.

The problem is women can never live up to these standards. 

·        Life happened.  My high school body disappeared soon after high school.

·        I do not look like a model.  Heck, I came out of the womb bigger than some of them.  And, where their legs go all the way to their butt, my butt goes all the way to my legs.  I will never look like that.

·        I loved being pregnant!  The afternoon sickness (Yup.  Not morning.) soon passed and the rest was amazing.  But neither child came out dragging those extra pounds with them. 

·        I do put on makeup.  And I fix my hair.  But the color is gray and the cow lick passed down from my mother creates a unique hair arrangement that just will not always lie down. 

·        I once had a woman say that women should not let themselves go.  Then she hit that inevitable life change and blossomed.  I chuckled and said, “Thank you God.”  Weight gain?  Take a few pounds left behind by two children, add a surgery that changed my metabolism, throw in the “life change” and top that off with a pill to control RLS but which will not allow weight loss and you have my body.  It might not make it down a fashion runway and those high school clothes no longer fit, but it is mine!

·        I wear glasses.  I had surgery on my feet and they do not always want to work right.  And, after years of using an adding machine, a typewriter and a computer, my hands are demanding I fix the carpel tunnel.

The problem is women can never live up to the standards set by certain parts of society.  And we should not feel guilty.  And we should not feel less.  And we should not apologize. 

Lookin good?  YES!  Because I look like me.  The me God created.

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.

Psalm 139:14

Yet you, LORD, are my Father.

I am the clay, you are the potter; I am the work of your hand.

Isaiah 64:8 (made personal)

No one – female or male – should ever feel less than “lookin good.”  God created each of us.  When you look in the mirror, say, “I look like me.  Thank you LORD for creating the unique and special person I am.”