Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.  Galatians 1:10 NIV 

Coffee in hand, I sat down at our dining room table, surrounded by my freshly awakened children. I eased into my morning routine with the unconscious cycle of sipping coffee, scooping a bite of cold cereal, and painting my face with makeup. I was doing my best to elongate my face with the mouth open, tongue out approach praying that today's mascara would go on without a messy fight. Little did I know that my six year old daughter was fixated on my every move. Coffee hadn't perked me up enough just yet for me to realize how deep her gaze actually was.

As I looked into her eyes trying to catch her attention, she said, "Mommy, why are you putting that stuff on?"

How adorable! She is so curious. I whimsically replied back with, "Oh, Mommy's just putting my face on."

Confusion was plastered all over her innocent little face, "But Mommy, you already have your face on!"

"Yes, but I am just making my face look better." Feeling as if that was the end of the conversation, I went back to looking into the mirror.

"Can I put some makeup on too?" she inquired with eyebrows raised with the excitement of something new.

"No, Honey. You are already beautiful!"

Without any hesitation, she clued me into something profound. "Momma, you are already beautiful too." The heavy comment lightly danced out of her mouth, and yet thumped me with an undeniable reality right in my "done up" face. What am I teaching her?? How much weight am I putting in my makeup to add value to myself? I closed the mirror, looked up to her and melted, "Thank you baby!"

I bet that God is not pleased when we look at ourselves as if we needed touching up, as if He didn't do a good job in making us in the first place. In Genesis 1:31 He says, "God saw all that He had made, and it was very good." How do we argue with that? The reality is we shouldn't. He is God! What is our argument, if the one Who created us tells us that we are very good? I wonder why we do that to ourselves? Perhaps, we need to be reminded of our true value as women made in the image of God and the treasures that we are. 

There are several verses in the Bible that touch on God loving us. However, I am going to point out the ones we can't just brush off as "Aw, that's nice;" "but" the ones that go a little deeper, and are unable to be refuted.

Read these passages and you will relearn who we are: 

We are important to God (James 1:18), valuable to Him (Mt. 6:26), a treasured possession (Ex. 19:5), delights in us (Zeph. 3:17), listens to us (Jer. 29:12), and has plans for us (Jer. 29:11). 

Read these passages and you will relearn who we belong to:

He made us (Rom. 9:20-21), like Him (Gen. 1:26), we are His (Is. 43:1), a child of God (John 1:12), He cares for us (Deut. 33:3), and we are crowned with His glory and honor (Ps. 8:5). 

Father, I pray that all people who are reading this at this moment are encouraged and feel the love that You have lavished over them. I pray that every time we look in the mirror, we are reminded of whose image we are made in. Lord, help us to look at others as children of God as well. None of us are perfect, but You have made each one of us exactly the way You want us. We are beautiful and good in Your eyes! In Your Son's Name, Amen.

We are wonderfully made, with Laminin by Louie Giglio

You Know Me by Steffany Frizzell