By Lois Hewitt

Where is my hat?  I cut my hair today…very badly I must say.  Professional haircuts are few and far between in my world.

I have a myriad of phobias that go with haircuts…don’t like being touched, feeling judged for my lack of concern over how I look and just an overall anxiety about my bumpy head.

The last professional cut I had was probably right around late 2020.  Seems longer though.

Most of my life, I have fretted over my looks and hated everything about them. I’ve been too thin, too fat, bad teeth, thin hair, a cockeyed smile, bit fingernails…i have just never been thrilled with my looks or sense (or lack) of style.

Now that I’m older, it’s much easier. I’m not trying to keep up with unrealistic expectations. I’m really more about comfort now.

In my youth, it was more about ego and how things looked on the outside. With age, comes the glorious realization that youth and beauty fade.  It is and always has been about what’s on the inside.

Unfortunately for many years my insides were as messed up as my outsides. That’s a bad combination.

I used to read little pick me ups that spoke about how I was made in God’s image and how much He loved me. How could He love all the ugly?

What I didn’t know was that inside of me was a beautiful soul, everyone has one, but not everyone knows it.  I did not for a long time.

Once I allowed myself to believe that, my life changed. No longer was I envious of others.  No longer did I use a skewed ruler to measure myself.  No longer were my expectations out of reach.  Finally peace.

God so loved us, each and every one of us, He gave His Son to die for our sins. In His physical death, He bore our ugliness and took it to the grave.  When He rose up on that Sunday, He left behind His bruised and battered body and our bruised and battered bodies also.

Anewed we are through the blood!  What a joyous gift!

Today, if you are not feeling very pretty or feel like you don’t live up to some unrealistic metric, think about this.

You were, most definitely, made in the image of God.  God never makes mistakes. We are all different. Beauty is very subjective.  Accept yourself and when you do, you will experience a peace that transcends all the other hype.  It is beautiful, just like you are! Please start believing it today!

With that said, in all my self-awareness, I’m still going to need that hat until my hair grows back. But that’s ok, I’m ok with it.