Ironically, on the same day I posted my last entry about my 2012 goal to lose weight and get healthier, I received a catalog in the mail from a company I'd never heard of before. I won't name the company here except to say that I was initially excited by their byline: "Dedicated to the art of well-being". I thought perhaps the catalog would offer me time-saving products, products designed to help me organize my home and life, etc.
Nope. I turned to the first two pages and was almost disgusted to see that, of the eight products featured, all of them were beauty products and four of them were designed to either hide "flaws", help you lose weight, make you look slimmer, or otherwise shape your body to make you look "better" than you are naturally. And the rest of the catalog (all 49 pages of it), followed in the same vein.
Now I know many women go in for this kind of stuff. That much is obvious; if they didn't, these kinds of companies or products wouldn't even exist.
But, as much as I groan when I see my stretch marks and huff in frustration when I measure my hips and rear end, it saddens me to see all this targeted merchandising preying on the insecurities of women. Am I happy with my stretch marks? No, they're definitely not attractive. But they are a sign of the fact that my body carried two healthy babies to term, nurturing them and protecting them. Do I wish my hips and bottom were slimmer so I could fit into the "cool" styles of jeans? Sometimes. But God made me this way and blessed me with good health, so I really have no room for complaint.
Ladies, we're none of us perfect. But we're all of us beautiful just the way we are. And I'm personally looking forward to tearing that catalog up and tossing it in recycling.
True beauty is the self confidence to be comfortable in your own skin.
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