If you haven’t read the previous post, do that first before continuing on here. There is a great talk by Elder Holland that addresses this very issue. Here is just part of his talk that impressed me:
“I plead with you young women to please be more accepting of yourselves, including your body shape and style, with a little less longing to look like someone else. We are all different. Some are tall, and some are short. Some are round, and some are thin. And almost everyone at some time or other wants to be something they are not! But as one adviser to teenage girls said: “You can’t live your life worrying that the world is staring at you. When you let people’s opinions make you self-conscious you give away your power. . . . The key to feeling [confident] is to always listen to your inner self—[the real you.]” And in the kingdom of God, the real you is “more precious than rubies.” Every young woman is a child of destiny and every adult woman a powerful force for good. I mention adult women because, sisters, you are our greatest examples and resource for these young women. And if you are obsessing over being a size 2, you won’t be very surprised when your daughter or the Mia Maid in your class does the same and makes herself physically ill trying to accomplish it. …But I speak here of optimum health; there is no universal optimum size.
Frankly, the world has been brutal with you in this regard. You are bombarded in movies, television, fashion magazines, and advertisements with the message that looks are everything! The pitch is, “If your looks are good enough, your life will be glamorous and you will be happy and popular.” That kind of pressure is immense in the teenage years, to say nothing of later womanhood. In too many cases too much is being done to the human body to meet just such a fictional (to say nothing of superficial) standard.”
I LOVE the talk, here is the link.
Sure, I’ve thought plenty about what I would like to change about my body, but my point is this: I just want to be thankful for what I have and realize that the kind of person I am is what matters to me most. I don’t want to link my looks to how I feel about myself. I just want to be happy being me! The part where he says you give away power when you let other’s opinions make us self-conscious, that’s what I meant by not being able to be my best self in the previous post. It inhibits me from progressing when I am so worried about looks.
Sorry for the rant, it’s just something I have been thinking a lot about lately, how some people can be totally fine with their looks even though by the world’s standard they are not attractive, and how some of the most attractive people still are not satisfied with life, whether it be looks or just in general. I am so thankful for the church to give us a greater sense of who we are though.
Stepping off the soapbox…
**Disclaimer: I in no way am judging those who are planning/have/want to get something done. This is just me wanting to be okay with myself without having to do anything other than accept everything about me! I just am wondering how to get to that point!**
That was a nice post, we all need a reminder of what’s really important..
I probably allready told you this, but Reese, (my son) said, I can’t be ugly, I’m a boy! I loved that, typical guy with nothin to worry about…. We should all be more like that. I hope my comment on the other one wasn’t taken as pro surgery. I do think people should definately be happy with themselves amd strive to be the best person they can be.
Amen! thank you for sharing that article with me. I’m going to read that whole thing!
It’s such a sick world that we live in, the pressure of looks is so overwhelming….. i totally understand and can relate. I, too, can’t wait to get to the point/ or mindset that I am beautiful and great just the way that I am.
I have a very specail quote that I kept over the years- I actually found it in High School:
“It is a pretty weak girl if she has only her body to attract somebody.”
– Pres. Spencer W. Kimball
xoxoxo
Kim, I love how Reese said that–it’s so true! Ang, I’m glad you understand what I was meaning. Hopefully no one thought I was thinking of anyone else besides how I feel about myself.