Feeling ‘Less Than’

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the sixth day. Genesis 1:31

Farai Chideya graduated from Harvard, worked for Newsweek magazine, and quickly rose to the top. Yet she spent years fighting bulimia, trying to become like the glossy images in the make-believe world around her. When she finally broke free from her disease she wrote: ‘Losing weight didn’t change my personality and it didn’t lighten the emotional baggage I carried from my childhood. I thought I wanted to be thin. What I really wanted was to be happy, and neither my looks nor my achievements could do that. Because I couldn’t love or accept myself, the acceptance of others was never enough. When I tried to be perfect I came across as remote and unapproachable, yet the exact opposite was what I wanted.’ Then she shares four life-changing principles: 1) Your obsession to be perfect will keep you trapped in loneliness, for satisfying relationships can only be built on honesty and total acceptance. 2) Your obsession to be perfect will force you to see your shortcomings as something to hide, instead of opportunities for growth. 3) Your obsession to be perfect will keep you fixated on what you’re going to be some day, instead of enjoying what you are right now. 4) Your obsession to be perfect will rob you of the chance to make your life count, for by focusing constantly on yourself you’ll have nothing left to give to others. Bottom line: God didn’t need to create you, He chose to. On the day you were born He smiled and said, ‘Very good.’ When you fully grasp that, you’ll begin to overcome the problem of feeling ‘less than.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, forgive me for feeling “less than” and help me realize that Your acceptance of me is all I need. Free me to live each day knowing that. In Jesus’ Name, Amen