A good friend of mine likes to celebrate her birthday every year by having a luncheon/catch up day for all the women in her life. Recently the annual birthday event rolled around again sooo myself plus another dozen or so women were invited out to lunch. I was feeling pretty flat on the day, almost ready to make a no show. Came 12 o’clock and I decided I’d better make the effort for my girlfriend, walked in half an hour late, tripped up the stair as I entered, daggy old jeans and a grey shirt… hey at least I was there. My friend rushed over to greet me and then introduced me to the table full of glamorous women. I had met a couple of them at past kids birthday parties but never really connected with any of them. So here I am perched on the end of the luncheon table, little voice in my head saying ‘what am I doing here… I wonder if they’ll notice if I just slip away’. I glanced around at what I perceived as perfect women – hair neat and tidy, pretty clothes, perfect make up, gleaming white teeth smiles all delicately sipping on their fine glass of champagne. Oh how I wished the ground would open wide and swallow me up!  Staring at the menu, I wondered do people really spend this much money on lunch… I could feed our Compassion sponsored child for an entire month at the cost of a  ‘gourmet’ sandwich! Funny enough the menu wasn’t going to make conversation with me so I thought I’d better look up and start taking an interest in what was going on around me. During the lunch gathering I had engaged in conversation with two lovely ladies, both of which appeared to be ‘the perfect mum and wife’. We all know her. She’s that woman in our lives who has everything under control. She’s calm, well dressed, always talks so sweetly to her children, her house is immaculate, she carries perfectly prepared home – baked snacks in her perfectly labelled Tupperware containers. Ever been there?

It’s easy to get caught in the people pleasing trap, saying yes to everyone’s beckon call and even worse the trap of measuring our own beauty, worth and abilities etc. against how we ‘perceive’ other women to be.

“Mummy can I see” my youngest daughter cries out immediately after I have taken a photo of her, she then follows with “me pretty”?. Of course, from my perspective my daughters are the world’s most beautiful little girls! My response to her need for affirmation is always; “you are pretty my little girl”. Not much changes as we grow to adult women, our heart still cries out “am I pretty?, am I beautiful, am I worthy of love?”.  True answers to these questions can only be found by looking at you the way God looks at you,  thinking about yourself the way He thinks of you! When He looks at you He see’s something beautiful, He see’s someone He loves outrageously X

“I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us”. Romans 8-38-39 (Message Version)