Psalm 139:14: I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;your works are wonderful,I know that full well. (NIV)

 Proverbs 31:30: Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting,but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised. (HCSB)

Lord, I’m very discouraged as I pull on my jeans.  I know my muffin top is my fault.  I know that my muffin top has made friends with, well, muffin tops…….and bottoms…….and their good friend, butter.  Muffins taste so good with coffee, Lord!  I’ve read the magazine articles telling me how to trick myself into not eating the unhealthy foods – carrots to replace the crunch of potato chips, water to make me feel as full as if I had just eaten, even chocolate flavored coffee to replace chocolate chip cookies.  Well, apparently I’m not that easily tricked about crunch or solids vs liquids or flavors.  My body just screamed at me “This stuff doesn’t taste like chocolate.  This stuff doesn’t even taste like coffee”.  A full glass of water fills my bladder not my stomach, and my taste buds are well aware that I didn’t eat.  And its safe to say there are not enough carrots in the world! I want to make friends with the number on the scale and the number on the tag in the back of my pants, but the numbers I want to buddy up with don’t seem anxious to hang out with me.   But, Lord, You tell me in Psalms 139 that I am beautifully and wonderfully made. Genesis 1:26 tells me that I am created in Your image.  In Ephesians 2:10 it says that we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.  All of that tells me that You don’t care if the tag in the back of my pants says 2 or 12.  I know that I need to keep my body healthy because You tell me in 1 Corinthians that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and that it was bought with a price, but  You don’t ask me to have a supermodel’s thin body. What You said to Samuel also applies to me (1 Samuel 16:7).  When You  look at me, You don’t look the same way other people look at me.  People look at the outside, but You look at the heart. “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised. “