Can a Leopard Change it's Spots?

Beauty is a wonderful thing. But it comes in all shapes and sizes. Waterfalls are beautiful. Brand new babies are beautiful. Dresses are beautiful. Songs lyrics are beautiful. And you are beautiful.

Beauty doesn’t look the same to everyone. What my husband finds beautiful about me is different from what the man you might end up marrying will find beautiful about you. So why change anything about yourself? It might be the very thing your future husband finds absolutely adorable. A leopard can’t change his spots, so why try to change yours?

For years I wrestled with comparing myself to my sister. She is tall, super skinny, has amazingly beautiful hair, the perfect white teeth & amazing smile...I could go on and on. She had a prettier skin coloring than I did, gorgeous green eyes, and looks adorable even without make-up. Every one always comments on how insanely beautiful she is.
I am short, chunky, have thin hair, a smile that isn't straight... and I most definitely did not look adorable without make-up.

I have spent hours crying and thinking about how much I wish I looked like her.
Looking back at all of that makes me laugh. It was ridiculous! There was nothing wrong with me. I had a beautiful body, skin, and hair. I was unable to see myself the way things really were — the lens I was looking through was tainted with my own insecurities and the way I thought I needed to look to be beautiful. We are each made in the image of God. The God who created creativity created you and me (think about that!) uniquely. By the way, years later I have found that my sister was treating herself the same way-wishing she looked like me!!! (she's nuts.)

My sister was not and is not the definition of beauty. I was my own definition of beauty. Jessica Alba, Miley Cyrus, and Taylor Swift are not the definition of beauty. You are your own definition of beauty. And if you get married someday you will be your husband’s definition of beauty. If you were to ask my husband what he finds attractive he would say he has a big thing for short women with blue eyes & funky hair. He’d say that he loves that left ear is slightly larger than my right and that it’s adorable that the right side of my lip goes upward when I smile.

Look what the groom said to his bride in Song of Solomon: “You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you” (Song of Solomon 4:7, ESV). His bride was his definition of beauty.

Read 1 Peter 3:3-4 (NLT)

So there … take a deep breath. Stop trying to change your spots. You and the leopard are beautiful.
In your journal list 10 beautiful things about your appearance (not personality-but appearance!)
Try to look at yourself through God's eyes. Write a prayer thanking God for creating you for such a time as this!!!!