The Beauty of Scars

            So this last week the Lord has really been dealing with me on an issue that I feel many people in our society today deal with and something that I specifically have had to start noticing and working through. Last Sunday I had the opportunity to go see The Greatest Showman (If you have not seen this movie I HIGHLY recommend going) and in one particular scene a woman who has a full beard sings about the scars and issues that have been caused by her predicament and it got me thinking about the scars in my own life. I am coming to realize that we all have scars and we all have baggage that we are carrying around. The baggage can be the result of something small such as the loss of a pet, or a bad relationship all the way up to seeing the death of a loved one or dealing with the effects of war. My question though is if we all have baggage and scars why are we so afraid to show them? Why are we so afraid to let those issues out? We have become a society of people who feel as though they have to be perfect, from the way they look, to the cars they drive, and the houses we live in; all the while attempting to hide the baggage that we carry. Can I be honest with you for a second and tell you something I am coming to realize? You will never, barring a miracle, get rid of your scars and baggage. Now we can learn to hide them and cover them up as many of us have done but we can never get rid of them, not fully anyway. Here’s the kicker though: Why would you want to? Your scars make you who you are. They are a symbol and a reminder of where you have come from and the places that you have been. For me, my scars show up in the form of my ADHD stigma. As a child growing up with that label I began to believe the lies that I wasn’t good enough or that I was too crazy to ever really amount to much and so I began to push myself. I over compensated in everything from workouts to relationships, all in a crazy attempt to prove people wrong. I felt that if I could lift a certain amount of weight then I would be happy and feel worthy, or if I had a beautiful girl on my arm then I was worth something but the reality of the matter is, I was worth something to begin with and so are you. It doesn’t matter what pain and scars your past holds and it doesn’t matter that baggage you may carry, you are no less valuable and no less worthy of love. We must get to a place where we begin embracing our scars and begin loving ourselves despite of the parts that we see as inadequacies. The Bible tells us that we are each beautifully and wonderfully made and that His precious thoughts of us outnumber the grains of sand on the shores. If this is true (and I believe it is) then every time we are critical on ourselves or tell ourselves we are not good enough because of where we have come from then we are saying His thoughts are wrong and that His workmanship isn’t good enough which is NEVER the case. My challenge to you, as well as to myself, is to begin embracing the scars and embracing the unique parts about who you are because you are beautiful not just in spite of the scars but because of them. There is an old proverb that reads “Where there is love, small pox scars are as beautiful as dimples” and with that I say thank you for reading and God Bless.