HELLO, BEAUTY FULL

Today I have the honor of having the beautiful, talented and wise, Elisa Morgan, sharing an excerpt from her best-selling book, Hello, Beauty Full for the blog....

​Most of us don’t think we’re beautiful. In fact, a recent poll revealed that 96% of women globally would never use the word beautiful to describe themselves.
 
Even women (and men) who know they are made in the image of God. Women (and men) like you and me. 

Photo by Sinitta Leunen from Pexels

Beautiful? No…instead we feel not enough. Not pretty enough. Not smart enough. Not strong enough. Not spiritual enough. 
 
I know. What I see is not beauty but the world of ugly within.
 
I say, “I’ll pray!” and I don’t. 
 
I forget about the suffering in the world, even after I’ve seen suffering up close and personal. And then I go ahead and buy another purse, pair of shoes, trinket for my home. 
 
I wake up in the middle of the night and worry. 
 
I think I’m better than others when my life goes well, even though I know full well that I’m not. 
 
I eat too many Doritos. I watch too many episodes of The Queen’s Gambit.
 
I assume I’m the only one.
 
The only lonely one.
 
The only depressed one.
 
The only one who doesn’t know the answers. The only one who feels like a failure. 
 
I don’t like my body.
 
I like some people more than others—a lot more than others. I pretend to be interested when I’m not.
 
I’m jealous when someone’s life goes better than mine.
 
I want to just stay in bed on some days.
 
I’m ugly. At least there are plenty of ugly parts of me. “Beautiful?” HA.
 
Some words I read a while back from Brennan Manning’s classic book, The Ragamuffin Gospel, seep up into my thoughts. Manning reported a 1677 prophecy to a thirty-four-year-old widow in Lynn, Massachusetts. God’s words to her way back then—and maybe to us in this moment? “More pleasing to Me than all your prayers, works, and penances is that you would believe I love you.”

​I may think ugly thoughts and feel ugly feelings and do ugly things, but to God, I am filled with beauty and therefore beauty full. He holds out three words and calls me to receive them, knowing that when I see myself the way he sees me, I will be free to be who he made me to be and to live the life he made me to live. 
 
Hello, Beauty Full.
 
I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who pushes away God’s pronouncement of personal value. Likely you do too. Likely you embrace the ugly and discard the beauty in yourself. And likely you feel incredibly inadequate, stuck, and even alone. 
 
Here’s what we need to know in order to live the lives we were made to live: God loves us. He sees us through Jesus: beauty full. He wants us to see ourselves the way he sees us. We struggle with embracing such a thing. But the truth is, when we don’t embrace how God sees us, we don’t embrace God. We miss out on the very lives he created us to enjoy—and died to make sure we could experience. When we do embrace how God sees us—beauty full—we are freed to live loved, and in so doing, we love God back. 
 
Three words reveal how God sees us – through Jesus – and how he invites us to see ourselves. 
 
Hello. Beauty. Full. 
 
Yes, I am.
 
And yes, you are too. 

​Elisa Morgan (MDiv) was named by Christianity Today as one of the top fifty women influencing today’s church and culture. She has authored over twenty-five books including The Beauty of Broken, Hello, Beauty Full, She Did What She Could and When We Pray Like Jesus. Her newest book, You Are Not Alone: Six Affirmations from a Loving God, releases in the Fall of 2021. 
 
For twenty years, Elisa served as CEO of MOPS International and now is President Emerita. She speaks internationally, writes for Our Daily Bread Devotional and co-hosts Discover the Word radio and the podcast God Hears Her for Our Daily Bread Ministries.
 
You can find out more about Elisa, book her to speak at your event and sign up for her blog, Really, which reaches thousands at www.elisamorgan.com. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram (@elisamorganauthor) and on Twitter (@elisa_morgan).