Fruit of your lips

I have a friend named Kelsey.

We’ve been friends since I was in 9^th grade.

6 years now.

She’s one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met.

There is one thing that I’ve just recently noticed about her that I admire so much. 

While most women I know, or am surrounded by, stand in the mirror, turn and examine every angle of their body.

Their reactions are normally awful comments of self hatred, needing to be “on a diet”, complaints of saggy this, oversized this, a bulge here, a dimple here, the sighs, the groans, the crying, the depressed walk-away, the list is forever long.

But, Kelsey is different.

She gets dressed, looks at herself, and moves on.

I don’t actually believe I’ve ever heard her complain once about her body.

Never.

Not even once.

If she doesn’t like her outfit, she just changes. But I have never heard her say, “Oh look how bloated, my stomach, yada yada”.

So I began to think about how much I longed to feel okay in my own skin.

To look in the mirror and not pick apart every flaw I think I see.

Through this whole process I realized I had never heard her mom say anything like that either.

In fact, the way her mom says something is “I just feel gross today.”

But never, fat, too lanky, or anything.

Now, I understand that she’s basically a model.

But, that doesn’t change the way that every woman I know sees themselves through this cloudy perspective.

Even if they are the most beautiful women I’ve ever laid eyes on.

I realized in this whole thought process, that Kelsey’s mom had never complained about her weight, or anything about herself really. And therefore Kelsey doesn’t either. She hadn’t been brainwashed to believe that her body is odd, too much, too little, too anything.

She’s content and confident.

Proverbs 18:11 says,

“The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.”

Now that in itself, is good enough. But, there’s more to unfold, our words create a norm for those coming behind us to live in.

And now, because our parents have said certain things, and our classmates, and society around us, we live in this social norm with all these horrid thoughts about our image.

When, we just have to change our words.

Because when we change our words, it will change our world.