“I am fearfully and wonderfully made!” “I am fearfully and wonderfully made!” “I am fearfully and wonderfully made!”

Two months ago I sat with a group of 40 South African teenage girls and we chanted this verse from Psalm 139: 14 over and over again. In this lesson we acknowledged the reality of our sometimes-stinking thinking.

Regardless of the context, there seems to be universal expectations as it relates to women and our bodies.

Our society teaches that we should be a certain height, shape, hold certain roles, have certain hair, etc. When we feel we haven’t lived up to societies expectations this can sometimes have a major impact on the way we feel about our bodies, which has a direct impact on the way we think and function in the world. Our mind, body, and spirit are connected. In the book, Hunting for Hope, Scott Sanders notes, “There is a parallel between mind and body,” and, I believe spirit.

Can there be hope in a society that sometimes labels us by the way our body looks?

I have used Psalm 139:14 to encourage others and myself. For me it speaks about the love that God has for us. God loves us so much that he knit us together while we were still in our mother’s belly. He made each one of us special. God specially crafted each one of us: mind, body, and spirit with wonder, with awe, with love. Every cell, every organ, every hair, every mole, every dimple, every scar, every wrinkle, and every pudge that seems resistant to leave! HE LOVES YOU and created you super special. Because of this we can value our temple, nurture our spirit, and feed our mind with positive thinking. “You are fearfully and wonderfully made!” “You are fearfully and wonderfully made!” “You are fearfully and wonderfully made!”