Caring For Your Weakest Part

Caring for Your Weakest Part

In Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ.

Colossians 2:9-10

In one of Anne Lamott’s essays, she described her most unfavorite body part—her thighs—which for years she was ashamed of, tried to hide, and wished were different and very, very thin. As I read the essay, I suddenly flashed back to a dark moment in my own childhood. It was at the all-class swimming party when a mean girl in the third grade looked down at my bare feet and shouted, “Oh, poor you! You have crooked feet!” I wanted to disappear into the concrete so I didn’t have to see the curious stares on the other kids’ faces as they looked at my “crooked” feet.

When I compared them to my four sisters’ beautiful, perfectly shaped feet or my friends’ feet, I felt inferior. And what do we do when we are ashamed of something? You’ve got it—we hide it! I almost never wore sandals, and although I wanted to wear strappy, open-toed high heels like other women, I figured, Why flaunt my worst feature? Besides, a whole day in heels would land my feet in the emergency room for treatment.

Fast-forward a bunch of years to when I was given a gift certificate for a pedicure and discovered how much less my feet hurt when they were taken care of. I even liked them better with my toenails painted. I have become more and more accepting of this part of my body. The truth is, I am not complete or acceptable because of the shape of my feet, my thighs, or my nose but because I am complete and accepted in Christ Jesus. I’ve even begun to be thankful that God gave me just the feet he wanted me to have; they are part of my individuality—not beautiful by the world’s standards but strong enough to hold up as I’ve run and walked my way through countless miles and many years of life. —CHERI

Father, I thank you for the way you’ve made my feet, my hands, my hair, the size and shape of my body, unique parts and all. Help me to be grateful instead of complain about your design.

Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality.

—JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE (1749–1832), GERMAN POET AND DRAMATIST