Why can't you see yourself as beautiful as I see you?

One of my favorite bands is The Avett Brothers. If you don't know who they are, you should learn. You won't regret it. Their music makes me happy. Anyway, one of the songs from the album, "Emotionalism" called "Will You Return?" was playing on my way home from my breakfast/brunch date with my precious friend, Sarah.  I sing these lyrics all of the time, but today they struck a chord with me.

"I wish you'd see yourself as beautiful as I see you. Why can't you see yourself as beautiful as I see you?"

Well, this song is specifically about a girl and a guy. But I was thinking on a deeper and more spiritual level. Do you ever wonder if God thinks the same about us? Is He saying that He wishes we would see ourselves as the beautiful creation that He has made in His image.

Ecclesiastes 3:11
Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.

Psalms 139: 13-18
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!

Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

He tells us that we are His beautiful creations, yet many of us doubt it so often.  I'm about to be 36 (in 24 day, but who is counting?). I still don't see myself as the beautiful creation God made, but I'm getting there. It has taken me a long time to ignore recognize the self defeating thoughts that the enemy wants me to believe. Now, I'm not saying to walk around all cocky. Well, because that would be annoying and people might want to slap you. But seriously...you have worth. You mean something everything to God. He gave you those talents. You may not feel good enough, but you are. You know how I know? Because He tells us so. We have a God who thinks about us so much that it can't even be numbered! So if He created us exactly how He wanted us - who are we to question or decide that it isn't good enough? Now I'm going to be honest. My spiritual gifts aren't very exciting. My top spiritual gift is listening.  Exciting huh? Why can't my gift be singing? I certainly pretend it is singing when I'm in the shower or the car.  For the longest time, I felt my gifts were lame. You know something? The world needs listeners too. The world needs people that have awesome smiles, give great hugs, and that can figure out difficult math problems. We all have our gifts. Sometimes I think my gifts are cool, but they aren't good enough. For example...writing and this blog. I doubt that my writing abilities will ever go beyond this therapeutic blog...or will they? I think God has something else in store for me with this and I have to be willing to take the leap of faith and explore it. 

So yeah, why don't we see ourselves as beautiful as God see us? 

My prayer is that we will recognize the unique gifts we each have and explore them to the fullest so that we may bring glory to Him.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.