I’ve rarely considered myself beautiful. 

There have been days – certain outfits, certain hairstyles, certain photos – where I’ll think, “I look pretty today.” But the first time a boy called me beautiful, I could hardly believe him. 

Capable? Yes. But beautiful? That seemed harder to hold onto, more elusive. 

In the first few pages of the Bible, God crafts and creates man and woman – carefully, tenderly, and utterly on purpose – and then He stands back, admires His handiwork, and deems them very good. Not just good. Very good. 

The only thing is: most of us don’t agree with Him. 

Maybe we believe others are good. Our friends, our sisters, our daughters. We see their beauty and goodness from miles away. But us? Many of us hardly think of ourselves as good, let alone very good. 

Years can go by, but you likely still remember the way a comment lodged itself deep inside your heart. And often, we don’t simply remember the comments that were made but we can still feel the hot shame that crept up our backs and burned into our cheeks. I think it’s why so many of us don’t believe we’re very good.

It takes immense courage to ask Jesus to show you the wound, and to let His kind and careful hands dislodge the arrow from your heart.

My niece just turned five years old. I curled her hair for the first time the night before her birthday, twisting the hot iron around her dark blonde locks and watching them cascade gently over her shoulders. She was stunning. Absolutely and totally beautiful. 

She’s not just good – she’s clearly very good. The thought that she could one day grow up believing a lie about her beauty made me feel sick to my stomach. I love my niece with my whole heart. I keep telling her how beautiful she is, and right now, at five years old, she believes every word. 

I look at her beauty and choose to believe it for myself, too. God made me not only good, but very good. The more I’ve come to grasp the love Jesus has for me, the more I see me the way He sees me: beautiful.

Here’s what I’m coming to realize: any time we disagree with God, we believe a lie. God formed and fashioned every part of me, and when I haven’t come to an agreement with what He says about me, I believe a lie. 

Come into agreement with God. Come and agree with Him — how He made you is very good indeed. 

I love what it says in Exodus 34 – how when Moses spent time with God, his face became radiant. “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.” 

I think we become even more beautiful when we spend time with Jesus. 

Each week, I meet with one of the pastors on staff at my church. We get together early before the work day to pray together. It’s often the highlight of my week: spending time with both her and Jesus. She’s 73 years old and is truly the most beautiful person I know. She is radiant. She spends so much of her time with Jesus, and radiates beauty. She makes every room she enters more beautiful.

You’ve likely heard the adage that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The One who dreamed of you before you were ever a thought, who formed and fashioned you, who painted the color of your eyes – He beholds you and calls you beautiful. 

God made you and then called you good. But not just good – very good. Come and agree with Him.

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