Blue-Eyed Girl, You're Beautiful.

When I was in first grade, I got into an argument with my neighbor Lauren. She told me I had brown eyes. I swore I had blue and told her I’d show her my birth certificate to prove it. My young, first-grader heart was crushed to learn eye color is not listed on a birth certificate. And so I began to believe that I had plain, ugly, brown eyes. 

Thirty-two years later I looked in the mirror and truly noticed my eyes for the first time. They’re beautiful. They’re my own unique shade of blue. Why had it taken me so long to notice them? To appreciate them? To recognize how I revealed my soul to the world through their depths? Three decades were wasted thinking my eyes were plain. Ordinary. Ugly, even.

Often times, we make judgments about ourselves based on another person’s opinion. Lauren never said my eyes were plain or ugly that I can recall. I told myself that. I judged myself in that situation. 

How many times have you heard a “no” and gotten discouraged? Whether you were pitching a grand idea, applying for a job, or asking for a date, that “no” crushed you. At the moment, you make that “no” mean something about you. You believe you are not worthy. You are less than. You are inadequate. 

And then life happens. You bounce back, move on, find a different job or go another route on the project, but in the back of your mind, the seed was planted that you’re ordinary. 

If you aren’t careful, you’ll nourish that seed through your inner dialogue. Before you know it, 32 years will have passed you by, and the whole time you’ve believed the lie about yourself. Don’t fall into this trap!

God doesn’t create ordinary. He breathes life into the extraordinary. And, he chose you with all your curls, freckles, wrinkles and stretch marks. No one else has those. No one else has your thoughts. That creative idea you had yesterday? Yep, that was meant just for you.

Listen to me when I say you are beautifully and wonderfully made. Each curve. Each freckle, Each crazy thought. They’re yours and yours alone. You are unique. 

Sister, it’s time to slow down. Turn inward. Tap into your thoughts and truly listen. What beliefs are holding you back? Who told you on the playground that you would never be a pilot or an astronaut? When did you start believing that for yourself.

Give yourself permission to let go of that limiting belief and take a good, hard look in the mirror. See how your eyes shine their own brilliant shade of blue. You can do anything. You are beautiful. Kind. Smart. Funny. Talented in a way no one in history has ever been before. And, frankly, the world needs your kind of magic to light it on fire.

Share some of the beliefs you’ve held onto for years in the comments below. I’d love to see what others have experienced because chances are high that we’ve all believed some version of that lie too.