Throwback Posts: Looking Sick Does Not Equal Looking Your Best

“That is one skinny girl, Mardi look at this.”

“Wow she is skinny, she looks anorexic.”

“That is too skinny.”

“Do you want to see the book back?”

“No, that girls so skinny it’s sickening.”


That is a conversation between my oldest nephew and I while in the car on our way to Wal-Mart Tuesday with my Mama, and my two nephews. We were looking at a Modern Brides magazine, (no, I’m not getting married yet, trust me when the time comes, I’ll blog it!) The majority of the models for this magazine are skinny, this one girl my nephew pointed out was extremely skinny and he was right, it is sickening.

I don’t know if you’ll appreciate the comment as much as I did, but it felt good to know that my oldest nephew isn’t among the guys who thinks a woman has to be all bones to be attractive. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being healthy and in shape, but not so skinny that it is unhealthy, which this girl clearly looked unhealthy. Like he said “it’s sickening.”

In today’s society there is extra emphasis put on women being skin and bones. There is pressure everywhere to be fashionably in style, and look your absolute best. I am not against being fashionable (as long as it is modest) nor am I against looking your best. However, I do not believe “looking your best” requires you to look sick. Looking sick does not look your best. At least in my way of thinking it doesn’t. It’s like math 2 + 3 does not equal 4. Three is an odd number, two is an even number, put together they equal 5, which is another odd number. Just as in physical appearance, being so skinny you look sick is odd, it does not look an even, you look your best.

I realize some people have sickness and they are extremely skinny, but they cannot help it. I am not talking about them. I am talking about girls who believe the lie that they have to make themselves sick or else they look like a fat cow if they gain half an ounce.

I can’t say I don’t understand how they feel, to a degree I can understand how they believe the lie and let themselves get that way. It is the feeling of wanting to be popular, beautiful, accepted, etc… I understand that. I have never had an eating disorder, the only disorderly thing about my eating is I don’t always choose to eat healthy foods, and sometimes I skip meals because I become so caught up in what I am doing I don’t take the time to eat, I forget about eating, or I am simply not hungry. However, I have had feelings of “You look fat, how awful!” “You should lose some weight,” “Wow you look like a balloon in that picture,” “If only I looked like that.” So, yes, I understand the “pressures” to conform to the worlds image of beauty, maybe not on the level as those who are out in the public eye on a daily basis, and especially not on the level as those who are models, or athletes and their profession demands them to be a certain weight. But to a degree I understand how it is easy for some to fall into the trap of making themselves sick to feel good about themselves. I myself have never made myself sick, I don’t like getting sick, and the thought of making myself sick just doesn’t seem like the thing to do. It would cause to many problems, not only for myself, but emotional pain for my family. Because once you start, there is no guarantee that will be the only time, it’s like with anything, once you do it, the next time is easier, and it continues to get easier the more you do it until your trapped and don’t know how to get yourself out of it.

I realize girls have the need to feel pretty about themselves. Before I began this paragraph I got up to go eat supper, right before I sat down I put on some new lipstick just for the fun of it. Dressing up can be a lot of fun, wearing make-up can make you feel better about yourself, just as losing an extra pound will make you feel better about yourself, but guess what, dressing up, wearing make-up, or losing a pound will not make you feel good forever, the good feeling only lasts momentarily.

Think about it, how many times have you felt bad about your appearance, but after dressing up, putting on some make-up, lotion, perfume, or a cute pair of shoes you began to feel better for a little while, but it wasn’t long until you sunk back into the poor pitiful me, I’m so depressed mentality? I cannot began to count how many times I have felt like that. Losing a pound will not make you feel good about yourself forever. Trust me, I know. I have lost weight and felt great for a little while, but it wasn’t long before I thought to myself “Hmm, I should lose some more weight.”

There is nothing wrong with wanting to look your best, there is nothing wrong with exercising, eating right, wearing make-up, smelling good and dressing up. Taking pride in your appearance isn’t completely wrong, it becomes wrong when we make it our god, when we become obsessed with looking great. It is wrong when we begin to think we have no worth unless we look a certain way.

Newsflash, everyone goes through appearance changes, it is a part of life. It is the way God beautifully designed us. The thing we have to keep in mind, is we are not going to feel truly worth our worth if we do not fully surrender ourselves to Christ and look to Him to complete us. To make us feel whole, and secure.

The truth is, you can be the perfect weight, have the perfect hair, perfect clothes and shoes, perfect perfume, and perfect make-up, and still not feel worth anything, but feel like the most miserable person on the face of the earth. There is no instant beauty tip, or new work-out method to feeling great forever, the only way to be truly satisfied with who we are is to turn to Jesus and let Him satisfy our need. Only through Christ can we have a healthy view of taking care of our appearance and how we should be.

Looking sick does not equal looking your best. Girls, the comment my nephew made is proof that not all men think you have to look like a walking skeleton to be beautiful. I know, you might be reading this thinking, well he’s your nephew, what does a little boy know. Actually, he’s not a little boy, he is sixteen years old, soon to be seventeen. So you see, there really are gentleman out there who don’t think a girl is attractive by making herself sick.

Just to clear something up, I don’t know if the model in the magazine is anorexic or not, she looked like she was, but that does not mean that she was. The purpose of this blog is not to put her or anyone else down, the purpose of the blog is to let girls know that you are beautiful because God made you. Don’t conform to the worlds standards, let me let you in on something, the media is not the majority of the world, it’s just a group of people telling what they think. They cannot think for us, God gave each one of us our own individual brain. It is time to stop letting certain media groups think they can think for us, and start thinking for ourselves. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you have to conform to the image of some runway model to be loved. I almost guarantee you, a lot of the models you see don’t feel loved, and they don’t always feel beautiful, they still feel empty inside if they don’t have Jesus fulfilling the void in their lives.

Looking sick does not equal looking your best. Finding your worth in Christ equals looking your best!