“Brave people look at the bodies they are in and choose to see them for what they are—vessels that hold a mighty God.” Annie F. Downs, 100 Days To Brave

I don’t think I’ve ever looked in a mirror (or seen my reflection in one of those giant shop windows) and thought, “There goes a vessel that holds a mighty God.” Does that make me the odd one out? Do you think that?

I rarely look in mirrors and have perfected mirror avoidance over the years. When I look in the mirror to brush my hair, I only look at my hair, and I didn’t even realise that’s what I did until a year or so ago. Writing that down for anyone to read makes me feel rather exposed, but I’m going to leave it in–I believe I’ve got to stay real and honest.

How do you feel about entering into this section of the book, knowing now that Downs is going to talk about our bodies for a few days? Truthfully, if I weren’t reading it along with you, I’d be tempted to do a bit of skimming here. While I’m being so honest, I don’t know how how well I’m going to do. I wrote a while back that I’d been practicing for over a year telling myself I was loved by God, I was a child of God, I was precious to God. It took so much of me to keep that up and so much courage to start believing it: I gave up more than once. I’m wondering if now I have to add to my re-training program the scripture Downs quotes from 1 Corinthians 6:19, that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. It’s making me feeling uncomfortable just thinking about doing that. So maybe I should do it, for that reason. If God’s Word says it and I’m struggling to accept it, perhaps that is something I do need to work on. It’s going to take a whole lot of brave, though. I hope I can.

What about you? How has reading today’s devotional made you feel?