This advertisement to the right has appeared in our local newspaper, The Charlotte Observer, several times in the last few weeks. Today it appeared in the Sports section. I imagine that the editors of the paper think that men will see the ad and show it to their wives and girlfriends so they might consider reshaping their image. Or, perhaps the women who browse through the section will see it and ponder how they might develop a better image – physically and emotionally.
The same ad appears in the current issue of Today’s Charlotte Woman magazine.
It’s so sad that this is par for the course in our society today. Women especially are bombarded with messages like this advertisement. Change your body and you’ll have a new self image. Looking like the women in ads like this will make you feel good about yourself and of your image as a woman. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Last night I had the privilege of leading a Bible study session for a group of 40 men involved in a transitional housing ministry that serves the poor and homeless. My message to them was that God wants them to base their personal identity on who they are in Christ and not on the messages that they might receive from the “world.”
My message to you women who happen to read this post is the same. God loves you. He sent his Son, Jesus, to die for your sins so that you might have a full life, now and for all eternity. If you have accepted Christ into your life, you now have right-standing with God. Once you were separated from him (because of the original sins of Adam and Eve), and now, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, you are reconnected with God and made right with him. Romans 5:12-17
In Romans 8:11-17, Paul reminds you that you are a child of God and in Ephesians 2:10 he tells you that you are his masterpiece, created to do good things that he has planned for you to do long ago.
I have a wife and a daughter who is a young adult. They are both as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside. That’s the way God sees them and the way that I see them. I hate it that they, and all other women in our society, have to battle with the messages that the world sends them. It tears me up that women have to contend with these messages.
Women, you don’t have to have a perfect body to feel good about your self image as these ads suggest. If you’ll just believe that God loves you so much that he calls you his child and if you receive this love deep in your heart, your identity and your life can be changed forever. That’s what Romans 12:2 reminds us. You can be transformed by the renewing of your minds.
Women, I encourage you to place your heart and your soul in God’s hands and receive his great and powerful and transforming love through his Son, Jesus. Then, read and embrace the truths found in his guidebook for living – the Holy Bible.
That’s how you can truly refine your image!
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Drew says
June 23, 2010 at 5:31 PMGood job pointing out the lies that this world feeds us. I see many good looking girls but a reborn spirit is what will really win me over!
Dawn says
June 24, 2010 at 12:20 PMI love you, this is true and wonderfully written. Thank you.
Cathy says
July 22, 2011 at 12:08 AMThank you Dale…it is so encouraging to have a brother in Christ write something like this, I pray many Christian women are blessed by your message and are renewed by God’s Word.
Dale Fletcher says
July 22, 2011 at 9:12 AMCathy, It was my privilege to stand up for my sisters in Christ.