For years I’ve felt shame about the way I look. As a kid I used to hide under big t-shirts and sweatshirts, so no one could see what I looked like underneath. During the summer months when I was a teen, I wore jeans so no one could see my skinny legs. Then at church camp my 8th grade year the cutest boy there told me, “Come find me when you gain some weight.”

Yes, his statement was arrogant, and I should have ignored it, but to my 14 yr old self, his opinion was the truth, and it has haunted me for years.

Especially now in my post kid body. You know the one. Nothing is where it should be or what it was in my 20’s, and whether your post kid body is fluffier than you’d like or bordering on anorexic looking like me, we all feel the same sense of shame. Shame that we feel powerless to control our weight, at least not without gargantuan effort. Shame about the perceived opinions of others. Shame that keeps us from believing the kind words of those who love us most.

Maybe your shame isn’t appearance related. Maybe it stems from something that was done to you–another’s sin you secretly wonder if you deserved. If it was your fault.

Maybe it comes from your own sin. Sin that haunts you and is daily fight, or a “big” sin in your past you just can’t forget.

Whatever the root, we all feel shame at some point.

In shame we have a choice.

We can choose to stay there. To believe Satan’s lies, “I am what I am, I cannot change.”* To believe our situation is hopeless.

Or we can choose to believe God’s truths about us. He made us just the way we are, beautiful and special. Those sins in our past, ours or others, he can redeem.

Today, let’s choose to believe God. Let’s choose to agree with what He says about us. Change is possible if only we will allow God to work. {Tweet That!}

This week, in our study of The Search for Significance, McGee talks about shame and goes into detail about the effects shame has on our lives. If allowed to go unchecked, they are devastating and can destroy your life. You may see you or your loved ones in the discussion in chapter nine.

Please don’t just skim through, but pray over the effects McGee talks about. Pray over them for yourself and your family members. We need not be trapped by shame. With God’s help, we don’t have to stay stuck.

Let’s grow together! In the comments let’s discuss: How do you see the effects of shame in your own life?

Additional Insights

*taken from The Search for Significance