'I hate my hair!'

Have you ever said that? Or thought that? Maybe it's your teeth you don't like. Or you think your nose is the wrong shape.

You might be totally convinced that something about you isn't just right. Well, there is something you can do.

You can start getting clearer on who you really are.

The Bible tells that God created you to be like Him - good in every way. He is your Father and He is Spirit. He made you to be like Him - spiritual and perfect.

No, it doesn't seem this way. But the real you is spiritual and perfect. This is what's really true about all of us.

There's a story in the Bible about Jesus (see Matt., chap. 4). In it, the devil (you could say "the liar" - the bad, lying thoughts that say things like "I hate myself") challenged Jesus three times. It tried to make Jesus doubt that he was God's son. To think that he should do things that weren't right.

Jesus was not tricked, because he knew who he was.

Sometimes the devil/liar challenges us in our thought by saying: "Who are you kidding? You're not God's child. You're not spiritual and perfect. You're a mess. Your hair (teeth, nose...) are all wrong." The lie can seem pretty convincing. But you still don't have to be tricked into believing a lie.

The woman who started this newspaper, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote about how sculptors work and how we're like sculptors when we think about ourselves (see "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," pg. 248).

Picture a sculptor in front of a block of marble. He is chiseling away at the stone to shape a statue that will look like his model. He keeps his eye on his model to guide his work. Mrs. Eddy said that each of us is like a sculptor because we're carving out our thoughts, day by day. When we look at the perfect model - who we really are the way God made us, spiritual and perfect - then our lives will match that model more and more. (You sure don't want to be looking at an imperfect model of who you are, and produce that in your life!)

Keeping your thought on the perfect model is important.

I read a true story about a woman who had really thin, fine hair. She couldn't ever get it to look right. She got to hating her hair. Then she saw she was believing that something about her was not perfect, but ugly and worthless. That sure couldn't be true about God's daughter! There couldn't be even one little thing about her that wasn't perfect. For her, this was like waking up to what was true. She was really spiritual and beautiful - totally.

So she changed how she thought about herself, and kept only the perfect model in her thought. And she stuck to it.

After a while, her hair actually changed. It became stronger and more beautiful, and she could style it easily.

Try keeping the perfect model of yourself in your thought. You can do this by trusting that you really are good and perfect, made by God. You can trust God to show you how perfect He made you. And you can stick with the model of who you are.

The next time you're in front of the mirror, and the liar comes to your thought - saying, "Your hair (or teeth or nose ...) is ugly" - think to yourself: "Get out! You're a lie! You can't fool me! I know who I really am! I'm God's son (or daughter), and I'm really spiritual! I'm beautiful (or handsome) because that's how God made me!"

When you're seeing yourself this way, other people will feel your confidence and joy. They'll want to hang out with you.

Two sparrows are sold for a farthing, aren't they? Yet not a single sparrow falls to the ground without your father's knowledge. The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Never be afraid, then - you are far more valuable than sparrows. Matthew 10:29-31

(J.B. Phillips translation)

(c) Copyright 1999. The Christian Science Publishing Society