You are Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139:14 NIV

I struggle with self-confidence. It took a while, but it has become much better since I got saved and began learning about His adoration of me. I have begun viewing myself from His perspective and have really worked to embrace the woman He made me. There are days, however, when I have to fight so much harder to do that than others. Yesterday was one of them. I hung out with a few of my friends and they all looked gorgeous. As each arrived at our meeting point, my heart sunk lower and lower (and my confidence went with it). I worked to remember that God created me with a different kind of beauty from theirs. This helped pacify my thoughts, but I can't honestly say it made me more confident.
      A lot of times, we find it easier to embrace the beauty, strength, talent, and individuality that God has given others. We settle for being satisfied with our own, but not proud of it. We don't grow in who we are because we don't really appreciate who we are.
      God had to speak life into my stagnation yesterday. He reminded me that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I wanted to understand that more because I really wanted it to sink into my heart and mind, so I looked up fearfully and wonderfully (on dictionary.com).
      Fearfully is an adverb based off the word fearful, which means "extreme in...intensity" and "full of awe or reverence." Awe means "an overwhelming feeling of...admiration...produced by that which is grand...[or] extremely powerful...." Reverence means "a gesture indicative of deep respect...."
      In figuring out the depth in the meaning of the word wonderfully, I had to go based off the definition of wonderful. The word that stuck out most to me in the meaning was "excellent." A lot of times we belittle God's work by belittling ourselves, but God made us excellently. The process that He used to make us aroused wonder and was "amazing" and "astonishing." We are a high caliber work. He didn't slack off when He made us. There was precision and detail. There was beauty.
      When God made each and every one of us, He was intensely ("fearfully") focused. His work and the process was so grand and extreme that He created us respectfully and with admiration. Can you imagine?! The Creator of the UNIVERSE stood in front of you while He was creating you and thought that you were worth admiring. You were worth the extra detail and attention that He put into your character and being. He didn't just rush through creating you and, thus, miss some things. You were created intentionally.
      We have to stop seeing ourselves through such a minuscule lens. We are a grand and excellent work. We were fearfully and wonderfully made by a perfect Lord.
      Both the words, "fearfully" and "wonderfully" appear in the NIV Bible translation once (in this verse). The word wonderfully comes from the Hebrew word palah (פלה), which also means "set apart" and "marvelous" (blueletterbible.org). Each one of us was made uniquely. We weren't meant to be the same, so we need to stop judging ourselves by the beauty we see in others. Those are the set apart qualities that God gave to them. Choose to focus instead on loving the set apart qualities that God gave you.
      We judge things through the process used to make them. You weren't mass produced. All the words that describe God's process of making you describe you. You are wonderful, admirable, amazing, and marvelous. Start seeing yourself through the lens from which God created you.
      You are the only one of your kind and so you are special. Praise God today (right now!) for who and how He made you.