In the beginning, God’s
children came into this world naked and naked they remained while in close
communion with Him. It was only after Adam and Eve had gone against their
Father’s wishes and partaken of the forbidden fruit that Satan pointed to their nakedness
and shamed them for it, pushing them to hide themselves from God.
It has been the story ever
since.
Death is a separation of our
spirit and bodies. Eternal death or spiritual death is a separation from our
Father in Heaven. This is the Adversary’s sole focus. And since the beginning
he’s known just how to push us away from God. He villainizes our divine origin,
our naked and raw state we are sent here in. He convinces us that we are too
broken to be of God, too unrefined, too unadorned to be in His presence. And
too often, we believe that great liar. We look down at our nakedness, our
unfinished, non-embellished being and feel unworthy. And we hide.
The problems with hiding are
many, but first and foremost, we are committing a spiritual suicide of sorts, denying
ourselves communion with our Father. We hide in many ways, through concealing,
altering, and disguising our true selves. All the while, being false to our
divine nature, cutting ourselves off from who we are, denying a loving
relationship not only with our God, but also with ourselves.
We listen to Satan and his
minions, the many voices of the world and culture we live in, and we create a façade, a woman to
hide behind, to conceal the woman we wish we could be openly and without fear.
Women of God have no need to
hide from themselves or from their Father. We may feel like broken, soiled vessels,
but in truth we are His most lovely creation, the last life placed on the
earth, the crowning jewel. President Gordon B. Hinckley words it so perfectly:
“Having looked over all of [His creations], it declared it to be good. He then
created man in His own likeness and image. Then as His final creation, the
crowning of His glorious work, He created woman. I like to regard Eve as His
masterpiece after all that had gone before, the final work before He rested
from His labors.”
That is why this year I’m
working on embracing my nakedness, that raw state in which I was created. I’m
working to bare myself, my thoughts, my feelings, my dreams and the desires of
my heart to myself and to my Father. After all, I am His daughter. I’m striving
to be comfortable in my own skin, to allow myself to walk into the world nude,
au naturel, unprepared for presentation to my peers. To accept myself for the
woman I am, to resist the urge to conceal myself behind worldly ornaments and
trendy disguises. After all, I am loved just as I am.
As President Dieter F.
Uchtdorf so beautiful said:
“You
are loved. You are dear to your heavenly parents. The infinite and eternal
Creator of light and life knows you! He is mindful of you. Yes, God loves you
this very day and always.
He
is not waiting to love you until you have overcome your weaknesses and bad
habits. He loves you today with a full understanding of your struggles. He is
aware that you reach up to Him in heartfelt and hopeful prayer. He knows of the
times you have held onto the fading light and believed—even in the midst of
growing darkness. He knows of your suffering. He knows of your remorse for the
times you have fallen short or failed. And still He loves you.
And
God knows of your successes; though they may seem too small to you, He
acknowledges and cherishes each one of them. He knows everything about you. He
sees you clearly—He knows you as you really are. And He loves you—today and
always!
Do
you suppose it matters to our Heavenly Father whether your makeup, hair, and
nails are perfect? Do you think your value to Him changes based on how many
followers you have on Instagram or Pinterest? Do you think He wants you to
worry or get depressed if some un-friend or un-follow you on Facebook or
Twitter? Do you think outward attractiveness, your dress size, or popularity
make the slightest difference in your worth to the One who created the
Universe?
He
loves you not only for who you are this very day but also for the person of
glory and light you have the potential and the desire to become.
More
than you could ever imagine, He wants you to achieve your destiny.”
So, I’m dropping the tools
and the weapons I’ve been handed by society to prove my womanhood, and instead
I’ll be utilizing the means God has given me to reach my full potential. I'm choosing not to hide myself away. Instead, I choose to seek my God, and myself, in every
moment of every day from now on.
Originally, I named this blog This Side
of Invisible to give myself the courage to share all that is hidden. This year, I hope to stop hiding.
Let 2015 be the year of the
Naked.
Comments