“Do not covet thy neighbour (10th Commandment).”
Coveting is one of the major sources of dissatisfaction. Whether it may be material things or physical features of others. The Lord explicitly doesn’t want us to be jealous of our neighbour. That’s why he wrote the command for us to remember.
Social media has become such a large part of our lives over the last few years. It has opened us up to see the world from different lenses, but also made us see ourselves in clouded lenses.
It has become the destruction of many young girl’s body images.
We all follow the girl with the life we wish we had or the body that is banging at the moment. These pages can make you doubt your own beauty. When not everyone is looking at you like the new hot thing on the bloke with all the curves in the right places, we can start to doubt our own beauty.
We gain a deformed sense of beauty set by the standards of society.
In 2011 a study was conducted by the University of Haifa, Israel which revealed that the more time teenager girls spent on social media websites the greater their risk was of developing eating disorders and negative body images. In 2014, Florida State University supported this study by reporting a link between Facebook use and disordered eating behaviours.
There is greater power in self appreciation. Being different should not be scary it should be exciting, because you are breaking the norm of society. There is beauty in our differences and a strength that comes from accepting those differences in yourself.
If God wanted us to all look the same wouldn’t he have made us that way?
Some parents tell their daughters from a young age to never compare themselves to other. It’s hard to understand why a parent would tell you such a thing when you are young. But, once you get to high school you will understand…
You can be constantly reminded of what you can’t be or what is classified as attractive. Not meeting up with those standards is very hurtful and detrimental to your mental growth.
Our recommendations:
- I know it’s easier said than done, but that lovely blue button that says unfollow can make the whole difference in how you view yourself.
- Remove the things out of your life that bring you down. Which also goes for those social media accounts you follow intensely. You don’t need a constant reminder of what is unattainable in your face every day, so remove it. Unless those accounts are motivating you to gain a positive outlook on life and building you up, REMOVE THEM.
- Let into your life things that make you a better person and make you see yourself for all you’re worth.
The devil doesn’t stop working and he will use any avenue he can to get you to feel less than the worth the Lord has placed on you.
Don’t forget you were bought at an unmeasurable price.
Don’t let society’s values of beauty get in the way of you seeing the beauty the Lord has created in you.
Grace Teen Mag 