Self Image/Self Worth

It may seem that we are a society driven by how one looks, the contents of their being on the outside rather what really matters, the inside.

I am someone who has suffered with how I look, as some of you might know from my photo blog there really isn't a clear photo of me, and that's more of a self-conscious opinion about my looks from the other end of the lens, but where does it come from?
For me it was when I was younger, my mom would comment about my weight; she wouldn't say I was fat, but she came close. I didn't think I was fat until she made an issue about it and then I'd question myself in front of the mirror am I really fat? I am heavier than I should be, but I still work out and make it a habit to eat moderately (hunger pangs due to skipping meals -- work related -- gets me at the end of the day).
So, does me (a guy) get affected by how society determines ones correlates self image with self worth? YES!!! It does sadden me when scrawny boney anorexic girls and guys feel the pressure, that they're fat, that they're ugly and they have to get rid of the extra pounds. I know the reasons why people become anorexics, so I won't touch that one, but again it's a projection of image; what they see, how they feel and what they must do to get to looking like that.

Here's the point I want to drive home, it is the inside of a person that matters, the outside fades with time and it is the inside that lasts. If you just examine yourself from the outside, you will be let down time and time again, because looks are fading and how society views what's socially "in" is also changing.

Some of you read the Bible, so I'll post a verse I'm sure you've read or heard:
1 Samuel 16: 7
But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

I know you might find that it's hard to come to terms with how you look sometimes (maybe even all the time), but trust me, it's what's on the inside that matters MOST!

[n][v]