Katie Kenney
Why do people dislike mismatched socks? Socks don’t matter that much and they don’t define a person, so I don’t understand why people are looked at differently just because of the socks they chose to wear. Now, not everyone bases how they feel about a person on their choice of socks, but some do base their judgements off of other exterior things a person has or does. People are judged on the clothes they wear, the shoes they have, the house they live in, and many other worldly things. Characteristics can be forgotten in the examination of worldly things and too often, people change the way they look to please others. Some people are even told to change something about their outer appearance to be accepted by others. This thinking process doesn’t really match up to Scripture.
In this world, the importance of a person’s appearance seems to be increasing almost daily. There are advertisements for gym memberships, workout equipment, and diet plans all over television. Plastic surgery is more common than it used to be, with 15.9 million cosmetic surgeries and procedures in 2015 in the United States alone. On social media, mean comments are left on pictures of people, who aren’t wearing makeup. Many people get to be so concerned with the way they look and it tears them apart. Eating disorders are becoming more common and depression is overcoming a young population. It seems to be everyone is obsessed with changing themselves to make them look like a better person, but that doesn’t make sense if God only cares about what’s inside.
It is known God and man have different views, especially someone who isn’t a Christian. We don’t have the knowledge and wisdom God does and we are just overall inferior. We are imperfect, broken people and we have faulty views. One of those faulty views is we need to change our appearance to be desirable. Moreover, people think other people need to look a certain way to be friends with them. The “weird nerdy kids” are cast off and ignored because some people don’t want to be friends with someone who doesn’t look like they came directly out of a magazine spread. Movies thrive with the storyline of some kid who didn’t have any friends until she changed her hair, switched her bulky glasses out for contacts, and got an entirely new and trendy wardrobe. These are all physical things and it makes no sense for someone to suddenly want to be friends with a person immediately after they change the way they look. It doesn’t align with God’s thinking and it just isn’t rational. People shouldn’t want their friends to look a certain way, they should want their friends to have certain characteristics and personality traits, which have nothing to do with one’s outer appearance.
Faith is what gets you into Heaven, not good looks. God said those who believe and have repented will be allowed to walk through the gates of Heaven. He says nothing about only certain people getting into Heaven because they meet a certain number of societal standards that have been set by those on earth. God doesn’t want us to be consumed with things of this world and that includes our image. Yes, we should take care of ourselves, but we shouldn’t want to change our physical features by excessive exercise or surgery. Changing our physical appearance is altering the image of God because we are all made in His image.
It is common to hear people say it’s what’s on the inside that counts. That statement is quite true. God doesn’t value how nice your hair looked today, but rather the content of your heart and mind. God looks inside of us to determine whether we get into Heaven or not. Many spiritual things happen inside of our hearts that are only seen by those around us if we tell someone or do something that shows the change that happened. Baptism, for example, is an outward sign of an inward agreement. The clothes you wear don’t even compare to how important these spiritual things are. God’s works are superior to man’s works, so we shouldn’t value some clothes over the thing God has done for us and in us. He works in mysterious ways we cannot fathom and the things He does are so great and powerful it is ridiculous how much attention we give to our doubts and worries. His works hold so much more value than our clothes ever will.
To go along with God not caring about your physical appearance, God doesn’t care about what you have. On social media, you can scroll through your feed and you are bound to find someone who is talking about something new they’ve gotten. People like to have content. For some, having all sorts of objects might help fill a void they have. For others, they might like to be the best by having the most things or the highest quality of something. It might seem like to be seen highly of in this world you must have a lot of money and a lot of things. In Heaven, however, that isn’t the case. We don’t need earthly things in Heaven because we will have the presence of God. God is greater than any shirt you could buy. There is a story about a man who was told by an angel he could take one thing to Heaven. That man decided to bring gold and lots of it. When he went to Heaven, those who were already there found it funny he brought gold saying he just brought some bricks. This story shows things of this world do not have great value in Heaven. They’re equivalent to bricks and last time I checked, God is better than any brick.
It is a regular occurrence for judgments to be made based on looks. In movies, we see the nerdy kids with braces and glasses being excluded from activities because they don’t look like the popular kids. We hear stories on the news about suicides and major cases of depression because someone didn’t feel accepted by those around them. In certain stories, the sadness the person felt was because exclusions were made to set them apart from others. People judged them based on their outward appearance and didn’t care to look further. A person is so much more than the shoes they own and the clothes they wear. Unfortunately, the world has tainted our view of what is important about a person. We care more about how we look than God does. God doesn’t judge us because we don’t have Adidas sweatpants, but some people actually make silent judgments based on the fact someone doesn’t have a certain piece of clothing, like Adidas sweatpants. Our looks do not define who we are, and it can be hard for some people to understand that. The whole “don’t judge a book by its cover” saying is forgotten when it comes to people. Someone could totally not be what society says is beautiful, but they could be the best person you have ever talked to in your entire life. They could be sweet and kind and have all sorts of other lovely attributes. Just because they don’t meet societal standards of beauty doesn’t mean they aren’t good people or they aren’t beautiful. They are beautiful in God’s eyes. Even so, their characters are more important to God than their physical bodies.
Whenever someone says they are fat, which they may not be, they almost always drift toward a diet or exercise. Some diets are simple while others are extensive. These changes in what they eat can possibly be a good choice for their health, but some diets are unnecessary and can actually be harmful to the body. The reduction in food intake is often seen as the most important part of a diet, but in reality the changes to the food you are eating is more effective. However, the aspect of switching out bad foods for good foods could be seen as less appealing and harder to do than eating less. It is more common for someone to decide to eat less if they want to lose weight than to change the foods they are eating. This doesn’t always work at first, because the body starts to eat at the muscles that have been stored up before it starts to eat at the fat.
Younger generations have picked up this knowledge about eating less to weigh less. They also have been influenced by the thought they shouldn’t like their bodies and the way they look unless they fit into certain criteria. These two combined do not have a good outcome. Statistics say that 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls have a desire to weigh less and be thinner. When you have thoughts and beliefs as a child, it can be hard to change them when you are older. The thoughts you have may stick with you and if young girls start to think they want to be skinnier in 1st grade then it is probable they will continue to think that when they are in college. Eating disorders are serious and can really hurt your body. Anorexia nervosa can cause you to have a weak heart, severe dehydration, fatigue, muscle weakness, reduction of bone density, and other weaknesses that aren’t good for your heath. Now this is just one eating disorder and doesn’t include others like bulimia or binge eating disorder. People try to ignore the downhill slide of their health just to be thinner and, in their minds, prettier. God wants you to take care of your body. Your body is a temple and if you do things that hurt it then you are not glorifying God. God doesn’t want you to hurt yourself to be “prettier.” He wants you to accept the way you look because He made you that way. God made us and created us to look exactly the way we do and we should be happy because God took time to care for us. He took time to make us a certain way, and we shouldn’t hurt ourselves trying to change that.
People are just people; what effect could they have on us? In all actuality, the opinions of others affect us quite a lot. It is common for the average teenager to care about what their peers think of them. Whenever there are class discussions about self-confidence, a large portion of the female percentage do not have very high levels of confidence. They want to find approval from others, not only on their characters but also with the way they look. Almost every person in the world talks to at least one person each day, so it is rational to want the people you have conversations with to like you. And in this day, a big part of you is how you look. First impressions mean practically everything and sometimes first impression don’t include any words being said. Some people have social anxiety disorder and analyze every little thing they do just to look or seem a certain way, even though they know it is irrational. A larger percentage of people have a lot of stress over meeting new people because of that. They want people’s approval and they want to be looked at as presentable along with some other attributes.
When you constantly worry about what other people think, it can handicap you from doing what you are supposed to do. It can prevent you from fulfilling your God-given purpose. Everyone has a purpose and it is greater than stressing out over what someone thinks of you. People will want to bring us down and cause us to be incapable of fulfilling our purpose, but God doesn’t. God wants us to care more about spreading the gospel than about if your locker neighbor will like the way you styled your hair. Spreading His Word is definitely higher up on the priority list. We shouldn’t focus so intently on things of this world, because they aren’t the most important things to exist. The things of God hold more value, so when we care deeply about how we look and how we will be perceived, we are being disrespectful to God. We shouldn’t focus on the opinions of other people on Earth, but on what God thinks of us and how to spread the Word.
If you keep doing something repeatedly, it becomes a habitual thing or process. After a certain amount of days, it just becomes a part of your regular routine. You might switch things up in your life so it can be easier to do that thing. If you continually worry about what other people think and how you can change yourself to make people like you more, it will become a habit. You will do things differently so you can stress about it. Your life might end up being dictated by the worry and stress your mind creates. The more you stress, the more control and power you give it. God wants us to be calm and serene in Him, to not panic and be alarmed. We need to trust God and get rid of the stress we create because God takes care of everything. We can’t let the need to be liked by other people control the way we behave. We need to let God take control and rule over the insignificant worries that are made.
People all over the world want to change you and make you different. It’s tempting to want to conform to what the world says is normal or perfect, but what the world says doesn’t always line up with what God says. God’s words and laws are way above manmade laws, so it sounds like our best shot is to obey God over man. As a whole, mankind wants you to change to be accepted, where God accepts you completely. We can’t let people make us stress out over miniscule things like being liked and looking a certain way that aligns with societal standards. Those things are so small compared to the plans God has created for you. God is so much bigger than other people’s opinions. Put your trust in Him and pay more attention to what your character is than to what your outer appearance is. So, I’m going to keep wearing my mismatched socks and when people tell me they would like me better with matching socks, I’m going to ignore the comments because I know God loves me, mismatched socks and all. I suggest you do the same.
Bibliography
“Get The Facts On Eating Disorders.” National Eating Disorders. NEDA. Web. 18 October 2016. www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/get-facts-eating-disorders
Lim, Teddy. “10 Clear Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Care What Others Think.” Lifehack. N.p. Web. 25 October 2016. www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/10-clear-reasons-why-you-shouldnt-care-what-others-think.html
Redeeming Pandora 