Keeping Up Appearances

By MH, Age 14

Being a teenage girl you go through life trying to fit in. You want to be apart of the "popular crowd" or apart of the "bad girls." The clothes we wear to try to fit in. The way we act to get people to like us. Have you ever wanted to fit in so badly that you would do anything? Well if you have I just want you to know that it is not a good way to live. I used to think that people wouldn't like me if I didn't wear this, if I didn't act like that.

A year ago that all changed. I realized that it doesn't matter what people think. I now don't care if people don't like me because I don't wear this or don't act like that. All that matters to me is how God is showing through me. God will always love us no matter what we wear or how we act. The "popular crowd" or "bad girls" only like us for who we pretend to be. For whom we are not. They only like us because we wear this or wear that.

God loves us unconditionally. Life is like trying on clothes. "That shirt makes me look fat, those clothes are too big, those shoes are last year, those pants are too dorky." We shouldn't go through life trying on clothes. Loving a shirt we just bought then throwing it away the next because someone "dorky" was wearing it. We should go through life showing people that God is in us. That He is yours and no one or anything can take that away. Not a "popular crowd" or the "bad girls." If you ever come across these struggles remember that God loves you because you are you and you are not trying to go through life trying on clothes.