Happy with the Skin I'm in: Part Two

You know that old, cliche, fortune cookie proverb, "the grass is always greener on the other side?" Yeah it's so true it hurts. 

Being biracial I've always had darker skin than most, if not all, of my friends. When I was younger I felt that I couldn’t dress up as a Disney princess because I was too tan, I didn’t have blonde, straight hair, or sparkly blue eyes. Instead, I was permanently tanned with frizzy corkscrew curls and plain brown eyes. Someone told me I “looked like a crazy girl,” because of my hair. I was 6. This majorly affected me. Another person recently told me something, that I was basically a “caramel frappuccino”. Still others, my hair "looks better straight," and looks "like a mop," when curly. Things like this have affected who I am and how I react in certain situations. 

Someone once told me, “racism is a immaterial issue. We are all one race, just different ethnic backgrounds. When it comes down to it, we are all children of God.” God created us uniquely and beautifully. People are going to be rude and insensitive. Letting it bother you is like letting breathing bother you.  You can’t change the color of your skin anymore than your need for oxygen. Yes, easier said than done, and yes, I do still struggle with the “jokes” and feeling like I don’t look beautiful, but society doesn’t dictate that, God does. Psalm 139:14 says, "Praise you, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works! My very self you know." 

At the end of the day God created the galaxies, the oceans and the vallies, but He decided the world needed a beautiful you.

Peace out Cub Scouts!
Rachel

Happy with the Skin I'm In: Part One

Hi guys!! So we've posted and talked about accepting yourself in different posts before, but today we wanted to talk about accepting a different part of yourself that we've personally struggled/struggle with, and that is skin color. I (MK) am very pale, and Rachel is very not 😄 so we're gonna talk about it from two different perspectives, me on the pale side and Rachel on the other. 

For most people, summer is a time of fun, hanging with your friends, going to the beach etc. and for a lot of people, it's a time of something I hate. Tanning. I've tried multiple times, and I just don't tan, I burn. (only downside of being Irish 😜) Most of my siblings come like the Italian side of my family, and tan really easily and are naturally darker then me. I never really noticed or cared until the summer I turned 13 when someone commented that they were pale, then noticing me, proceeded to put their arm next to mine and exclaimed that they were actually tan compared to someone. Since then, there has never been a summer where someone didn't do that. It just recently happened the other day, someone told me they should hang out with me so they would look tan, and while it was said laughing, it did sting cause it's something I've struggled with for the past 4 years. 

Our society glorifies being tan, EVERYONE wants to be tan, and it's hard when you are exactly the opposite of what everyone wants to be like.  So while I still struggle with it, when I start feeling down or wishing I was tan, I stop and remind myself that God made me pale. He did. And he made you exactly whatever skin color you are. And if that's good enough for the creator of the universe, then that should be good enough for us. We are perfectly made. He knit us together in our mothers womb as pale, dark, or whatever. Just because we're not what society wants us to be, doesn't mean we're not beautiful or perfectly made. "You are beautiful in every way, my friend, there is no flaw in you." Song Of Songs 4:7 God Bless 😘 -MK